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Microsoft Business Strategy

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Microsoft Project

Summer 2006

BUS 597A

INTRODUCTION

In 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen created a company called Microsoft. More than thirty years later, Microsoft is a leader in the field of computer programming. Gates and Allen both had big plans for their company and came up with different ways of managing people and products

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 …show more content…

Microsoft's core competency is software development, which has led to the creation of massive sales of software applications. Microsoft has a competitive edge because of the control it exerts in the operating systems segment of the industry. When the company established the intent to make Windows, the standard operating system of the future, it sets its resources into motion. In a way, Microsoft forces other software manufacturers to use Windows as a platform for its software application. The result was major competitive advantage for Microsoft as other software manufacturers were preoccupied converting to Windows platform. Microsoft's dramatic growth and profitability has enabled to invest a large amount of cash flow into its core products as well as core competencies, which has led to economies of scale and scope. Microsoft has been able to develop core competencies resulting from collective learning in the organization, which can come from coordination of diverse production skills or the integration of multiple streams of technologies.

Reputation resources include software products that have high brand recall and recognition, generic corporate and consumer acceptance (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access), and numerous powerful features that are in use worldwide, which promote standardization and competitive advantage through their ease of integration and cost-effectiveness. Microsoft's intellectual resources include copyrights, trademarks,

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