Preview

Innovation Strategy at Microsoft

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1094 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Innovation Strategy at Microsoft
Innovation Strategy at Microsoft: Clouds on the Horizon

Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational software corporation that develops, manufacturers, licenses and supports a wide range of products and services related to computing. Microsoft is the world’s largest software maker and affects millions of users worldwide every day. The company recorded all-time high revenue bringing in $73.7 billion for fiscal year 2012.

After analyzing this case, I have concluded that the main problem for Microsoft is that their deep silos are inevitably hindering its ability to produce products and/or services to compete with current computing trends in the industry. While Microsoft continues to dominate the computing world, it cannot be attributed to their innovation strategy. To address these problems I suggest that Microsoft alter their environment to better simulate innovation. Microsoft should create an environmental culture in which employees are encouraged to venture outside their tasks, minimal time pressure, and high job security give positive feedback for initiatives taken.

These recommendations are based on specific concepts from the book. Current environment inside Microsoft does not currently provide positive feedback. Their current environments sets commitments for each division and employees are faced with performance evaluations. When employees failed to meet designated commitments, employees were penalized. Additionally, employees are penalized for taking on activities unrelated to their commitments. First in chapter 6 we saw that in an industry where growth is slowing and competition becomes stronger, an organization’s success requires innovation. This is why it is recommended that Microsoft focus on simulating innovation.

We saw that innovators derive from individual developers and thereby can be considered the true source of innovative products. While an organization system model and creative individuals are key

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Modern organizations emphasize on innovation and learning to cope with changes in the business environment and stay ahead of competition. The different sources of innovation include change in awareness due to acquisition of new knowledge, changing perceptions of people, demographic changes, rapid changes in industry and market structure, imperfect processes, incongruity between reality and expectation and unexpected happenings. Organizations need to be committed to change and innovation and change their structure and culture to facilitate continuous learning of employees.…

    • 23155 Words
    • 93 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    How is Microsoft so successful? The answer is simple, due to a motivated fork force. Microsoft is successful because of their workplace environment, empowerment of employee ideas, and their employee benefits. A motivated work force causes a team of motivated people to work towards accomplishing their goals. In order to achieve the company's goals, Microsoft hires not only experienced people but also young and talented graduates who the company believes will contribute by bringing in fresh innovation and ideas for the up coming generation. One of the company's major objectives are to generate new products that would intrigue the future minds. After hiring the employees, Microsoft makes sure that these employees are always focused and are giving their full potential in research, and production in top-of-the-line- products. Along with work, the employees at Microsoft have fun. This essay will discuss different techniques that Microsoft uses to maintain its number one status in the competitive computer industry.…

    • 934 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Since Microsoft was established, their primary focus was on operating system and software for inside the computer, but in recent years Microsoft started to shift its strategy in order to gain ground and dominate the desktop software market. The new strategy is to write software for several industries, and expending the number of industries as it succeeds, Microsoft first step was hire business technology professionals who has knowledge of the industries in which Microsoft wants to write software for, Microsoft Business Solutions then tabbed into a network of independent software vendors to write customizable software for small and medium size business, and to write a broad based software for a particular industry, these applications called “ vertical software” and they run on the top of Microsoft operating system, then Microsoft strengthened its opportunities through recruiting partners to create an entire suite of vertical software called “ solution maps of software and services” (O'Brien and Marakas 151) Microsoft strategy is to target what is called “ Dynamic Industries” according to Tami Reller, Microsoft Corporate Vice President of Business Solution Marketing, the five sectors that compromises the Dynamic Industries are, manufacturing, distribution, retail, professional services, and public sector. (Beasty 15) Microsoft sees a huge opportunity in Manufacturing brining people with manufacturing experience to put together develop software that would meet some manufactures needs, Microsoft has a solid ground in the retail industry, approximately 70 percent of the computers In the retail industry are running on a Microsoft operating system, Microsoft recently launched a program called “ Smarter Retailing: that improves shopping experience by using fingerprint instead of credit card swipe (O'Brien and Marakas 152).…

    • 587 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Microsoft Corporation was established by the two partners Bill Gates and Paul Allen in United States in 1975 with their head quarter in Redmond city of USA. The company at that time started its operation with a single office but with time it spread now to more than 105 countries. In USA the company has more than one lac employees and the company is generating on average the revenue of $63 billion. It is considered to be the world largest company in software. The aim of company into gives the best possible software solution and services to its customers worldwide. Moreover the company is working on the continuous research and development in the field of software with their ever new manufacturing and innovating in the computing devices. Their signifance is manufacturing operating system for servers, the personal devices like computers, mobiles and tablets with addition to several types of business applications as well like the development tools for software and games. Such activities of the company covers all range of people as their customer markets like students, households workers, employs and business related people.…

    • 1496 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Law 421 Week 3 Analysis

    • 809 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The team is to recap what was learned from last week’s assignments, readings, and discussion from class. As a team, each member ranked the six factors of innovation, and a final ranking was agreed upon. A brief description of the assignment will be discussed, highlighting the outcome. Innovation is essential for businesses to remain competitive, and the business not promoting innovations are losing portions of the market. The team learned the Seven Innovation rules to help us rank the six factors of innovation. The rules provided an understanding of the importance innovation plays in an organization to grow and survive in the technology world that exists. The conclusion will highlight the differences between standard…

    • 809 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Innovation is the process of using ideas within a company to create new products, services, technology, or processes. Myths used to acknowledge that innovation was the idea of one individual with no support from others. In reality, innovative ideas that become new products and services require the support and knowledge of a significant amount of individuals. The individuals involved in the innovation process become involved in an array of business functions ranging from manufacturing, marketing, sales, and distribution. Companies will need employees with a diverse set of skills to develop, test, and commercialize the new products and services. Therefore, companies rely on “strong consistent processes and frameworks in order to manage, develop, and test ideas” (Phillips, 2011, p. 5). Before the innovation planning process can begin, management must provide a clear definition of the work to be completed, the individuals responsible for working within the different steps, and provide the defined workflow necessary for the teams to achieve and accomplish the tasks needed for the innovation to properly work. In the following report, the innovation planning and design process will be addressed. Further discussion will include an analysis of the internal and external factors influence on the innovation design process. Furthermore, a description of the steps needed for the innovation planning process will be addressed.…

    • 1460 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    References: Brief history of Microsoft. Retrieved on July 17, 2009 from:http://www.microsoft.com/misc/features/features_flshbk.htmAlexandra Starr, Never settle! Secrets of an Innovator. Retrieved on July 10, 2009 from:http://www.aarp.org/aarp/live_and_learn/Cover_Stories/articles/NeverSettleSecretsofanInnovator.htmlApple Computer inc. Retrieved July 17, 2009 from:http://www.answers.com/topic/apple-computer-incBetina Von Stamm (2003) Managing Innovation, Design and Creativity: What are Innovation,Creativity and Design? [University of Phoenix Custom Edition e-text].…

    • 2016 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Furthermore, the company believes in empowering and encouraging employee to become innovated in their area of expertise. The organization have seven major employee groups in addition to over 40 networks where employees help the company to construct a sympathetic community across Microsoft Corporation (Microsoft, 2016).…

    • 709 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Bibliography: Macinta, Timothy W. What 's so Bad About Microsoft? 2012. 21 November 2012 <http://www.kmfms.com/whatsbad.html>.…

    • 850 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Organizations hire management teams to develop innovative ideas to compete in the marketing arena. Innovation is a topic often compared to creativity and design; however, one must be creative to design innovative products. To have a creative advantage the innovative product must be a design displaying incredible creativity to draw the consumer’s interest and contribute to the organizations success.…

    • 418 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Innovation and creativity have been known to go hand in hand when being applied to an organization with the intention of stepping ahead within an industry. When a business develops a strategic model, its strategy, processes, product, and service will be impacted by innovation and creativity. There are many benefits when using innovation in an organization. Reduced development costs can lead to a better bottom line in the long run. Along with utilizing advancements in technology, an organization can harness the already existing qualities it has in order to gain a better understanding…

    • 1792 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Microsoft Corporation is a fortune 500 company that ranked # 35 on the fortune 500 list in 2013 (Fortune 500, 2013) and is one of the largest business corporations in the world. It was founded in 1975 by two guys named Paul Allen and Bill Gates, the business developed very rapidly as the years went by and reached a marker of 89,000 employees, with a revenue of $62 billion dollars and had offices located all over the world (Fortune 500, 2011). From the initial headquarters that is held in Albuquerque New Mexico, the Microsoft Company steadily increased the offices held within the United States and expanded that to include more than 100 countries abroad. This expansion into different countries became a challenge because of having to deal with new lifestyles, new cultures, people, and languages. Proper research needed to be conducted not to mention the implementation of a proper working strategy to help the integration of these new ethics and cultures into those of the Microsoft Corporation.…

    • 1406 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Innovation Strategy

    • 1867 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Stewart, I., & Fenn, P. (2006). Strategy: The motivation for innovation. Construction Innovation, 6(3), 173-185. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/1471417506ci615oa…

    • 1867 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In 1999, a front page Wall Street Journal article was attracting attention with a headline “As Microsoft Matures, Some Top Talent Chooses to Go off Line.” It was a question taken very seriously by Gates and Ballmer who understood that company’s enormous success was largely due to its ability to recruit, motivate, and retain extraordinary talent. This article explores the HR philosophies, policies, and practice in 1980s and examines how the policies were managed in 1990s.…

    • 681 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Microsoft is a multinational American Corporation founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen on April 4, 1975. It is headquartered in Redmond, Washington and is one the world’s most valuable companies. Microsoft focuses on developing products and services related to computing. Originally, Microsoft was first established to develop and sell basic interpreters for the Altair 8800, and now Microsoft has grown and developed to be the market dominant company for operating systems and personal computers. Not only do they focus on softwares for the personal computer for every home, but they also manufactured video gaming system (Xbox), mobile device (Windows phone), tablet (Surface), and internet search engine (Bing). Microsoft’s original mission statement was to provide “...a computer on every desk and in every home, running Microsoft software” (Greenpeace, 2012). Now, “at Microsoft, [their] mission and values are to help people and business throughout the world to realize their full potential” (Microsoft, 2012). Microsoft first released its Microsoft Windows software in 1984. A year later, they introduced Microsoft 1.0. Now, instead of typing demands, people were able to navigate with a mouse and click their way through screens or “windows”. The office suites were introduced in 1990, they included programs such as Word and Excel. It was a big step for Microsoft in 1995, it was the beginning of the Start button and many other details like minimize, maximize and close buttons. By 1998, their computer was able to read DVD discs and USB devices. Microsoft’s software development had grown rapidly throughout the past years. In order to keep up with their achievements and improve, they must implement new ideas and be one step ahead of…

    • 279 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics