Tuesday, 31 July 2012

MICROSOFT-.DOMINATING THE TECHNOLOGY LANDSCAPE..


MICROSOFT - Dictating the Technology agenda for the 21st Century organizations..

The technology story of the world would never be complete without the mention of Microsoft. Bill Gates and Paul Allen started Microsoft in 1975. Microsoft is the largest software company in the world with an annual turnover of over US$ 68 biliions.
Microsoft started with the audacious vision of the founders to have a ‘computer at every desk and every home’
Microsoft windows is now more or less an integral part of people’s computer related work.
Bill Gates and Paul Allen studied together in high school. In Lakeside Prep School, they had their first interaction with computers. Both of them were hooked. They loved programming and spent hours working in front of the computer.

The turning point for them came when Allen brought a magazine where they came across an article about Altair 8000, a mini computer. The duo approached the manufacturer to launch a programming language for Altair, even though they did not have any exposure of Altair. The manufacturer was busy and gave them 8 weeks for the demonstration. In these 8 weeks, Gates and Allen developed the interpreter. The interpreter worked at the demonstration and MITS agreed to distribute Altair BASIC. This was the start of many achievements that shaped Microsoft and the computing industry.

Here is a list of things that make Microsoft the most successful software company on the planet.

Vision
The teams are guided by a vision statements for general guidance. They have the freedom to implement things their ways keeping in mind the objectives of the company. The focus is on the essentials but with a vision towards the future.

Smart people
Bill Gates has always advocated working with the best professionals to build the best products. The most important factor for building products is the quality of people involved. Microsoft has been built around the best people.

Bet Your Life
Since its inception, the DNA of the company has been to put everything into the projects. The projects are reported on a regular basis to the higher management to avoid any last moment surprises. The focus is on the results and addressing the issues at the earliest through proper communication.

Early Mover Advantage
Microsoft has shown the ability to be the first, or early, to enter a market, find and build mass markets, don't wait for perfect products but build incrementally better products in the direction of the market.

Solution rather than problem
Excuses don’t work, solutions do. The teams at Microsoft are often small and focused on achieving their results. They are primarily focused on delivering quality products and do everything possible to fix the problem.

Focus
At Microsoft, the employees are focused on one task or project. This helps them to keep away from the distractions and help them stay focused with increased productivity.

Market Dominance
The windows operating system accounts for nearly 90% of the PC market. Microsoft completely dominates markets in which it competes. Go for 100% of every market you are in. Market share is the key to success.

Results rather than Rules
The focus is on the results and not on rules. Microsoft believes that employees’ time should not be wasted on irrelevant rules and processes. Empower the employee and they will make reasonable choices and make them accountable for the results.

Ruthless Competitor
Microsoft almost missed the opportunity provided by Internet browser. However, once Microsoft had realised Internet’s potential, the company not only rapidly caught up but overtook all its competitors. In 1995 Netscape Navigator was the leading the market share with approximately 90% market share, but  Microsoft soon took over using its monopoly in the operating system market. They started bundling internet explorer with the operating system and regained the lost ground. Users no longer needed to install netscape navigator and internet explorer dominated the market.  

An eye on the future
The leaders at Microsoft keep an eye on the changing market dynamics. They do whatever is necessary to shape future opportunities in the market, and capitalize on them for Microsoft.  Microsoft has now trained its eyes on the exploding market of Cloud services with the launch of Microsoft Azure. With an aggressive strategy, it is rapidly penetrating the small and medium enterprise segment and is empowering lakhs of businesses to leverage the power of the cloud. This enables them to reduce their infrastructure requirements to take their products and services to market and hence reduces the cost of running their businesses. With more productivity of their scarce resources and investments, small businesses have a much higher chance of success, thanks to Microsoft.



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