Competitive Strategy for Microsoft & Starbucks-myassignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about theCompetitive Strategy for Microsoft Starbucks. Answer: Microsoft Microsoft was established in the year 1975. It was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. The company has its headquarters in Washington, USA. Company deals in computer software industry, customer hardware industry and consumer electronics. Key products of the company include Windows, Office, Servers, Skype, Visual studio, Xbox, Mobile and lot more. Main services of the company are Bing, LinkedIn, one drive, outlook, windows store etc. Companys mission is to enable every individual and organisation to achieve more by empowering them. The company is worlds most valuable company of the world and leader in the software industry. Satya Nadella is the current CEO of the company (Microsoft, 2017). Microsoft products are today used by almost all the individuals and offices. The company can be thought of as a profit producing machine that is well managed (Marks, 2013). The credit for the success of the company can be given to various factors. Some of those are discussed here. The major reason for the Microsoft being a powerful player in market is that its management is very effective. IT the past so many years the Microsoft has not made any major blunders. The company faced some twist and turns but was able to recover through them. This is one the reasons that company is most trustworthy. The Microsoft had a diverse business portfolio. When others thought of the declining market share of windows the Microsoft invested itself into various other strong domains. Major of them were Xbox which got great success in gaming. The company has built multiple business platforms to deal with the uncertainties of the particular segment (Satell, 2013). Another reason for the current market sta nding of the company is its ability and willingness to think out of the box. Microsoft has around 1000 research labs that are designed to give innovative products and users. It continuously work s on various projects to provide something different and useful Major innovative projects on which company is working on include the Surface Hub, Hololens and Oculus Rift (Gewirtz, 2015). Another tactics of the firm that helped it to gain current market success is communication with enterprise. The company product Windows Vista was unsuccessful in the markets. Therefore before launching Windows the company provided it to the few enterprises and checked for the suitability of the product. The company had communication with the selected enterprises to find out the debugs and errors in the product. This communication helped the firm to alter the product before launching it on the large scale. The current sales show how positively this tactics of the company responded (Reisinger, 2010). The oth er contributing success factor for the company is effective management of intellectual capital. By the term intellectual capital it does not always means patents; it means the broad knowledge base that has been developed by the company over the time. This knowledge base in embedded in software development libraries which help in effective and efficient management of the product. Microsofts community partners, who are now 40,000 firms in number, also contribute for innovative product development (Silverthrone, 2002). Starbucks Starbucks was founded in Seattle, Washington in the year 1971. This is an American coffee company and coffee house chain (Starbucks, 2016). Kevin Johnson is the current CEO of the company. The company provides differentiation in terms of quality, taste and customer experience. The company introduced dark roasted coffee and handmade light roasted coffee. The company serves coffee beverages, tea, smoothies, baked goods and sandwiches. Starbucks began as a small Coffee been store and today it is the well-known global brand. The company faced many downturns and challenges but still holds the prominent market position. There are various reasons for the current market standing of the company. Some of those reasons are ambience, wide market targeting and consistently convenient. The ambience of the place is a major factor drawing customers to the company. The prices of the company are very high and customers are ready to pay that price not only because of the coffee taste. The reason for that is the attractive ambience of the place. Almost all the outlets of the Starbucks have similar kind of ambience. This includes rich warm colour scheme, baristas in green aprons, organic-looking art and alternative music. The next success factor for the company is wide target market. The company focused on wide target market. It developed products for all age groups. The menu includes plenty of beverages other than coffee and small snack sections. This helps to attract snack seekers and children. It serves as a place for everyone. Starbucks is a customer centric organisation and keeps all the needs of the customer s at priority. The Starbucks is the worlds largest food chain with around 17000 stores across 50 countries because of its business model. Starbucks focus on the convenience for the customer. The well skilled and trained workforce at skilled workforce of the Starbucks works to continuously serve the customers best of their level. The company is also working to make the ordering process cashless. The Companys model is designed in such a way that it provides the feeling of relaxation to its customers (Hennessey, 2012). Also the business model of the company is culturally sensitive to different cultures across the globe. Another factor that contributed to the companys success is adaptation to the digital means. For instance, in the Asia pacific region the company has recently launched new loyalty programme and designed a mobile and digital payment platform (Team, 2016). Another factor that is responsible for current market standing is deep understanding of CAGE framework. The CAGE frame work gives an understanding about Cultural, Administrative, Geographic and Economic differences between the countries. This Framework has enabled the company to clearly identify the differences in the overseas market and the company adopted market strategy according to them. The other success driving factors for the company are diverse product mix, creating substantial partnership and innovative and versatile products and services. The company also has strong marketing mix. It uses various marketing tools as direct mail for the purpose of distributing coupons to frequent customers, newspaper advertising, diversification of brand name and social media marketing. References Gewirtz, D., 2015. 10 reasons Microsoft is still a force to be reckoned with, viewed on 24 August 2017 from https://www.zdnet.com/article/10-reasons-microsoft-is-still-a-force-to-be-reckoned-with/ Hennessey, R., 2012. 3 Reasons Why Starbucks Still Shines, Despite Market Shortcomings. The Forbes, viewed on 24 August 2017 from https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelhennessey/2012/08/06/3-reasons-why-starbucks-still-shines-despite-market-shortcomings/#3e81c5631cd0 Marks, G., 2013. The Secret To Microsoft's Success, viewed on 24 August 2017 from https://www.forbes.com/sites/quickerbettertech/2013/10/28/the-secret-to-microsofts-success/#2c9cd9773915 Microsoft, 2017. We believe in what people make possible, viewed on 24 August 2017 from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/about/default.aspx Reisinger, D., 2010. 10 Things Microsoft Did to Make Windows 7 a Success, viewed on 24 August 2017 from https://www.eweek.com/enterprise-apps/10-things-microsoft-did-to-make-windows-7-a-success Satell, G., 2013. The Secret of Microsoft's Success (And Some Lessons For Apple), viewed on 24 August 2017 from https://www.forbes.com/sites/gregsatell/2013/04/15/the-secret-of-microsofts-success-and-some-lessons-for-apple/#23dfdd841587 Silverthrone, S., 2002. The Secret of How Microsoft Stays on Top, Harvard Business School, viewed on 24 August 2017 from https://hbswk.hbs.edu/ Starbucks, 2016. About Us, viewed on 24 August 2017 from https://www.starbucks.in/about-us Team, T., 2016. Let's Look At Starbucks' Growth Strategy. The Forbes, viewed on 24 August 2017 from https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2016/09/19/lets-look-at-starbucks-growth-strategy/#549674923d71