How Microsoft Growth Led to Control Problems Essay

Implementing an innovative growth strategy that can achieve expected growth, while maintaining a value based employee model.

Firms must consider many strategies when attempting to realize growth. Depending upon the stage of

Stages of business growth theories see the development of an organization as a process with several stages and try to understand the features of different stages and the accompanying problems. All the models try to solve the following three big questions: How to mark the stages of business growth? How many stages the business experiences in its development? What are

Microsoft was founded in 1975, and is the worldwide leader in software, services, and solutions (Career). Microsoft is proud to offer great products and employ outstanding people. Previous Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer once said, “There are many things that are true about Microsoft. We have big goals, big dreams, and big aspirations for the future. We are both competitive with our products and in the way we attract and retain talent. For me, the most important factor is competition for talent, because I know our success comes from the people who work here” (Foley).

high and had about as much computing capacity as a wristwatch does today . . .

The learning and growth perspective uses the organization’s resources to adapt to the changing wants and needs of customers. The organizations must ask itself whether it can continue to improve and create value for its customers (Kinney and Raiborn 2013, 11). An organization’s ability to innovate and improve their products or services directly affects its value. An organization can create economic growth by developing new products and services, improving existing products and services, and developing more efficient operations (Kaplan and Norton January/February 1992, 75).

Microsoft's stated mission statement is "to help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential." Arguably, a statement this vague provides so little sense of mission that it lacks value. That is the point. Microsoft cannot even uphold its own mission internally, given the gap between the company's potential and the company's output. That the company has no coherent, tangible sense of its own mission is a contributing factor to that failure. Consider the company's resources. As Clarke (2010) notes, it is not for lack of ideas that Microsoft has failed to innovate. The company has great people, highly-talented, educated and experienced. It has $66 billion in cash on its balance sheet and another $10 billion in long-term investments (MSN Moneycentral, 2012). Clarke (2010) notes that the company spends $9 billion per year on research and development. The potential for innovation at Microsoft, then, is tremendous, yet its output is minimal.

Microsoft, a company founded by Bill Gates has, in the last couple of years seen a number of changes in its mode of operation. Traditionally Microsoft has been in the business of producing computer-based products exclusively (Byrnes, 2010). In the light of changing technology, globalisation and changing consumer tastes and preferences change has become in the tech-giant company. In the fast-paced world of technology, consumers are actively switching to the new touchscreen laptops and tablets, which are the replacement to conventional computers. These contemporary computers require operating systems and software that are entirely different from what was in use formerly. As means of keeping up this trend, and in order to address these new

Microsoft had to split their operating system company from the rest of their organization. Another action Microsoft took was its relations with Java. They licensed a version of Java that worked mainly with windows where they tried to drive out the competitors and in later years they didn’t even allow Java to work with Windows XP (Rivkin 4). Microsoft tried to basically kill Java and with this the producers of Java sued Microsoft. Last, Microsoft took actions toward their competition in open-source software: Lunix. Microsoft responded by opening up into own server OS code like Lunix did. They actually sold stripped-down versions of the code to emerging economies and they also set up a lab that’s sole purpose was to find competitive weaknesses in the Lunix OS (Rivkin 5).

When a company grows it achieves economies of scale, it increases its market shares and thus wipes out competition. A company starts making more profits and can use these in constructive ways such as employing specialist workers and improving the variety and quality of products, by delving more into research and development. These are only some of the

It’s successful because of their workplace environment, empowerment of employee ideas, and their employee benefits. These elements are the result of the strategy that the Microsoft

It’s successful because of their workplace environment, empowerment of employee ideas, and their employee benefits. These elements are the result of the strategy that the Microsoft is

in order to create possibly the most effective and versatile workforce of any corporation in existence. To study Microsoft's way of doing business is to look at the company from many angles, from a managerial and organizational standpoint to its process of developing products and services for its customers and its competitive environment. The purpose of this paper is to analyze Microsoft from a strategic fit

About 15-20 years back, Microsoft was adopting the generic strategy of cost leadership. Microsoft was enjoying sales monopoly in the absence of any alternative for windows & office. But today Google aps

on its strategic objective of growing the organization slowly to make sure that new ventures are