Bus 590 - Business Strategy

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Stephen Elop was hired in the development of Microsoft’s new products. The Microsoft 2000 version marks a big difference from its previous products. The new product has two versions. The first version is a free to use but limited functioned version. Customers can download the product and use it for free. The second version is a full and advanced functioned paid version. The new product allows customers to collaborate with people from different locations. The new product is a huge success and Stephen Elop showed great leadership in the development of new product. As Pearce argued, leadership means leaders need to galvanize commitment among people in the company and also stakeholders outside out a company to “embrace change and implement strategies indented to position the organization to succeed in a vastly different future” (Pearce, 2014, p. 370). Microsoft succeeds because of its ability to embrace changes. The CEO of Microsoft Steve Ballmer also demonstrated great leadership by recruiting and developing the position of product development.

Conclusion

Knowing the external competitive environment and following the right leadership helped Microsoft succeed. The new subscription model and connectivity have attracted many new customers for Microsoft. The new product with two different versions also gives customers more choices in product selection. Microsoft has successfully used the Internet to maintain its competitiveness in the highly competitive environment. In the future, Microsoft will face many new challenges, but the company will always succeed if they can leverage the knowledge of the competitive environment and set great leadership for the company.

Reference

Pearce II, J.A., & Robinson, R.B., 14th (2014), 978-0-07-786251-0. Strategic Management: Planning for Domestic and Global Competition. McGraw-Hill Irwin

Boppel, Michael, et al. "Driving change through corporate programs." MIT Sloan Management Review 55.1 (2013): 20.