1) INDEX

1) INDEX.......................................................................................................................1
2) EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.......................................................................................2
3) CONTENT OF REPORT..........................................................................................3
1. Describe the company’s profile, background, nature of business, etc.......................3
Profile of company.........................................................................................................3
Background of company................................................................................................6
Nature of business..........................................................................................................9
 Productivity and Business Processes..........................................................................9
 Intelligent Cloud.......................................................................................................10
 More Personal Computing.......................................................................................10
2. Justify why the company is considered a global company......................................11
3. Identify the challenges that the company experienced in its efforts to earn its global
status and how it has overcome those hurdles..............................................................14
 The challenges..........................................................................................................14
 How Microsoft overcome the challenges.................................................................17
4. Explain the global threat that the business may face in the future...........................20
 1. Workforce’s related criticisms............................................................................20
5. Based on question no. 4, suggest ways for the company to safeguard its business. 23
4) CONCLUSION........................................................................................................25
5) APPENDIX..............................................................................................................27
6) REFRENCE.............................................................................................................28
7) GRADING RUBRIC...............................................................................................29

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2) EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The aim of this report is to examine the success, strategy and challenges that
have helped a company achieve the status of a global company. The collection of
information from internet sources has revealed the overall background and efforts to
develop the company's performance. The individuals involved have become a pillar of
hope for the company because their services enable the company to achieve the status
of a global company. Searching and gathering information from internet sources that
provide reliable websites and articles. The company's official website is used as a
reference for writing this report. Overall, this report can be produced perfectly and it
can be used as a reference note for students who need it. In fact, during the process of
producing this report, it helps students gain new knowledge about international
marketing in a company. Students do not only depend on the notes given. This report
concludes that engagement in the corporate world should be prepared to face
challenges and be smart in overcoming them. We need to have enough business
knowledge to start a business. Global companies will often face unexpected risks,
therefore companies with a global status will have staff and management who are
critical and creative in solving risks. should staff are mobile phones distracting and
should be switched off during the tutorial. This report will discuss how the success
and weaknesses of a company in the process of gaining status as a global company.

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3) CONTENT OF REPORT

1. Describe the company’s profile, background, nature of business, etc.

MICROSOFT’S INTRODUCTION

Profile of company

Microsoft Corp (Microsoft) develops, licenses, and supports software

products, services, and devices. The company offers a comprehensive range of
operating systems, cross-device productivity applications, server applications,
software development tools, business solution applications, desktop and server
management tools, video games, and training and certification services. It also
designs, manufactures and sells hardware products including PCs, tablets, gaming and
entertainment consoles, and other intelligent devices. The company provides a broad
spectrum of services including cloud-based solutions, solution support, and consulting
services. Microsoft markets, distributes, and sells offerings through original
equipment manufacturers, distributors, resellers, online marketplaces, Microsoft
stores, and other partner channels. The company has business presence across the
Americas, Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa. Microsoft is
headquartered in Redmond, Washington, the US.

Their products include operating systems for personal computers ("PCs"),

servers, phones, and other intelligent devices; server applications for distributed
computing environments; productivity applications; business solution applications;
desktop and server management tools; software development tools; video games; and
online advertising. We 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.

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 They provide consulting and product and solution support services, and we
train and certify computer system integrators and developers. We also offer cloud-
based solutions that provide customers with software, services and content over the
Internet by way of shared computing resources located in centralized data centers.
Cloud revenue is earned primarily from usage fees and advertising.

Examples of cloud-based computing services Microsoft offer include:

 Microsoft Office 365, an online suite that enables people to work from virtually
anywhere at any time with simple, familiar collaboration and communication
solutions, including Microsoft Office, Exchange, SharePoint, and Lync;
 Xbox LIVE service, which enables online gaming, social networking, and access
to a wide range of video, gaming, and entertainment content;
 Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online customer relationship management services for
sales, service, and marketing professionals provided through a familiar Microsoft
Outlook interface;
 Bing, our Internet search engine that finds and organizes the answers people need
so they can make faster, more informed decisions;
 Skype, which allows users to connect with friends, family, clients, and colleagues
through a variety of devices; and
 the Azure family of platform and database services that helps developers connect
applications and services in the cloud or on premise. These services include
Windows Azure, a scalable operating system with computing, storage, hosting,
and management capabilities, and Microsoft SQL Azure, a relational database.

They also conduct research and develop advanced technologies for future
software and hardware products and services. We believe that we will continue to
grow and meet our customers' needs by delivering compelling, new, high-value
solutions through our integrated software, hardware, and services platforms, creating
new opportunities for partners, improving customer satisfaction, and improving our
service excellence, business efficacy, and internal processes.

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 Microsoft’s products include operating systems, cross-device productivity and
collaboration applications, server applications, business solution applications, desktop
and server management tools, software development tools, and video games.
Microsoft also designs and sells devices, including PCs, tablets, gaming and
entertainment consoles, other intelligent devices, and related accessories.

Microsoft is innovating and expanding its entire portfolio to help people and
organizations overcome today’s challenges and emerge stronger. Microsoft combines
technology and products into experiences and solutions that unlock value for its
customers.
In a dynamic environment, digital technology is the key input that powers the
world’s economic output. Organizations of all sizes have digitized business-critical
functions, redefining what they can expect from their business applications.
Customers are looking to unlock value while simplifying security and management.

Microsoft is building a distributed computing fabric – across the cloud and the
edge – to help every organization build, run, and manage mission-critical workloads
anywhere. Artificial intelligence (“AI”) capabilities are rapidly advancing in the next
phase of innovation, fueled by data and knowledge of the world.

Microsoft is enabling metaverse experiences at all layers of Microsoft’s stack,

so customers can more effectively model, automate, simulate, and predict changes
within their industrial environments, feel a greater sense of presence in the new world
of hybrid work, and create custom immersive worlds to enable new opportunities for
connection and experimentation.

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Background of company

Microsoft is a well known company. It was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates.

The company came into being following combined ideas from Bill Gates and Paul
Allen, individuals who had interest in computers and programming in particular. The
company started as a small organization whose operations were only local. It was later
that Bill Gates developed the idea of programming languages and tried some
applications that became successful although initially faced with some challenges
(Kumar, 2010).
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation
headquartered in Redmond, Washington, that develops, manufactures, licenses,
supports and sells computer software, consumer electronics and personal computers
and services. Its best known software products are the Microsoft Windows line of
operating systems, Microsoft Office office suite and Internet Explorer web browser. It
is also one of the world's most valuable companies. Microsoft dominated the personal
computer operating system market, until the early 2000 when Apple, Google, and
Facebook came about. (Microsoft) This is when the company started to lose its
credibility.

It was in 1976 that the Microsoft Company was registered in Mexico City. The
company picked so well and this enhanced its growth and development. It was not
after long that the company was in a position to extend its operations, selling its
products locally as well as internationally. The company grew day by day and
developed more advanced and desirable programming languages such as FORTRAIN
and COBOL (Kumar, 2010).

The growth of the company was accelerated by an increase of Personal

Computers’ manufacturers in the market. This increased the demand for Microsoft
products and hence the need for Microsoft Company to enhance its production
strategies to meet the demand. It for instance started an office in Japan in 1978.

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 From this time there was emergence of new developments that put the
company at a better position in the market. A major development was that of MS
DOS, which paved way to other advanced programs like the windows. It was in the
year 1982 that Microsoft Corporation changed its name to Microsoft Inc (Kumar,
2010).

Microsoft operates in the software industry. It provides a lot of products and

services that are aimed at satisfying the needs of customers in the software industry.
In addition to this, the company has diversified its operations in other fields in an
effort to enhance its competitive advantage.

This includes Microsoft games which have gained considerable application

among people. The industry in which Microsoft operates is highly competitive mainly
because of the effects of technological developments making it a necessity to be
extremely alert to capture and implement everything new in order to satisfy the ever
changing demand of the market. The industry is also characterized by new entries as
people and groups wish to be as successful as Microsoft Company (Kumar, 2010).

To deal with the competition, Microsoft has engaged in production of products

that are of high quality. The company also engages in strategies that are geared
towards improving the quality of its products every now and then to satisfy the
changing demands of the market. This has been made possible through research and
development programs. This is an effort that has bore positive fruits for example
attraction of a lot of customers and maintaining their loyalty.

Microsoft generate revenue by developing, licensing, and supporting a

wide range of software products and services, by designing and selling hardware, and
by delivering relevant online advertising to a global customer audience. In addition to
selling individual products and services, they offer suites of products and services.

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 Microsoft corporation is one of the most renowned software company located
in Redmond at Washington. Their flagship product known as the Windows Operating
System is the only operating system that is so popular for the utilization of home
desktops. They have other desktop products like Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer
and also the Windows Media Player; these desktop products are either sold
together with Windows already installed in the software on new systems of computer
or are bundles directly with the respective Windows Operating system. In addition to
all these, the company also is known to sell and manufacture computer hardware like
mouse, keyboards; they have possession of interest in owning a number of content-
distribution channels like that of MSN Internet portal or MSNBC and also the well -
known Microsoft Encarta electronic Encyclopedia.

As per their history, the Microsoft Windows operating system initiated their
business as the optional addition to the operating system of MS- DOS. After this the
idea of GUI or Graphic User Interface became interesting enough to be established by
Apple II by Apple Computers and also Macintosh. However, it must be noted that due
to their prior work with International Business Machines or IBM that they were able
to successfully able to convince them so that they would ship Microsoft Windows to
be preinstalled in the personal computers of IBM. This is the strategy that helped
Microsoft to gain the worldwide fame that they have now and they still hold the
position of the most recognized software in the history.

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Nature of business

Microsoft Corporation is a technology company. The Company develops and

supports software, services, devices and solutions. It operates through three segments.
The Productivity and Business Processes segment consists of products and services in
its portfolio of productivity, communication, and information services, spanning a
variety of devices and platforms. This segment includes Office Commercial
comprising Office (including Office 365 subscriptions), Exchange, SharePoint,
Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Security and Compliance, and Microsoft Viva; Office
Consumer, LinkedIn, and Dynamics business solutions. Intelligent Cloud segment
consists of the Company’s public, private, and hybrid server products and cloud
services, including Azure and other cloud services; SQL Server, Windows Server,
Visual Studio, System Center, and related Client Access Licenses, and Nuance and
GitHub. More Personal Computing segment primarily comprises Windows, Devices,
Gaming, and search and news advertising.

Microsoft Corporation’s success as a global company is founded on the

fulfillment of its corporate mission and vision statements. The corporate mission
statement presents the business purpose and a general idea of the technology
business’s strategic approach to satisfying the corporate vision statement. In this
sense, Microsoft’s corporate mission specifies what the business aims to do to
increase customers’ success. On the other hand, the vision statement directs the
development of the computer technology business toward a desired future condition.
Currently, Microsoft’s corporate vision includes what the business can do for
individual and organizational customers. Also, the corporate mission is strongly
aligned with the corporate vision statement. This alignment is essential to optimizing
strategic decisions, especially in addressing the competitive force from multinational
firms like Apple, Google, Amazon, and IBM. As the Porter’s Five Forces analysis of
Microsoft Corporation indicates the strong force of competitive rivalry involving
these firms, the company implements its corporate mission and vision statements to
strengthen its competitive advantages.

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 Microsoft’s corporate mission is “to empower every person and every
organization on the planet to achieve more.” This mission statement shows that the
business focuses on the empowerment of people and organizations, through the
company’s information technology goods and services. The following components are
significant in Microsoft’s corporate mission statement:

 Value proposition: Empowerment to achieve more

 Target market: All persons and organizations in the global market

Microsoft’s corporate vision is “to help people and businesses throughout the
world realize their full potential.” This vision statement shows that the company
presents its computing products as tools that people and business organizations can
use for their personal or organizational development. Microsoft’s corporate vision
statement has the following components:

 Value proposition: To help realize their full potential

 Target market: People and businesses throughout the world

The business model of Microsoft operates in three segments: Productivity and

Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing. The segments
enable the alignment of strategies and objectives across the development, sales,
marketing, and services organizations. They provide a framework for the timely and
rational allocation of resources within businesses.

 Productivity and Business Processes

Microsoft’s Productivity and Business Processes segment consists of products
and services in Microsoft’s portfolio of productivity, communication, and information
services, spanning a variety of devices and platforms.
Office Commercial (Office 365 subscriptions, the Office 365 portion of
Microsoft 365 Commercial subscriptions, and Office licensed on-premises),
comprising Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, Office 365 Security and
Compliance, and Microsoft Viva. Office Commercial revenue is mainly affected by a
combination of continued installed base growth and average revenue per user

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expansion, as well as the continued shift from Office licensed on-premises to Office
365.

Office Consumer, including Microsoft 365 Consumer subscriptions, Office

licensed on-premises and other Office services. Office Consumer Services revenue is
mainly affected by the demand for communication and storage through Skype,
Outlook.com, and OneDrive, largely driven by subscriptions, advertising, and the sale
of minutes.

LinkedIn, including Talent Solutions, Marketing Solutions, Premium

Subscriptions, and Sales Solutions. LinkedIn revenue is mainly affected by demand
from enterprises and professional organizations for subscriptions to Talent Solutions,
Sales Solutions, and Premium Subscriptions offerings, as well as member engagement
and the quality of the sponsored content delivered to those members to drive
Marketing Solutions.

Dynamics business solutions, including Dynamics 365, comprising a set of

intelligent, cloud-based applications across ERP, CRM, Customer Insights, Power
Apps, and Power Automate; and on-premises ERP and CRM applications. Dynamics
revenue is driven by the number of users licensed and applications consumed,
expansion of average revenue per user, and the continued shift to Dynamics 365, a
unified set of cloud-based intelligent business applications, including Power Apps and
Power Automate.

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 Intelligent Cloud
Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud segment consists of Microsoft’s public, private,
and hybrid server products and cloud services that can power modern businesses and
developers. Intelligent cloud contributed $75.2 billion to Microsoft’s revenue in 2021.
This segment primarily comprises. Enterprise Services, including Enterprise Support
Services, Microsoft Consulting Services, and Nuance professional services.
 More Personal Computing
Microsoft’s More Personal Computing segment comprises products and
services that put customers at the center of the experience with Microsoft’s
technology. More Personal Computing contributed $59.7 billion to Microsoft’s
revenue in 2021. This segment primarily comprises:
Windows, including Windows OEM licensing (“Windows OEM”) and other
non-volume licensing of the Windows operating system; Windows Commercial,
comprising volume licensing of the Windows operating system, Windows cloud
services, and other Windows commercial offerings; patent licensing; and Windows
Internet of Things. Windows Commercial revenue, which includes volume licensing
of the Windows operating system and Windows cloud services such as Microsoft
Defender for Endpoint, is affected mainly by the demand from commercial customers
for volume licensing and Software Assurance (“SA”) as advanced security offerings.
Devices, including Surface and PC accessories likes gaming, including Xbox
hardware and Xbox content and services, comprises first- and third-party content
(including games and in-game content), Xbox Game Pass and other subscriptions,
Xbox Cloud Gaming, third-party disc royalties, advertising, and other cloud services.
Xbox revenue is mainly affected by subscriptions and first- and third-party content
and advertising sales. Search and news advertising that delivers relevant search,
native, and display advertising to a global audience.

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 2. Justify why the company is considered a global company

Microsoft is a company that does business worldwide and has offices in over
100 countries. They generate revenue by developing, licensing and supporting various
software products and services, by designing and selling hardware, and by delivering
relevant online advertising to a global customer audience. Microsoft maintains its top
position in both the business and personal computer markets. Microsoft's main
strength and most of its profits come from the business side. Although the company
realizes that they have a major presence in the consumer market as technology
advances. Microsoft's big breakthrough came in the 1980s when a partnership was
formed with IBM that resulted in Microsoft providing an important operating system,
DOS, for the IBM PC. This means that for every IBM Computer sold a royalty is paid
to Microsoft. Microsoft was considered an innovative company. Its founders and their
unorthodox culture flew in the face of a formal, understated business world that had
limited use for (or knowledge of) computers.

The introduction of this Microsoft product is a good phenomenon for the

world. One of the biggest advantages of Microsoft Office is its wide range of features
and functions. It offers a comprehensive set of tools that can help users work more
efficiently and effectively, whether they are students, professionals or individuals who
want to improve their productivity. This makes Microsoft products loved by users and
target users have reached all over the world from various ages.

The successful Altair deal back in January 1975 inspired Bill Gates and Paul
Allen to form Microsoft. Their revenues for 1975 totalled $16,000. Microsoft's big
break was in 1980 when a partnership was formed with IBM which resulted in
Microsoft providing a crucial operating system, DOS, for IBM PCs. This meant that
for every IBM Computer sold a royalty was paid to Microsoft. In 1990, Gates showed
the future plan for Microsoft with the introduction of Windows 3.0. 60 million copies
of Windows had been sold now which effectively made Microsoft the sole keeper of
the PC software standard.

Microsoft before 1990 was predominantly a supplier to the hardware

manufacturers. That was their target market. As technology advanced and personal

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computers become so popular, the bulk of Microsoft’s revenue was generated from
sales to consumers. It was the first software company to reach $1 Billion in revenues.
As more and more versions of Microsoft Windows were launched, Microsoft captured
a higher market share of the world’s PC (around 90%).

Project Longhorn in 2001, saw many of Microsoft’s previous operating

systems being replaced starting with Vista. Vista was released to the general public in
2007 and it was the new operating system. There were many Vista options available
catering for different consumers; Home (Basic or Premium), Ultimate, Business and
many more. Microsoft’s core customers, the corporate market preferred Windows XP
as the operating system was fast, stable and secure.

The company is a pillar of the Dow Jones Industrial Average even today. The
alternative would have been for the brash software upstart to be of no consequence
today. Microsoft is so ubiquitous a constant reminder in the daily lives of those who
use its products. Every time you turn your computer on, Microsoft’s logo is staring at
you, even if you’re a Mac or Linux user who uses the company's Office suite. The
company with a wide and deep a footprint make itself into a business that endlessly
delights and prioritizing customer satisfaction. They inclined for self-promotion and
thats how they can make to be a global company. The fact is, more than four decades
after its incorporation, Microsoft is as staid and disciplined as IBM (IBM), ITT (ITT),
and the other companies that rounded out the upper reaches of the Fortune 500 back
in 1975.

Microsoft is no longer in the raw experimentation stage common to young and

growing companies. Rather, its modus operandi is to create profitability streams, then
maintain and expand them. The suite started as an adjunct, a method for showcasing
Microsoft’s revolutionary operating system. But since Office’s 1990 debut, the
applications that comprise it have become just about mandatory for anyone wanting to
conduct business. Over a billion people now use Office to the point where Word and
Excel are practically synonymous with word processing and spreadsheets,
respectively.

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 Microsoft also entered the gaming and mobile phone market and was
successful in capturing a large market share. The Windows Mobile OS is used by
numerous sellers including HTC, LG, Samsung and LG. In 2001 Microsoft released
the Xbox followed by Xbox Live in 2002. Both releases were very successful which
placed Microsoft second in the video gaming market. The Xbox 360, released in 2005
was a very powerful gaming console while facing strong competition. Microsoft had
to cut the prices of their gaming consoles to gain a higher market share due to
competition. This was a successful move; the Xbox 360 was the most used game
console in American homes.

Microsoft acquired Skype in 2011 for $8.5 Billion; this was the largest
acquisition in Microsoft’s history. Microsoft acquired Skype to compete with Apple’s
Facetime and Google’s Voice. Microsoft planned to add Skype to its products such as
Outlook, Xbox and Windows smartphones.

Microsoft has also recently moved into cloud computing with the Windows
Azure platform which was announced in 2008. The Windows Azure platform lets
consumers build computing infrastructure in the “cloud” and offer it to its users. In
2011, Office 365, a cloud version of Office business software suite was released
which included applications such as Word and Excel.

Another popular product, Microsoft's SQL Server 2012, featured many

enhancements to previous versions. This included Always On which provided options
to improve the database availability and easy cloud set-up and compatibility. Features
also included performance and programmability enhancements. DSP-Explorer
provides support for all versions and features of Microsoft SQL Servers, across a wide
variety of windows platforms.

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 3. Identify the challenges that the company experienced in its efforts to earn
its global status and how it has overcome those hurdles.

 The challenges

After research from internet sources is done. There are several challenges
faced by Microsoft in its quest to gain status as a global company. From the first
internet source written by Eric Vanderburg in the Microsoft website states that there
are some challenges stated by the author in Micorsoft's official website. The challenge
stated by Eric Vanderburg is about the Covid-19 pandemic.

From a business perspective, it's all choppy and uncertain—but from a

researcher's perspective, it creates a huge opportunity. If social scientists want to
engineer a massive study of the effects of an all-digital workforce, this is their chance.
It's from Eric Vanderburg's writing but what needs to be discussed is the challenges
facing Microsoft. The first challenge faced by Microsoft was the Covid-19 pandemic
that hit the world.

The Covid-19 pandemic is a bad history that has happened and is a nightmare
for every individual who experiences it, and also for Microsoft. Microsoft research
found that nearly 60 percent of workers reported feeling less connected than before
COVID-19 hit (up to 70 percent in China); 32 percent felt they had fewer
opportunities to collaborate. Managers worry that missing casual meetings will affect
how employees move up the company ladder, or not. Weak ties are most famous for
job opportunities. Functionally, in the office, you can meet someone in your hallway
who could be your future boss.” Research shows a lack of weak connections is also
particularly dangerous for new hires. For new hires to be successful, managers and
coworkers must take great care in checking them in and making them part of the
culture.

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 Another challenge written from another website. There are several challenges
mentioned in this website. The challenge that Microsoft faces in the current market
share is being compromised because they are the largest producer of PCs and
operating systems and office programs. Changing customer patterns have caused
Microsoft to change its strategy in order for the organization to remain relevant in the
industry. The author analyzes the challenges faced by Microsoft on how to deal with
them and why they made changes that will ultimately determine the fate of the
organization.

The main challenge One of the main challenges facing Microsoft is the lack of
development. Although the organization is a leader in technology products, Microsoft
has not been able to launch efficient new products in the mobile market. With the
increasing use of the internet and online computing, it has become difficult for
companies to maintain their market share. Another challenge that threatens Microsoft
is the lack of competitive applications in its ecosystem. The company has been
lagging behind with most of its apps such as internet explorer and Bing.

Other applications from Apple and Google performed better thus putting
Microsoft under fierce competition (Chao & Kavadias, 2011). The importance of
addressing the challenges and Initiatives recommended the emergence of mobile
devices has increased the use of the internet thus allowing users to calculate without
involving Microsoft products.

There was another observation made which showed that Microsoft faces a lot
of challenge in terms of innovation; the observation showed that Microsoft had the
inability to partner for great technology; Microsoft had created another mentality and
stereotype that all of the technologies would have to be built by them in order to
partner. This obviously, did not serve well for them. There was no need for creating
their own hypervisor and they would have just bought VMware as they had that
opportunity. Instead they spend approximately $1 billion for creating their own
version, they built also built their own Xbox which was also not necessary at all. They
would have sold adequate number if high- profit games different platforms of popular
hardware.

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 The main issue or challenge that Microsoft faces is that they run counter to
where their competitors are going which might be a good thing to keep their
competitors in check or have themselves updated about the market, but it does not
mean that Microsoft would not even think about innovation and creatively come up
with something of their own. It is not that Microsoft do not generate creative ideas;
history showed that they have generated great ideas and created products that were a
success, but sometimes their ideas are not able to take off- since the vision of
Microsoft is out- of -sync with the rest of their technology and the direction in which
the world is heading towards; it is very significant that every company is updated
towards the direction of world if they desire to stand straight in the market position of
the industry that they are in, or else there is a high possibility that they would be
unaware of the needs of the customers tat changes with the direction in which the
world moves and the organization faces the risk of shutting down.

Microsoft has had its share of their own innovative work in the arenas of
identity management and the cloud operating systems. However, the company is
known to attach itself into typically such innovations that are “Microsoft- centric”. If
any one of the innovative strategies of Microsoft has to be used by any customer, they
have to use their technology like Windows or Net and more. Historical evidences
have shown that they rely on the third- parties to sell their services or products and it
might work well for Microsoft shop, but this creates a sense of self- fulfilling
prophecy in them and it leads to the fact again that the customers are left to be
unsatisfied with the change. What the company did was that they provided too many
versions of a similar product and instead of making money the company zapped their
resources completely dry. Each one of the features might have brought more than the
previous one which, technically should lead to an innovation, but the reality is that
one product team was made to be busy with multiple releases and that did not work
well with the company.

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 How Microsoft overcome the challenges

Where there is a challenge, there must be a way to overcome it. That's what
Microsoft did to deal with the challenges faced when gaining status as a global
company. One of them stated by Eric Venderburg in the Microsoft website.

Microsoft uses an innovative way to deal with this problem. They use a less
technical approach. Eric Vanderburg states in his post in official web Microsoft “We
often have online meetings via Video Conference with Microsoft Teams during
working hours for 15 to 20 minutes. With this, it does not affect the relationship
between employees and superiors, in fact new employees can also adapt to work with
the Microsoft team. From another session it also allows the workers to see each
other's children, home. It's very good. It also gives people more freedom to build their
lives the way they want.”

The solution done by Microsoft for the second challenge is that microsoft
solves this challenge which allows the company to retain its customers by providing
products that are up-to-date with current trends. As a result, the future of
Microsoft_x0092_ will be secured, as the company will have a large market share and
thus the ability to compete with other technology companies such as Google, Apple,
and Yahoo.

There are several initiatives that can be used to help in solving this challenge.
Among the most effective is differentiation, where Microsoft can focus on producing
unique products that add value to consumers (Chao & Kavadias, 2011). For example,
a company can introduce online use of superior products thereby gaining profits and
reducing competition. The company should also improve their mobile devices to
reduce over-reliance on one product line.

19
 As such, their customers would be able to access different devices from the
same company. In addition, Microsoft should reduce prices especially on new
products such as mobile phones and tablets. Reason for Selected Initiatives and Best
Style of Leadership The reason for selecting these initiatives over others is because,
Microsoft needs to be more innovative and at the same time retain its customers. As
such, through such initiatives, it would be easy to enhance customer loyalty since the
customers would get their preferred devices from a company they are familiar with at
affordable prices. Therefore, the company will become more competitive thus
securing a large market share in the future. A large corporation like Microsoft would
not benefit from a single style of leadership.

As such, the best way to implement these strategies is by combining styles

including democratic and charismatic leadership. Consequently, senior and junior
employees would be in a position to come up with different ideas on how to solve the
challenges at hand. Both democratic and charismatic styles enhance discussions thus
enabling everybody to participate.

Consequently, only the best ideas would be implemented. The best way to
implement the initiatives is though phases rather than initiating them at once. For
instance, Microsoft can start by slashing the prices of already existing mobile devices
and applications. As such, they would be able to reach much more customers hence
get a variety of feedback. Consequently, the company would know what their
customers want hence have a basis for innovation Strategy at Microsoft: Clouds on
the Horizon. Harvard Business Publishing.

The company would have more than just the benefit of overcoming their issue
of innovation if they adopt the end- user device strategy. The customers would be free
of their sheer weight of desktops in the enterprise environment. There would be new
applications at their fingertip and even better than what their competitors provided. It
would strengthen the loyalty of their customers and also make the competitors
customers switch their brand loyalty.

20
 There are chances that the company can come up with much secured
environment for end- user devices that is currently a vulnerability for the devices. The
devices are prone to be hacked easily and piracy breach can occur at any time;
Microsoft has a strong knowledge about cloud computing and operating systems
which indicates that the company would be able to come up with extensive security
measures and thus, customers would be more comfortable to opt for end user devices
by Microsoft rather than anyone else’s.

At the present time, it has been implied that end- user devices have
unpredictable availability and security is a huge issue. This poses both as a challenge
and as an opportunity for the company. The organizations which are already utilizing
the strategy of end- user devices are increasingly exposed to security threats and
malware. Microsoft can easily create a multi- cloud support for their devices and that
would reduce its exposure to security threats.

Also, it must be noted by the company that consumer buying decisions are
dynamic in nature and they will always remain dynamic. Introducing a particular end-
user device would not stop at increased loyalty and sales.

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 4. Explain the global threat that the business may face in the future.

Based on the information search sources that have been obtained. Global
threats that will be faced by Microsoft in the future, it can be said that only 80% are
capable of threatening Microsoft's position as a global company. There are some
threats from reading information on the internet which is from an article written by
Brianna Parker entitled Microsoft SWOT Analysis 2023 SWOT Analysis of
Microsoft. He analyzed the threat for Microsoft in the SWOT method and showed that
there are 8 of threat for Microsoft.

 1. Workforce’s related criticisms

Microsoft's 2022 workforce diversity statistics to date show an imbalance in
the workforce it hires. The number of women and minorities employed is relatively
low, sparking intense criticism and arguments against the company's HR policies. If
Microsoft still does not focus on this, it will be a threat to the company in the future.

 2. Gay reference controversy

Microsoft has faced a lot of criticism for its Xbox Live gaming service.
References to homosexuality and gays cannot be used in Gamertags and user profiles,
as the company considers this to be 'inappropriate' and 'offensive' to other users. The
LGBT community is very unhappy with Microsoft's unfair use of gays or
homosexuals in their profiles in Xbox games. This will harm Microsoft's position if
this community acts to protest or en masse against the use of Microsoft in the future.

 3. Aggressive competition
Microsoft has fierce competition with Google and Apple. This company's
strong position could be a threat to Microsoft's market position. In June 2020, Google
stepped up its competition for remote work by adding video calling features, editing
tools and other remote work tools in Gmail to lure customers away from Microsoft.

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 4. Changing preferences of consumers
People are very interested in the smartphone, notepad and laptop market.
Microsoft has a modest share of this market. Google and Apple products reach a
larger market than Microsoft. In the future, it will be difficult for Microsoft to
compete with them if Microsoft does not improve its weaknesses in terms of the
production of smart devices.

 5. Open-source projects
Like Linux OS and Open-Source Office, many new open-source projects have
successfully entered the market, offering similar services for free. It can threaten
Microsoft, which offers these products at an expensive rate.

 6. Cybercrime and piracy

The rise of cybercrime theft and software piracy issues have dramatically
affected Microsoft's security network systems. This will make users feel hesitant to
continue or use Microsoft software. It will encourage users to switch to products from
Microsoft's competitors, namely Google and Apple.

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 7. Politicized contracts
Favoritism by the government undermines confidence. During the Trump
administration, Microsoft was awarded a $10 billion Pentagon contract over Amazon.
Critics and some officials claimed that Amazon was more deserving, but the Trump
administration influenced the decision to award Microsoft because of the president's
feud with Amazon owner Jeff Bezos. This will rob the community of trust because of
the injustice occurring in the awards where the awards should be a rating scale for the
community to evaluate a good company to support. The image of the Microsoft
company was scratched and looked askance by the public due to the favoritism by
Trump at that time and the public still questions Microsoft's eligibility to receive the
award.

 8. Anti-encryption drive
Governments and child welfare groups have been pressuring Microsoft and
other tech companies to abolish customer encryption technologies that allow child
exploiters to operate online with impunity. Microsoft and other giants pledged to
standardize disclosure of the culprits, but several governments and child welfare
groups want more.

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 5. Based on question no. 4, suggest ways for the company to safeguard its
business.

The suggestion I can give to Microsoft for them to protect the company from
threats that Microsoft will face in the future is that, first, Microsoft needs to be more
sensitive to the current reforms. Where Microsoft's competitors Google and Apple
have launched the production of smart devices for their users. Therefore, Microsoft
should develop a smart idea to create a smart device, especially the Microsoft brand.
As we already know that Microsoft already has a Microsoft brand Laptop, then the
proposal for Microsost is to release a smartphone to attract the attention of users.

Apart from that, Microsoft's threats are Microsoft's lack of security system
features and the theft of user privacy data. This issue has been noticed by many users
and it has become a threat to Microsoft if the issue is not fixed. Microsoft should
prioritize such issues and take action to fix them. Microsoft can hire qualified
professionals or encourage IT and engineering teams to work on changing and solving
weak security system problems. It may cost quite a bit to repair the security system
but it can have a good impact in the long run.

Microsoft is a large global company which of course their company is exposed

to advanced technology and thinking towards creative and critical. Therefore, issues
about LGBT people and feminists should not be a threat to big companies like them
unless they themselves raise issues with those groups. The threat mentioned in
question no 5. is that Microsoft does not care about the rights of those groups.

Therefore, my proposal to Microsoft is to solve the problem of imbalance in

the workforce where the number of women and minorities employed is relatively low,
triggering intense criticism and arguments against the company's HR policies.
Microsift can solve this problem by researching the HR department involved in
employee selection.

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 Additionally, Microsoft can suggest HR to advertise recruitment specifically
for women. The next threat is that homosexuals and gays cannot be used in
Gamertags and user profiles, as the company considers this to be 'inappropriate' and
'offensive' to other users. Microsoft needs to be open-minded if it wants to be a global
company because the users consist of a variety of personalities, so Microsoft can
change the Gamertags program to allow gays and homosexuals on their profiles.

Politicized contracts, favoritism by the government undermines confidence. Is

one of the threats for global companies like Microsoft. From this point of view, we
can get the impression that this threat will make people feel hesitant to use products or
services from Microsoft. This will rob the community of trust because of the injustice
that occurs in the award where the award should be a rating scale for the community
to judge which companies are good to support.

The image of the Microsoft company was tarnished and looked askance by the
public due to Trump's favoritism at the time and people still question Microsoft's
eligibility to receive the award. The ability and level of Microsoft will be questioned
by users because the award given is based on the injustice of a party and also involves
politics. Therefore, Microsoft should avoid issues or business dealings related to
politics. Furthermore, Microsoft should also provide an explanation about the award
which has made the public misperceive Microsoft. The next suggestion is that
Microsoft should strive and compete well to prove in the eyes of the world and
society the capabilities and quality of the products they produce and prove that
Microsoft deserves to receive the award comparable to Microsoft's efforts and
achievements.

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4) CONCLUSION

The conclusion from the report produced, Microsoft has special characteristics
that have made Microsoft one of the global companies in the corporate world. Bill
Gates is the founder of Microsoft who played a major role in developing and
expanding the Microsoft market. Microsoft is working on a multi-domestic
international approach, which aims to meet the specific demands of regional markets.
Microsoft's presence in several countries and regions and the adaptation of its goods
and services to meet local market demands are proof of this. The custom in venturing
into the corporate world must go up and down for a company, that's what happened to
Microsoft in 2000 to 2014. At that time Microsoft was under Steve Ballmer's Reign
company. During this period, Microsoft Bing lost to Google search. Amazon leads
cloud computing with AWS leaving Microsoft OneDrive far behind. Windows phones
have never amounted to anything compared to iPhones. The Nokia acquisition has
been a complete failure. Microsoft FaceSwap lost to Facebook & Snap. And many
more wasted opportunities like Bing Translator vs. Google Translate, and Microsoft
Dynamics Vs. Salesforce. Then thanks to Bill Gates and Satya Nadella, Microsoft
today is one of the largest companies in the world. Microsoft has had 225
acquisitions. Microsoft is now more like IBM than Apple. Microsoft has proven that
the Microsoft Company is able and able to show good performance in the past and has
managed to gain a competitive market position. Its success is due to various factors
such as a strong management body, a strong brand name, a strong and experienced
workforce and the use of information technology among others. Although it has some
weaknesses and it faces some threats, it has been able to overcome them and its
financial performance has been excellent since then. Microsoft is still able to stand
firm even in this era of advanced transformation and compete with other giant global
companies. Their strength lies in their strategy and the way they overcome challenges
so as not to cause problems for their company.

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5) APPENDIX

Founder of Microsoft

Trademark and Brand Product of Microsoft

Software of Microsoft

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6) REFRENCE

1. Mark Hall and Gregg Pascal Zachary (Jun 12, 2023) Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Microsoft-Corporation

2. GREG MCFARLANE (January 09, 2023) Retrieved from

https://www.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/032014/real-secret-microsofts-success-
msft-aapl-goog-ibm.aspx

3. Eric Vanderburg. (April 2, 2009). Retrieved from

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business-insights-ideas/resources/5-
threat-management-challenges-and-opportunities

4. Brianna Parker (May 5, 2023) Retrieved from

https://bstrategyhub.com/swot-analysis-of-microsoft/

5. Jon Cowling (Feb 8, 2016) Retrieved from

https://content.dsp.co.uk/a-brief-history-of-microsoft-the-worlds-biggest-software-
company#:~:text=Microsoft's%20big%20break%20was%20in,royalty%20was
%20paid%20to%20Microsoft.

6. Barry Ritholtz (September 6, 2013) Retrieved from

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/whats-behind-microsofts-fall-from-
dominance/2013/09/05/b0e5e91e-157b-11e3-804b-d3a1a3a18f2c_story.html?
hl=en_US
7. Greg Mcfarlane (January 09, 2023) Retrieved from
https://www.investopedia.com/stock-analysis/032014/real-secret-microsofts-success-
msft-aapl-goog-ibm.aspx
8. Jessica Lombardo (May 24, 2023) Retrieved from
https://panmore.com/microsoft-corporation-organizational-culture-characteristics-
analysis?hl=en_US
9. UKEssays. (November 2018). Key Challenges Which Microsoft Is Facing
Marketing Essay. Retrieved from
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/marketing/key-challenges-which-microsoft-is-
facing-marketing-essay.php?vref=1
10. Brooke Lynn Weenig (February 28, 2023) Retrieved from
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog/2023/02/28/microsoft-security-
experts-discuss-evolving-threats-in-roundtable-chat/

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7) GRADING RUBRIC

Description Total marks Total marks allocated

Introduction:
Groups will be assessed based
on their ability to search for
20
information, combine it and
elaborate in their own
creativity.
Main content:
1. Groups will be assessed
based on their knowledge and
understanding in
international marketing such
as:
 The scope and
challenge of
international
marketing
 The dynamic
60
environment of
international trade
2. Groups will be assessed
based on their knowledge and
understanding in marketing
culture by looking at
microenvironment or
macroenvironment that will
affect the ability of the
business to serve their
customer.
Conclusion:
Groups will be assessed based
on their ability to conclude
and use of their critical 10
thinking by giving their own
opinion on topics discussed in
the assignment.
Report presentation:
1. The report follows the
format required.
2. The report follows the
arrangement required. 10
3. The report has done its
grammar and spelling check.
4. Overall presentation of the report
- creativity

30
TOTAL MARKS 100

31