Microsoft Corporation - A Giant In Information Technology

Discuss about the Corporation rules sectors of information technology.

A gigantic global organization, Microsoft Corporation rules the sectors of information technology, computer technology and software. The Microsoft Corporation has an annual turnover of $44 billion with an annual rate of employment as recorded as 71,553 across 102 countries. Having the head quarters of the company situated in Ridmont, seattle, Washington, United States, it designs and develop hardware and software.

Though Bill Gates initially started the company, yet, it must be noted that presently both Bill Gates and Paul are the owners of the company management .

Established in the year 1975, Microsoft initially dealt with software. However, no sooner it got its place in the apex of software marketing companies after developing software like Wizard basic. Paul and Bill Gates checked the brand Microsoft in the market on 26^th November 1976. Microsoft right away reached the zenith of the software market, surpassing all the other existing companies. The most revolutionary operating system developed by the Microsoft was UNIX in the year 1980. Microsoft reached its zenith due to its full proof plan of launching software in the market. That is, after developing UNIX, it was tested Santa Cruz Operations to check the working and the performance of the software. Santa Cruz was bought from a source called AT&T by Microsoft. After a full proof investigation that the software was working well will all the type of systems, the software was finally launched in the market.

IBM, in the year 1980 required a software to be incorporated with its computer systems. Microsoft played the intermediary role in this context. Microsoft merged the products sold by the company Seattle Computers and IBM. That is The software products and services were incorporated into the hardware systems of IBM. QDOS software, owned by Seattle Computers was launched in the computers of IBM. At the end, QDOS was purchased by Microsoft and was copyrighted before its final launch in the market. QDOS, after being launched my Microsoft came to be known as MS-DOS. IBM launched its in house brand computer in the year1981. In the same year Microsoft launched PC-DOS and got a commercial license to use the same along with MS-DOS and both of these were used by IBM to run its in house branded computers. Later a deal was signed by IBM and Microsoft to merge the respective hardware devices with the corresponding software. IBM computers were compatible enough and received a huge customer base as it was user friendly. However, both the companies were free to edit and alter their own systems, that is, the software and the computer system manufactured by IBM. The joint collaboration of Microsoft with IBM and its huge popularity fetched Microsoft an immediate success and a loyal customer base. The loyal customer base that Microsoft received made one of the major exporters and manufacturers of software systems for computers.

History and Growth of Microsoft Corporation

In this context, it would be apt to mention that software systems were also used in computers before Microsoft launched its services in the market. However, the computer systems were mostly used for professional purpose. Launching of the software system by Microsoft not only enhanced the working of the computers but also increased the longevity of the systems. Apart from that, the smoothness of work also increased. The systems were and user friendly with the incorporation of the software designed by Microsoft. Sing software by Microsoft were also cost effective, as compared to the previous installation of software by other brands. Another factor that triggered the dominance of Microsoft in the market was the demand of personal computers amongst customers. Computers were no longer limited to official purpose and were also owned by customers for private reasons. This change in the demand was particularly evident in the year 1980s and 1990s. The year 2009 witnessed a revolution in the world of computer and software technology when both Yahoo and Microsoft collaborated to run the operating system and yahoo search engine in computer systems. The deal was made for ten years.

Microsoft has a variety of products to offer to the market and all the products are equal in demand. However, the best selling products of Microsoft are Microsoft windows system and MS Office. Microsoft did not limit its innovation only in manufacturing and developing software, but also developed its own search engine under the name MSN search engine that was a multilingual portal. The leading competitors against Microsoft were yahoo search engine and Google search engine management.

Microsoft office was developed mostly to meet the changing demands of office personnel. MS office offered the professionals with many opportunities in the system that made their work easier like editing texts, updating program databases, program presentations, program lists and many other. Microsoft has ever kept updating its office and in the recent times, Microsoft 10 is the latest updated version of the company that is widely used and has the most demand in the market.

MSN search engine was replaced by a new version of search engine developed by Microsoft on the month of May 28, 2009 known as Bing. Bing is a search engine that performed all the tasks of MSN search engine in a smoother manner. Steve Ballmer, the chief executive at Microsoft, developed Bing. Microsoft also developed games such as ‘Fight Stimulator’ which further increased its demand amongst the youth.

Microsoft's Best-Selling Products

This particular program was incorporated within MS Office which made a revolutionary change in the entire system of storing document in the form of hard copies to soft copies. There were options of storing a document permanently in MS Word and there were option to take a print out only if necessary. However, in the initial period the system was not known as MS Word. It was launched as Multi-Tool Word in the year 1983 that was a revised of Unix and at the same time was licensed by AT & T.

According to the traditional belief, things cannot be planned that are unachievable. If such plan are made, it would lead into a gross failure. On the other hand, technology market entirely depends on the innovation and development of unexpected things and thus, the traditional belief contradicts. However, in this context it would be worth asserting that Microsoft makes a proper strategic marketing plan for a certain span of time.

Moving into deeper detail about the company Microsoft is a global brand that makes a annual turnover of $44 billion and provides a global employment of approximately 71,553 employees across 102 countries. The headquarters are situated in the busiest areas of Ridmont, Seattle, Washington, United States. Bill Gates and Paul initiated the company. The current location of the company is in Mexico management .

Microsoft apart from making gigantic turnovers and profits also keep concern about its social responsibilities. It keeps its stakeholders satisfied and happy to ensure the long-term benefit of the company. It is a two way process. The satisfaction of the stakeholders results in better investment, better production and thus, creating value products for the customers. The company assists its customers by handing them products that helps the customers to achieve their financial goals. Microsoft values its employees that serve the need of its customers. It maintains some reward and recognition strategies to recognize its employees and to keep the employees motivated. The company also maintains the social responsibilities, as it is one of the highest taxpayers of the nation.

Mission of Microsoft: To ensure a proper investment that would not only enhance the benefits of the company but also at the same time would satisfy the needs and demands of the customers. The mission is dependent o the elasticity and flexibility of the company.

• Goals of the company: the main objective is to maintain the throne in the technological market in the long term and simultaneously develop, produce, manufacture, ensure marketing practices and support a wide array of software and operating systems in not only English, but other regional languages as well. It attempts that the software are not limited to professional use but also personal usage for entertainment and gathering information. Microsoft has incorporated this software in mobile phones, camera, TV and books. Microsoft ever focuses on exploring the unexplored and creating a niche.
• The financial goal of the company is to elevate the financial performance by doubling up the profit returns each year.

Microsoft was already a master of 3D planning process which was later introduced by other companies in the country. It keeps on planning strategies and designs ti hit the target market and keep its position intact.

Microsoft's Social Responsibility

Features of the planning process:

• Creating a standard that can hardly be reached by rivals and maintaining the performance by keeping the products user friendly.
• Prior planning and assessing the investments, budgets and expected returns on the basis of market share of the company. The planning is made for three years.
• Depending on the performance of the company and the feedback of the customers, the plans are updated and altered.

The planning is monitored and updated by the senior managers (Gates and Ballmer), the sectional managers and development managers. The alteration of the marketing plan is done after an acute  scrutiny made by the concerned authorities. In order to alter the market plan, the decision of Gates and Ballmer are final. The strategies of the market plan are designed after an intensive discussion between the directors and the unit managers, thus any fault within the plan is under the responsibility of the unit managers. The plan is also used as toll control.

An extensive discussion of ideas and sharing of thoughts are made before designing the final market plan.   The process of market planning is simplifies as a process of decentralization and adaptable to flexible condition.

Official: In this process the managers are held accountable and it discusses about the future allocation of resources and investment plans.

Decentralization: The plan is developed and designed by several heads. Hierarchy is not maintained. All the opinions are considered.

Flexible: The plan can be altered by the manager according to the demand of the customers and change in market trend. The plan is designed in a way that can accept quick alterations.

The legal, political and economic considerations: Trade in International countries

Trading in the global context can be troublesome without the proper knowledge of the internal factors that rules a nation. A coherent knowledge is needed about the GDP of the country, unemployment rate, inflation, its import-export activities, industry specific information and consumer expenses. Updated track of information is imperative as these credentials are expected to constant change.

Microsoft constantly kept developing the software, specially the Windows operating system that helps the clients to auto connect it with the internet ad printer and make the work easier. Later the implementation of wireless networks also smoothened up the process. The advancement of multimedia systems made the company even more popular as computer became a source of entertainment. Music, movies, work, games, sports and everything else that a person could think of was available at the comfort of home. Simultaneously, Microsoft successfully settled the judicial procedures to incorporate all the features and alter the software in the brads that largely produces computers for private purposes management .

• Increasing profit margins
• Inflation of business
• Global fame
• Assessing rival advantage in the Changing International Environment

• Market access
• Delving in unexplored markets
• Exploring regional trade centers
• Advantages related to first producers and developers

Keeping in concern the pressure of competition, the comparative strategies were developed. The comparative theory was developed to track and understand the behavior of the MNEs. The competition not stagnant and is ever changing. The MNEs makes the exploitation of the new products in the market and creating paths for entering the market by skipping market barriers.

Japanese market does not support the excessive use of advertisement and publicity during the launch of any particular product. Thus to enter into the Japanese market publicity plans must be designed craftily by the company since the Japanese questions the trustworthiness of the demands made during advertising the products.