Cutting Costs Strategically
February 12, 2025
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The recent announcement of the change of leadership at the helm of Microsoft has sparked speculation about possible strategic directional changes as well as kindled hopes that the pioneering company and its iconic founder who appeared to be floundering in recent years may well be getting their act together.
The ensuing SWOT Analysis places these strategic moves in perspective and appraises the situation, which the company finds itself in at the moment.
The succeeding discussion must be viewed in the larger context of the match between the internal dynamics and the external business drivers that affect Microsoft in its quest to regain its market leadership.
Indeed, Microsoft and its legendary founder, Bill Gates, are known to anyone who is remotely acquainted with computing. This has enabled the company to forge ahead of its rivals even though as we shall discuss later, in recent years, some of the sheen of the Microsoft brand has been lost.
It can also be said that Microsoft and Bill Gates have spawned what can be called a “Second Industrial Revolution” by making computing available to the masses.
In case of the former (internet), Microsoft was slow to respond and even when it did, it was in a manner that attracted monopolistic charges which in earlier years were the mainstay of the company.
The preceding analysis has made it clear that Microsoft cannot afford to misread emerging trends and changing customer preferences anymore. Instead, it must be in a position where it senses and intuits market moves and prepares to act accordingly.
A possible strategic move would be to focus more on the enterprise segment since most other technology companies seem to be focusing exclusively on the personal customer segment.
In conclusion, it remains to be seen as to how the recent leadership changes play themselves out with regards to the future strategic moves by the company.
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