Strategy for Competing with Microsoft: Fight or Flight?

A natural disaster has the capability to cause large scale damage and destruction to an area. Seismic events have been known to alter landscapes and affect the livelihoods, health and development of communities. No two earthquake events are the same and the level of threat posed by an earthquake can vary due to both the human and physical factors of an area. The 2010 magnitude - 7.0 earthquake that occurred in Haiti is an example of where a natural disaster caused a previously vulnerable area to suffer tremendous loss and debilitating socio-economic impacts, to an already poverty-stricken nation.

According to the Department of Justice, Microsoft used its resources and technology to drive other companies out of business, thereby eliminating the competition and creating a monopoly. Without competition, Microsoft was able to set prices and consumer conditions in a way that exceedingly benefited the company while ensuring a decreased amount of new competition because of the proprietary software installed in most PCs. (Competitive Processes, Anticompetitive Practices and Consumer Harm in the Software

Microsoft has developed into an inescapable force within the technological field. Coming from a delayed humble beginning, it has had to devote large sums of money to approach the levels of the founding technological companies. Today, Microsoft controls the market in computer software. How they have achieved this status is what some have come to question. Through “bundling” software programs, manipulating other computer companies, and packaging deals with personal computers, Microsoft has managed to eradicate nearly all competitors in the computer software market (Love, 1997). This near monopoly affects the entire spectrum of classes, including the consumer, other networking providers,

Microsoft is the global leader in computer software, and well recognized in the field of corporate social responsibility and philanthropy. However, since 1990 the computing giant has been plagued by allegations of antitrust violations and monopolistic, non-competitive business practices. By answering the three questions posed in Part 5, Case 7 of Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases; this review will address how such a legal and ethical dichotomy is possible, and how the issues relate to one another in terms of corporate reputation.

The war between Microsoft and the Department of Justice actually began with the rollout of Windows 95. In an attempt to gain a greater market share of the Internet browser arena, Microsoft began packaging Internet Explorer as part of their Windows operating system. Microsoft required their original equipment manufacturing (OEM) companies to install Microsoft Internet Explorer and Microsoft Networking software on every personal computer they sold along with icons for each application prominently displayed on the user's desktop.

Microsoft’s policy enables competition between PC producers resulting in lower prices. This also causes stratification of the PCs resulting in low-end, average, and luxury versions.

The government, for example, contends that some of Microsoft's business agreements with Internet service providers and Internet content providers, which restrict their ability to promote non-Microsoft browsers, violate Section 1 of the Sherman Act. The government also alleges that Microsoft has violated Section 2 by engaging in anti-competitive actions to preserve its Windows monopoly and to extend that monopoly into the browser market (2).

Natural disasters are the catastrophes cause by “Mother Nature”, which is often difficult to forecast or manage (Morrison, et al 2014). Examples of

First, Microsoft ‘encouraged’ Compaq, Apple, and other computer manufacturers to promote only Internet Explorer, and to make that the default browser on their PC. This encouragement came in the way of threats to eliminate or delay licensing of operating systems, providing the browser for free to internet access providers, and bundling the software with the operating system under the guise of interactive ease for the consumer. This manipulation led to an increase in the browser’s sales by 45 to 50%, which paralleled the decline Netscape experienced in their market sales in 1998.6

Microsoft also "pulls the strings" it has with other ISP's and software companies. There is a lot of software that is not made by Microsoft that comes with the Windows package. Some of these include, AOL, Prodigy, AT&T, Quicken, just to name a few. Microsoft gives these companies and their icons and programs are displayed on the Windows desktop.

Data obtained by assessing social vulnerability must be implemented within each phase of the emergency management process; mitigation, response, and recovery. First, to effectively respond and recover from incidents emergency management agencies must concentrate on the mitigation phase to prevent incidents from happening in the first place. This is achieved through a thorough hazard/vulnerability analysis (HVA). This type of analysis assesses the risk of physical, economic, and social vulnerability within all communities of a given jurisdiction (Lindell et al., 2006, p. 165). Additionally, the basis of the HVA allows emergency managers to effectively plan for disaster by creating pre-planned responses to disasters (rather than improvised response) and staging resources to locations with the highest probability of risk; ultimately contributing to the mitigation and response phases.

natural disasters and, bad weather conditions all in the mist of being extremely busy due to work and family demands is where I find opportunities to provide a service that is in demand . Owning a small business can be very challenging but with planning and organizing, allotted time will allow for personal interest endeavors such as travel and art.

had to buy, Microsoft also would sing contracts with the vendors for long periods of time

Microsoft has been fighting competitors in the Operating System fields as well as the Search field for many years. After Apple launched its new Macintosh computer, Microsoft came out with its first production of Windows which had a graphic user interface. Microsoft had 95% of all OS on individual PC’s in the 2000’s where apple only had about 2%-3% (Rivkin 2). A new venture that Microsoft was working toward was application software where the produced Microsoft Word and Excel. At first these two applications where not very popular on PC computers because WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3 where the main applications being run. Microsoft’s solution to this competition was

“Natural disasters have killed more than 600,000 people and left behind trillions of dollars in damages in the last two decades, the United Nations said Monday.” (Chan) Extreme weather has caused millions of casualties and extreme damages over the years, but lately there has been an increase in severe weather events. This is causing problems in the US, with the amount of tornadoes rising in tornado alley “Tennessee experienced a 67 percent increase in tornado activity in 1983-2013 compared to the 1954-1983 time period. Oklahoma experienced a nearly 35 percent decrease in tornadoes in 1983-2013 compared to 1954-1983.”