Markets Driven vs Driving Markets Approach

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).

Brand positioning is essential to the success of any firm because it delivers a perception into the consumer’s minds which differentiates them from their competitors. Microsoft began to grow their brand over 20 years ago with Bill Gate’s an underlying vision of “a computer on every desk and in every home”. This resulted in Microsoft developing into a huge multinational company with personal computing at the forefront of their business. Microsoft dominated this industry for many years which is reflected in the high brand recognition of Microsoft products worldwide.

Microsoft has grown into an enormous and powerful corporation by a combination of aggressive business practices and having written operating systems (DOS and Windows) for personal computers. From operating systems it branched out into other software which has, along with the operating system, become something of an industry standard.

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).

The PCs became a commodity. Microsoft grew to be the leader in the operating system market continuing to develop their Windows GUI line. With Windows, software standards have been established allowing software developers to certify their products to meet Windows requirements and deliver controlled performance. In addition, the PCs allowed numerous hardware manufacturers to

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.

in the most part, states that Microsoft is truly dismantling the competitive market. IBM and Apple created OS/2 and the Mac OS, respectively. Because of this “barrier of entry,” these top companies have not been able to “compete effectively with

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

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).

This essay plans to focus on the corporate strategy of Microsoft, and show how Microsoft has used diversification successfully within their corporate strategy to gain a competitive advantage.

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

Microsoft Corporation is a public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions. Established on April 4, 1975 to develop

Mr. Gates’ also explains how Microsoft tackled the challenge of integrating the Internet to be compatible with various Microsoft products. The biggest dilemmas were determining what should be incorporated into the existing Microsoft products, what should be packaged as new products, and how should the Windows Operating System support the Internet. He gives frequent examples of how the other competing computer industry giants were able to succeed in the computer industry. A lot of success he points out was made through trial and error as well as learning from one’s mistakes. He talks about how Microsoft has learned from projects that have failed such as the Multiplan spreadsheet that went on to be developed into Microsoft Excel, and the Omega database that would become Microsoft Access. One suggestion that Mr. Gates makes in achieving company success is by

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

All started when Bill Gate and Paul Allen, two friends that as early as 13 years old started to mess around with computers, drop out of college to create their own business. This business founded April 4, 1975 is known today as Microsoft Corporation. Allen and Gates created a basic interpreter for computers, that was rejected by Digital Research, but later on IBM made a contract with them. The creation of the MS-DOS for IBM in mid-80’s gave Microsoft the high rock success that still last till this day, making them the dominant operating system for personal computers. Likewise, Microsoft became at a later time the leading business in office suite software better known as Microsoft Office.