Answer Questions. Microsoft Inc. Business & Marketing Essay

Microsoft
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Microsoft
Microsoft Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1984 by both Bill Gates and Paul Allen, the company rose to become a leading developer of software products and personal computers. In those days, the idea of having a computer on every desk was science fiction. The co-founders had the vision to achieve what seemed like an impossibility. Eventually, Microsoft went public on March 13, 1986. One of the popular software products from the company is Microsoft Windows. Currently, Satya Nadella is the Chief Executive Officer of the company. Worldwide, Microsoft employs has 151,163 people with 89,417 of them in the U.S. alone (Microsoft Inc., 2020).
Microsoft qualifies to be a global company due to its presence in different parts of the world. On becoming a publicly-traded company in 1986, Microsoft went to become one of the most powerful and profitable companies in American history. During that time, the company earned a profit of 25 cents on every sales dollar. In 1996, Microsoft exceeded $2 billion net income for the first time. Despite the Great Recession of 2007-2009, its net income had increased to more than $14 billion in 2009. Additionally, Microsoft has employed people from different countries. Of the 151,163 individuals currently working in the company, only 89,417 of them work in America. The remaining 61,746 work outside the U.S. in the various subsidiaries of the company (Microsoft Inc., 2020). The core operations of Microsoft are distributed in different companies. Licensing, manufacturing, operations, and logistics are located in Dublin, Ireland. Manufacturing is done in Humacao, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. The licensing and operations are carried out in Reno, Nevada, and the U.S. lastly, operations and logistics are done from Singapore. As of June 30th, 2019, Microsoft had subsidiaries in 120 countries. Furthermore, Microsoft’s products are consumed worldwide. The most popular ones include the Windows operating system and the software for document family Microsoft Office. The company also offers complex server solutions, console XBOX, and tools for the Internet among other products. The company keeps on expanding its product portfolio to meet the ever-growing needs in the worldwide market. The Microsoft partner is represented by more than 7500 authorized partner companies located in different parts of the world. The presence of partners has been critical in ensuring that Microsoft products and services are consumed all over the world.
Microsoft is a publicly-traded company. According to CNN Business (2020), institutional investors hold a majority of the ownership in the company. They have 74.74% of the outstanding thoughts that they control (NASDAG, 2020). Individual stakeholders, mutual fund holders, and other institutions own 6.20%, 42.29% and 31.80% of the company respectively. The total outstanding shares in millions are 7,606. The total value of holdings in millions is $906,170. The top five owners of Microsoft and their stake are The Vanguard Group Inc. (8.03%), BlackRock Fund Advisors (4.57%), SSgA Funds Management, Inc. (4.15%), Fidelity Management & Research LLC (2.95%), and Capital Research & Management (2.37%). The top five mutual funds holding the company and their stake include Vanguard Total Stock Market Index (2.84%), Vanguard 500 Index Fund (2.03%), SPDR S&P 500 ETF(1.15%), Government Pension Fund (0.99%), and Vanguard Institutional Index Fund (0.90%) (CNN Business, 2020). Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft remains a board member of the company. According to Forbes (2020), Gates has sold or given away most of his stake in Microsoft, such that he owns slightly over 1% of shares.
Microsoft Inc. has managed to expand internationally over the years. In the technology industry, no other company outside IBM has managed to be on the top as Microsoft has done (Daft & Samson, 2014). The company has achieved success during a period of technological transformation when disruptive technologies are capable of knocking titans. Critics often indicate that Microsoft has not expanded internationally through innovation. Instead, they think the company has used its monopoly position to force the industry to operate by its standards. However, an examination of the inner workings of the company shows that Microsoft has gained global markets through effective management, protection of intellectual property, and the ability to identify trends in technology. A majority of technology companies have been swamped due to disruptive technologies, but Microsoft has managed to increase its operations worldwide. The company has managed to leverage intellectual property across its various products. This has made it possible for the company to sell its products in countries outside the U.S. Further, Microsoft has managed to expand beyond software and devices into cloud computing. The global market has been shifting to the cloud and Microsoft has been at the forefront of offering the services. This has enabled the company to attract clients from across the world who are embracing cloud computing.
Microsoft uses a differentiation strategy as its generic strategy to gain a competitive advantage in the technology industry. Differentiation involves having unique products sold to a wide variety of clients. Firstly, using this approach, Microsoft has products that are unique in terms of features. For instance, Microsoft has pro...