Ethical and Environmental Scan Paper

Microsoft has their dominance of the industry at stake. They could potentially come out on top if left to continue their current tactics. They are masterfully “marketing their products” and it is paying off for them (Love, 1997).

The role of ethics and social responsibility aids organizations in developing a strong strategic plan, while addressing the needs of stakeholders. Ethics and social responsibility require social awareness to address the needs of the environment and to increase the knowledge of employees, which will lead to a corporation focused on supplying the customer with what is needed, managers equipped with solid decision-making abilities, and employees who believe that he or she are an asset to the business. It is the executive manager’s responsibility to establish a clear vision for the corporation and place a specific focus on understanding stakeholder’s needs. In an effort to support

Many believe that business entities should have an ethical duty to be socially responsible, to work towards increasing its positive effects on society while decreasing its negative effects. Many organizations look for opportunities to be socially responsible while also creating shareholder wealth.

Businesses today face a plethora of ethical duties such as upholding corporate governance, maintaining stakeholder relationships, and presenting an image of social responsibility. In review of Company Q’s (Q) current ethics culture, its image in regards to social responsibility is not equivalent to that of its competitors. In a growing market faced with increasingly challenging competition, there are several areas that Q can and needs to address to bring the company to a level of social responsibility that exceeds stakeholder expectations. First, attention Q needs to address market demands for additional locations to better

We will look at the Enron Corporation and discuss its application of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) or in actuality its irresponsible behavior as related to social responsibility. We will revisit what CSR is and discuss Enron’s philosophy regarding its use and function within the corporation. We will discuss the consequences of Enron’s irresponsible behavior and the far reaching effects it had on society.

The case study that was analyzed is, “Unauthorized Disclosure: Hewlett-Packard’s secret Surveillance of Directors and Journalists,” by Anne T. Lawrence, Randal D. Harris, and Sally Baack. The ethical issues presented through the case deal with Hewlett-Packard Company (HP). HP is a major international company in the computer and technology market. The company describes itself as a “technology solutions provider to consumers, business and institutions globally.” Their credo is called “HP way”, which focuses on points such as trust and respect for individuals, high level of achievement and contribution, business conduct with uncompromising integrity, objectives through teamwork, and encouragement of flexibility and innovation (Newman). The problems faced by HP’s board of directors were a lack of accountability with HP’s credo. If the “HP way” was followed by them, these ethical issues would be avoided. It also promotes a bad example by the high-level of management of this globally powerful organization.

Microsoft's struggles might seem somewhat perplexing, given its stunning success with Windows and the fact that it seems to have pursued a 'related linked' diversification strategy of primarily concentrating on products 'linked' to technology. It has not acquired businesses that are fundamentally anathema to its core product. "Companies' implements related diversification strategies in order to achieve and

The company narrows down the clutter to a minimum and assumes that the users do not have the time to wade through the internet searching for endless options. The company designs its services for the people with less time and more money. Microsoft on the other hand is designed to give the consumer the most options possible. The company assumes the consumer shall spend hours searching for the best option according to them. The company’s search wizards guide the consumer on the best way to make a choice. Microsoft does this since its target customers are the consumers with more time and less money. For instance, apple offers only one option for buying music; iTunes, while Microsoft offers thousands of searches criterion and options. This shows that the two companies’ marketing strategies for computer products are meant for different customers. But they do have some similarities Apple and Microsoft they both create items that they think is the best technology which they worked hard for, for a long time and even though apple is a large company and about 10 times larger than Microsoft that does not matter because Microsoft is getting more successful by the day and year. Both companies are creating technology that is world changing and that is getting better by the second and if we didn’t have some of apples and Microsoft products the world would be a

Which company is performing better based on profitability ratios? Based on a comparison of the profitability ratios between Apple Incorporated and Microsoft Corporation, Microsoft is performing better than Apple. Microsoft’s profit margin is higher than Apple’s and did not experience the decrease that apple did. While Microsoft does have lower returns on assets and equity than Apple, Microsoft was more stable between 2012 and 2014, and did not suffer the same decreases in these ratios that Apple did. Since Microsoft increased their profit margin and was a more stable company, I would argue that it is the better company.

Microsoft are situated within the top 20 largest companies functioning in the world, with turnover figures of 60-70 billion dollars a year (E-how, 2011).

Microsoft operates in many geographic locations around the world and are behind the world’s most popular desktop operating system in the world. Microsoft is primarily a software company but have flexed their arms into internet services and are behind certain products in consumer market which is directly against Google. Microsoft’s market includes end-customers, enterprises and institutions just like Google. Some of the key Microsoft products are Bing which is a search engine just like Google.com and Microsoft ad center which is a direct

In contrast, Microsoft has been unable to innovate. The company relies on two cash cow products for its success, and has otherwise failed to capture even industries where it should be strong, like mobile operating systems. In contrast, Google was able to become the dominant player in this business despite having no prior experience in operating systems. Microsoft's failure to innovate has become a talking point in the industry and a threat to the company, should either of its top products be threatened by a new entrant to the market (Foley, 2010). As a result, the company's stock price today is only around the same place it was ten years ago (MSN

Now let’s talk more about Microsoft and what they are currently doing. Microsoft has kind of been on the downslope for a while. With all the new competition from other companies like Alphabet and Apple there is now more substitutes for Microsoft’s windows operating system. It doesn’t help that Microsoft made a very poor operating system called windows 8 which drove away a lot of their customers. Another thing that Microsoft regrets is their neglecting of the mobile industry, which is something Google excels in. Microsoft first refused to go into the mobile industry, which killed them because the mobile computing industry has been the growing popularity in the past 5 years or so. All of their bad business decisions changed when Microsoft got their new CEO Satya Nadella. Satya has so far completely made a 180-degree change in the company and their products. Recently Microsoft has released a new operating system called windows 10 and it caters to every form of electronic device including desktops, laptops, touchscreen tablets, phones and even gamming consoles. The best part of the

Microsoft the largest software company in the world was created in 1975 by Paul Allen and Bill Gates (A history of Windows, era 0). As the number one software developer in the industry they produce revenue “by developing, licensing, and supporting a wide range of software products, by offering an array of services, including cloud-based services to consumers and businesses, by designing, manufacturing, and selling devices that integrate with our cloud-based services, and by delivering relevant online advertising to a global audience” (Annual Report 2015). In addition to individual products and services being sold, they offer bundles of services and goods. Their products include phones, servers, other intelligent devices, and operating systems for computing devices; server applications for distributed computing environments; productivity applications; business solution applications; desktop and server management tools; software development tools; video games; and online advertising. They also design and sell hardware including tablets, PCs, gaming consoles, phones, and many other additional devices and accessories. In June 2015 the organizational structure of the company changed in part to their “transformation in the mobile-first, cloud-first world” (Annual Report 2015).

Ethics ensure that a company achieves its mission, vision, goals, and objectives in such a manner that they give a company a sense of direction and framework. Ethics ensure guidelines are creating that bind the entire organization into one common thread, govern the action of the organizational employees, and avoid deviation from the desired strategic path. Five ways a company can ensure ethics is including in their strategic planning are