...Introduction In less than 40 years, Microsoft has become a worldwide leader in the field of technology. Today, the company operates on 5 major segments: Windows & Windows Live Division, Server and Tools, Online Services Division, Microsoft Business Division, and Entertainment and Devices Division. Results of the past three years show that Microsoft has been profitable (+33% on operating income; +20% on revenue between 2009 and 2011). Nevertheless financial reports indicate that each segment has not supported profit equally. Therefore, as the management team, which recommendations for Microsoft could be done for 2012 and beyond for each segment? I. Windows & Windows Live Division This segment of Microsoft offerings consists of multiple editions of the Windows operating system, software and services through Windows Live, and Microsoft PC hardware products. Windows & Windows live division have a very significant impact on Microsoft performance, indeed this segment represent 45% of the total operating income. Even if we can observe a slight decrease on income, between 2010 and 2011, higher expenses in marketing and a decrease on the notebook market explain it. However Windows Division revenue is largely correlated to the PC market worldwide, as approximately 75% of total Windows Division revenue comes from Windows operating system software purchased by equipment manufacturers which they pre-install on equipment they sell. The Operating systems Window 7 and Windows XP have...
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...Innovation Strategy A corporation’s innovation strategy is an important factor for viability and success of that organization. “In a discontinuous world, strategy innovation is the key to wealth creation” (Mintzberg, Lampel, Quinn, & Ghoshal, 2003, p. 471). It is a way for new entrants to succeed in the face of adversity and a way for incumbents to reinvent their products for success. This paper evaluates Microsoft Corporation’s innovation strategy as it related to its product and also evaluates the strategy as a measure of the company’s success. Company background and SEC filings Founded in 1975, incorporated in 1981 and with an initial public offering in 1986, the Microsoft Corporation mainly focuses on developing software products and services for their customers. There are five divisions of Microsoft: Windows and Windows Live Division, which creates operating systems for PCs; Server and Tools that develops server infrastructure and software; Online Services Division that focuses on easing consumer concerns and simplifying searches with Bing; Microsoft Business Division, which sustains the Microsoft Office Suite; and the Entertainment and Devices Division with products such as the Xbox360 and Kinect. Microsoft operates in more than 100 countries around the world, with sales growth attributed to creative design of new products and services. Their main competitors are Apple, Google, Yahoo, Adobe, Nintendo, IBM, and HP. With that level of competition, Microsoft is thoroughly...
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...Microsoft’s Xbox This research paper presents the marketing strategy and philosophy used by Microsoft in selling their gaming console, the Xbox. The paper will evaluate and describe in depth the marketing of Xbox gaming and system. The research and assessment has been conducted by the developing company, Microsoft Corporation. Xbox comes in a variety of versions. One of the most popularized consoles is the XBOX 721X, a system upgrade that will be released to the market in 2015 (Lacher, Roth, Keller, & Schumacher, 2004 ). The earliest Xbox was in the market in 2001. It was marketed as being one of the leading gaming systems of the time. As technology advanced, the Xbox advanced too. The Xbox360 was brought to the market in the mid 2000’s. A new year calls for new surprises. In 2015, Microsoft will release the Xbox721x. The question then is, what strategy has Microsoft adopted in marketing the Xbox gaming console? Advertisement A new gaming system always comes with a lot of the excitement from the users. However, to know that a new product has been released to market, a company has to invest in advertising. There is a need for good advertising. Microsoft’s advertising has never disappointed its clients. It always meets virtually all consumer expectations. Generally, when Microsoft’s name is on a product, the product will be well-perceived (Shankar, Carpenter & Farley/Hamilton, 2012). It will be seen as a very useful and well performing product. The company...
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...Microsoft Advances Successful, Two-Tier ERP Strategy with Powerful, New ERP Sol ution Brief business description Microsoft is said to be the world’s largest software company which started in the United States. According to the newsletter Microsoft – History of a Computing Giant by Mary Bellis, Microsoft was founded in 1975 by Paul Allen and Bill Gates. With nearly 90,000 employees and 110 subsidiaries worldwide, Microsoft needed to replace its diverse expense-reporting systems with a single, centrally managed solution that was easier to use and yielded more consistent, detailed information. This was an opportunity to extend the company’s two-tier ERP strategy, standardizing on Microsoft Dynamics AX for operational units and integrating with the SAP system for corporate financial accounting. The Finance Operations team and Microsoft IT collaborated with the product group to implement Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 as the standard solution. In doing so, Microsoft performed a repeatable deployment scenario that can be of value for many enterprises. What’s more, Microsoft uses the solution as an “innovation layer” to complement the company’s SAP system, enabling faster rollout of timesaving functions to employees throughout the organization. It also design and sell hardware including the Xbox 360 gaming and entertainment console, Kinect for Xbox 360, Xbox 360 accessories, and Microsoft PC hardware products. Microsoft provides consulting and product and solution support services...
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...Instructor's Name Course Title 2 February 2016 Microsoft Microsoft Corporation Introduction Microsoft Corporation is a multipurpose and multinational company based in America. The corporation is headquartered in the Redmond, Washington. It mainly focuses on the development, licensing, supporting and selling of the computer electronics, computer software, personal computers and the affiliate services. The corporation is mainly recognized for its software products including the operating systems, the Microsoft office suite among others. It has a high profile reputation of quality services and products that are consumed by both large-scale and small-scale consumers. The paper intends to analyze and deduce the factors of operation of the corporation. That includes the mission statement, the vision statement, culture, SWOT analysis amongst other attributes that determine the extent in which the corporation is an outstanding performer. Mission, Vision, Goals, and culture Mission At Microsoft, the central mission is to enable the people, as well as, the businesses across the international borders to realize their absolute potential. Particularly, the corporation considers it a mission to focus on the commitment to the customers. As such, the corporate attempts to articulate the full measure of the mission by striving to ensure that it creates outstanding technology. The technology is also developed...
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...brands as Coca cola, IBM, Microsoft, Google and General Electric. Coca cola Bilaras (2012:1) maintains that Coca cola built its brand equity by adapting a global marketing strategy, which considered the whole world as a single market. The reason behind this global focus was that they viewed their product as one that can be used by everyone irrespective of age and gender. To achieve this, Coca cola created an efficient and extensive distribution system throughout the world. According to the company’s 2010 review, it managed to build its brand equity by establishing a close relationship with its bottling partners who work closely with customers to execute localized strategies developed in partnership with them. Through effective collaboration, they are able to sell Coca cola products to consumers at a rate of 1.7 billion servings a day. Coca cola’s brand equity growth is also attributed to its expanded brand variety of products like diet coke, sprite, Fanta, Minute Maid and others to appeal to a wider demographic, asserts Bilaras (2012:1). This resulted in consumers viewing coke as a part of life, leading to a high degree of brand loyalty, and growth. Growth in brand equity was also realised through advertising and sponsorships, especially of the Fifa World Cup, with the 2010 event being watched by 3.2 billion people, according to FIFA (2011). This exposure helped create further worldwide demand and a boost to the brand image. IBM Greenwald (2012:1), states that initially...
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...Marketing ranks as a top concern among client-side marketers (Kelly Jones, 2016). During Microsoft’s development stage, different types of product and the evolution of traditional products have shifted power from the marketer to the consumer. The shift created vast opportunities, also assisting the marketers with the capability to gain the exact type of audience they were looking for. Due to the explosion of choice, it put a huge stress on the marketer’s lives and practices, making massive obstacles for precise integration. For Microsoft Company, ownership of about 1/3 of United States Americans own and uses a tablet. Tablet ownership has almost doubled from 2012 to 2013. There was a huge percentage in the growth, 200%, of ownership in 2011; however in 2012 the growth slowed down dramatically to 79% growth. The use of social media was used to help with the marketing plan and product to customers. Social media present a big challenge to the Microsoft Company that been able to control their communications and marketing by traditional media channels (Strategic Direction, 2010; Gillin, 2009). The wide range of different online applications enable the “sharing of information, experiences, and perspectives throughout community-oriented websites” (Weinberg, 2009, p.1).They are growing in popularity due to the advantages they offer consumers such as transparency, referrals, and ease of communication, and the empowerment they bring (Urban, 2004). The...
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...2011). However, today Nokia has been challenged and has lost market share due competitor’s pressure. According to Douglas Perry, “Samsung has become the world's largest cell phone maker in Q1 2012, overtaking Nokia for the first time”(2012). Nokia has been left behind because if its inability to quickly respond to innovative competitors, such as RIM with Blackberry and Apple with IPhone. Nokia’s rivals are not just in North America, but all around the world. Asian competitors threaten Nokia by taking control on the mass population with low costs. Researcher have said, Nokia has been experiencing “lower-margin, feature phone business in emerging markets from cheaper Chinese handset makers” (Financial Times, 2011).“The once-dominant phone maker was described as needing to jump from a “burning platform” earlier this year by Stephen Elop, chief executive”(Charles, 2012).These factors have been critical in driving Nokia to re-elaborate and re-think its corporate strategy, core capabilities and vision. Recognizing that their strategy needs to be reformulated and successfully implement a good strategy is what’s going to make Nokia increase their market share. On February 2011 Nokia and Microsoft made a strategic partnership to make Windows phone as their smartphone platform (Nokia Microsoft, 2011). Furthermore, the recession has taken a toll on Nokia, because its creating difficulties in shortening the period of mobile replacement by consumers. Due to this economic downturn, customers...
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...Running head: FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT Financial Management: Comparing Google’s Business Model/ Financial Management with Microsoft By: Zanthe Gillison Strayer University Financial Management: Comparing Google’s Business Model/ Financial Management with Bing Google is doing bigger and better things in the world of internet media searching. Despite the challenges with other big names in Internet technology, Google and Microsoft have still remained to be leaders. In this paper, I will show comparison views of Google’s business model and financial management with Microsoft’s launch with Bing. Taking a look into Google and Microsoft core business, leading products and services, management and leadership styles, and innovation track record we will have the opportunity to compare the two businesses in and appendix. Google is known to be the leading internet media website’s in the world. Google and Microsoft are well-known internet information websites. Although, Microsoft is in business for more than searching the internet, Microsoft is known to be the world’s leading producer and marketer of computer software. Google’s product line and services are for Google products only. Google’s products include services that will enhance your desktop features such as Google Chrome and Google desktop which is an organizational tool that gives the customer the option to design and edit photos, organize personal and business information, search, and communicate with...
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...Environmental Analysis The information technology (IT) industry has always been highly driven by innovations in technology. It is dynamic and highly competitive, with frequent changes in both technologies and business models. Each industry shift is an opportunity to conceive new products, new technologies, or new ideas that can further transform the industry and businesses. The following PESTEL analysis will try to gain an understanding of Microsoft’s business potential, future market situation and the direction of its operation. The political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal factors are six components of PESTEL analysis. Table 1: PESTEL Analysis of IT industry | Political * Restrictions on foreign recruitments * Regulations to education * Regulations to the industry * Regulations at emerging markets | Economic * Fluctuations and unpredictable behaviours of foreign currency * Trade cycles * Economic growth rates (around the world) * Disposable income level of people * Demand and supply...
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...Table of Contents I. Introduction 2 II. Question 1: Nokia’s mission and vision 2 III. Question 2: Alarm in Nokia’s strategic pursuits 4 IV. Question 3: Strategy and techniques recommended for Nokia 8 V. Question 4 :Technologies that Nokia should have done 9 VI. Question 5: Business level strategy Nokia should take and actions to support it. 10 VII. Question 6: Nokia and Microsoft corporate 12 VIII. Conclusion 13 IX. Reference 14 I. Introduction Operating in the turbulent and globalized business market require a well-prepared plan and vision in order to go ahead of the market and being the market leader, which would ensure the success and survival for the organization in long-term (Sadler and Craig, 2003). Failure to do so and the organization would see itself going bankruptcy in couple of years head. The case of Nokia is the typical example of the failure to catch the demand of the customers, to follow up the market and to struggle in the way to become powerful again. Nokia is well known about its products, which are mobile telephone and portable IT device. Used to be the market leader in the mobile phone industry, but the company now has been struggling in order to survive through the fast growing and many competitors of mobile phone industry. This report would invest the case study “Alarm ringing: Nokia in 2010”; analyze the situation and prospects for Nokia to be more competitive in the mobile phone market. II. Question 1: Nokia’s mission and vision The...
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...Competitive Strategies Student Name Professor Name BUS 508 Contemporary Business Date Differences of Apple and Microsoft corporate culture Scully (2011) gave a bird's eye view of Apple and Microsoft corporate culture. He said "In Steve's world, 'No compromises'.' In Bill's world, 'Hey, compromise is alright. We'll get it right the third time. We just want to have a land grab'." According to Scully, the two have entirely different approaches, both very, very successful. But in the era of consumer electronics, the Steve Jobs approach is a hands-down winner. Williams (2011) said that if there is one key difference between Microsoft and Apple, it is secrecy. Apple rarely shows its hand before a product is ready to ship. Microsoft usually offers sneak previews of products months, sometimes years, in advance. Sethi (2012) revealed the two corporate values that Apple implements - value and cost culture: When it comes to customers, Apple applies the notion of value. For example, Apple’s pricing strategy that is driven by its focus on the value. The customer is willing to pay a price that is equal to the product's perceived value to the customer. However, as long as the customers are satisfied, Apple is under no obligation to reduce its prices. When it comes to workers' wages and working conditions, Apple uses its dominant market position or buying power to acquire these services at the lowest possible price, thus keeping the largest share of the profit for itself and...
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...Analysis for the Technology Sector 7 4. Non-Financial Analysis 8 4.1 Google Inc. 8 4.1.1 Company Profile 8 4.1.2 Strategic Target 8 4.1.3 SWOT Analysis 9 4.1.4 Others 10 4.2 Microsoft Corp. 11 4.2.1 Company Profile 11 4.2.2 Strategic Target 12 4.2.3 SWOT Analysis 13 4.2.4 Others 13 4.3 Amazon.com 14 4.3.1 Company Profile 14 4.3.2 Strategic Target 14 4.3.3 SWOT Analysis 15 4.3.4 Others 15 5. Financial Analysis 16 5.1 Profitability 16 5.1.1 Year-on-Year (YoY) Revenue Distribution 16 5.1.2 Net Income 19 5.1.3 Return on Total Asset (ROTA) 20 5.1.4 Return on Equity (ROE) 21 5.2 Liquidity and Financing 22 5.2.1 Short-Term: Current Ratio 22 5.2.2 Long-Term: Gearing 23 5.3 Shareholder Value 24 5.3.1 Earning Per Share (EPS) 24 5.3.2 Price Earning Ratio (PE Ratio) 25 5.3.3 Dividend Per Share 26 5.4 Risk and Discounting 26 5.4.1 CAPM and NPV on Google Inc. 27 5.4.2 CAPM and NPV on Amazon.com 29 5.4.3 CAPM and NPV on Microsoft Corp. 31 6. Investment Decision and Conclusion 34 6.1 Investment Evaluation’s Matrix 34 6.2 Investment Decision and Conclusion 38 7. References 39 8. Appendix 40 Figures and Tables Figure 51: Amazon YOY Revenue, Cost, and Operating Income 16 Figure 52: Microsoft YOY Revenue, Cost, and Operating Income 17 Figure 53: Google YOY Revenue, Cost, and Operating Income 17 Figure 54: Net Income Comparison 19 Figure 55: ROTA Comparison 20 Figure 56: ROE...
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... 5 2.1 Industry Life Cycle............................................................5 2.2 Market Analysis....................................................................6 2.3 PESTEL.................................................................................7 2.4 Porters 5 Force ....................................................................8 2. Internal Analysis 9 2.1 Microsoft Competency Framework....................................9 2.2 Microsoft VRIN Framework.................................................10 2.3 Microsoft Strengths and Weaknesses ..............................10 2.4 Nokia Competency Framework...........................................11 2.5 Nokia VRIN Framework........................................................12 2.6 Nokia Strengths and Weaknesses......................................12 3. Issues and Challenges 13 3.1 Microsoft’s Issues................................................................13 3.2 Nokia’s Issues..................................................................
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...A Comparison of Business Models and Financial Management of Google and Microsoft Anitra Williams-Bender Jackson State University Abstract Google and Microsoft are two of the world’s leading providers for technological services and products. Both companies offer superior services such as search engines, e-mail, and other services designed to connect users with the rest of the world. Although these organizations may have similar products and services, there are limitless factors that set them apart from one another. The business models and financial management strategies for Google and Microsoft differ, directly correlating with the success of the company. Financial ratios help to indicate the success or failure of a company’s attempt to gain profit by selling products and recruiting investors. Annual reports track the expenditures, assets, and net income for Microsoft and Google. Leadership styles, new products and services, and company goals are influenced by annual reports. The technological competition continues, as both of these companies attempt to increase and retain revenue, beat out their competitors, and attract more and more customers. The core business of an organization outlines the most important and essential activities to the company. This sector of business activity fulfills the purpose for the organization, and it is needed for the organization to function properly. The core business can be viewed as the foundation for the organization; aspects of the...
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