Business Law - Socially Responsible Ideas Practiced by Microsoft Corporation - Essay Example

Socially responsible ideas practiced by Microsoft Corporation The current generations of businesses have discovered secrets to achieving their goals, growing their organizations and keeping competition at bay. While growth and profit earning strategies were the main focus for many businesses in the past, the current trend is different. Businesses are targeting more than just earning high incomes and increasing their profits. They have discovered that they can achieve their visions and missions through confronting the existing social and environmental challenges, allowing the profit earning motive to be a secondary factor (Hollender and Bill, 2). Therefore, organizations are building their market share and growing their revenues through corporate social responsibility innovation (Hollender and Bill, 54). This entails innovating and applying powerful ways of addressing the existing social and environmental challenges (Hollender and Bill, 159). However, the application of social responsibility innovation to act as a marketing strategy, without championing for any social and environmental benefit, is harmful to an organizations brand. This is because; consumers have become more enlightened and aware of the application of charity and good-deeds as a marketing ploy by organizations. Therefore, the current generation of the consumer goes beyond looking at the billions pumped into the corporate citizenship programs, to look at the sustainability and the benefits obtainable by the society (Hollender and Bill, 15). Therefore, the sustainable corporate citizenship extends beyond donating to charities and confronting social challenges, to include internal innovation in defining the purpose of the business, establishing new ways of working and achieving targets, as well as redefining the purpose of competing (Hollender and Bill, 109). There are various innovative corporate social responsibility techniques that are applied by organizations to achieve the sustainability of corporate citizenship. Some of these innovative ideas include transparency, which is strategically applied towards fighting off criticisms, thus turning critics into collaborators (Hollender and Bill, 132). Another creative idea is the redefinition of an organization’s mission and vision strategy in such a creative way, that it attracts the attention of the best and most talented workers. This is vital to maintain strong drivers of the organization, who steers it towards its targets (Hollender and Bill, 70). Microsoft Corporation history, vision and mission This is a multinational corporation with its origin in the USA, dealing with a variety of products and services related to computers and computing (Harnick, n.p.). The company is ranked as the largest software maker in the world, based on software revenue collection, and the world’s most valuable company. In the “CR’s 100 Best Corporate Citizens 2012” (CR100), which gives the rank of the top 100 highly ranked socially responsible organizations, Microsoft Corporation was ranked as the third best (Harnick, n.p.). The company was founded in 1975 to develop interpreters for the then Altair 8800 microcomputer (Harnick, n.p.). However, the company eventually diversified into manufacturing into personal computer operating systems and software. According to the current standings, the company has dominated the field of computer operating systems, office suite and online visual communication media (Harnick, n.p.). The mission of the company is to provided professional and value added services in the technology industry, with a high customer service and the interest of the customers in mind. Its vision is to build a customer service-based professional services consulting company, which will specialize in information technology consulting (Harnick, n.p.). Microsoft Corporation stakeholder analysis Stakeholders refer to the people or entities that are party to or affected in one way or the other by the operations of an organization. Microsoft Corporation has the founder, shareholders and employees as the primary stakeholders, since they are directly affected by any action by or against the organization. As at September 30, 2012, the employment status of Microsoft stood at a total of 94, 420 employees worldwide, 56,934 of which were USA based (Harnick, n.p.). The shareholding of the company is comprised of the founder and owner, inside shareholding comprising of the employees who have bought shares in the company and other institutions and mutual fund owners (Harnick, n.p.). The secondary shareholding of the company is comprised of the organization’s customers, suppliers, partners and the environment. The organization has a worldwide customer base that is slightly above 40 million, according to the 2010 customer base standings. It has a diverse supplier base of software manufacturing companies and engineers that develops most of its vital software for computer operating system and office suite (Harnick, n.p.). Microsoft Corporation corporate responsibilities performance Microsoft Corporation social responsibility is built on two premises; undertaking its business responsibly and serving communities around the world (Harnick, n.p.). The organization applies integrity and governance to foster its responsible relationship with its stakeholders, where it interacts with its audience in an ethical and respectful manner (Harnick, n.p.). Additionally, the organization has extended the integrity, ethics and respect towards its suppliers, considering that they are major contributors to the success of the company. Therefore, instead of treating them as mere suppliers, the organization treats its suppliers as insiders, granting them first hand treatment desirable of its internal employees (Harnick, n.p.). Further, the organization has a deep respect for all human, seeking to advance the minority and the less advantaged groups in the society, through partnering and contracting such companies for supplies. The organization highly values its team of talented employees, who are the main engine behind its success (Harnick, n.p.). This way, the organization offers their employees an opportunity to own the company through shareholding, an aspect that promotes responsibility and commitment amongst the employees; since they work for an organization they deem their own. The level of employee motivation is high, with good perks and benefits that keep the employees enthusiastic about their job performance (Harnick, n.p.). The organization has extended its corporate citizenship towards empowering the non-profit organizations through supporting them technologically, to help them serve the communities better (Harnick, n.p.). The organization is also empowering the world through Microsoft YouthSpark, where it partners with governments, NGOs and businesses to provide millions of youths around the world with education, entrepreneurship and employment opportunities (Harnick, n.p.). all these social responsibility activities works towards making the world a better place. Therefore, there is a greater comparison between Microsoft Corporation and Seventh Generation, in their corporate citizenship aspects. Both organizations have put a great emphasis on employee development, motivation and preservation, as the basis of their business sustainability. The social responsibility innovation for this organization is identifiable in the fact that it has integrated it’s a diverse supplier base as a part of its team, thus fostering a strong business relationship. Additionally, it has specialized in offering the disadvantaged groups opportunities to join its supply base, while partnering with them, to serve their plight and consequently advancing their business (Harnick, n.p.). Therefore, Microsoft Corporation has applied creative social responsibility ideas. Works Cited Harnick, Lori. Microsoft Corporate Citizenship: CR Magazine announces 2012 Best Corporate Citizens List. Citizenship & Public Affairs, Microsoft, 2012. Internet resource. Hollender, Jeffrey, and Bill Breen. The Responsibility Revolution: How the Next Generation of Businesses Will Win. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2010. 1-159. Print. Read More