MIcrosoft (in the cloud)

Order Description

everything in Bullet points and a little explanation on each bullets (explanation can be 2, 3 or sentences)

Microsoft into the cloud

1. Company overview

2. Current Situation

3. Current performance

4. Strategic Posture

5. Vision (explicit)

6. Mission: Identify the present mission of the corporation specify if it is explicitly stated or implied.

7. Objectives

8. Strategic Objectives:
Examples of Strategic Objectives
• A bigger market share
• Lower costs relative to key competitors
• Broader or more attractive product line than rivals
• Increased ability to compete in international markets
• Expanded growth opportunities
• (!) Important: Both financial and strategic objectives should include timeframes (e.g., “lower costs relative to key competitors by the fourth quarter of 2004.”) A company should have both short-run and long-run objectives:
• Short-run Objectives – Target performance levels to be achieved soon (usually within a year).
Long-run Objectives – Target performance levels to be achieved later (within three to five

Identify the present mission of the corporation and specify whether it is explicitly stated or implied.
9 Financial Objectives:
Examples of Financial Objectives
Achieve revenue growth of 10% per year
Increase earnings by 15% annually
• Increase dividends per share by 5% per year
• Boost annual returns on invested capital from 15% to 20%
Improvement in bond and credit ratings

10 Strategies:
Example Identify the strategies of the company
11 Corporate level Strategy:
Low Level Strategy
• Single Business – More than 95% of revenue comes from a single business.
• Dominant Business – Between 70% and 95% of revenue comes from a single business.
Moderate to High Levels of Diversification
• Related Constrained – Less than 70% of revenue comes from the dominant business. All business units share product, technological, and distribution links.
• Related Linked – Less than 70% of revenue comes from the dominant business. There are only limited links between the businesses.
Very High Levels of Diversification
• Unrelated – Less than 70% of revenue comes from the dominant business. There are no common links between the businesses.
(!) Important: Corporate-level strategy should increase the firm’s value by enhancing its ability to earn above-average returns. Identify if this is occurring with the present strategy, and if so, how?

12 Business Strategies:
Eg: cost leadership: providing goods or services with acceptable features at lowest…..
Differentiation
Focused leadership

13 Competitive Strategies

14 Functional strategies: strategies that optimize business functions such as HR

15 Operational strategies: Strategies the optimizes the day to day operations of the organization

16 Policies: Identify policies that would sustain present policies… Example: A business unit has chosen the generic business strategy of differentiation. It differentiates itself through superior customer service. Any significant policies concerning the superior treatment of customers should be noted e.g. not saying “no” directly to a customer….

External environment (swot)
17 Societal environment:

Societal Environment – What general environmental forces are currently affecting both the corporation and the industry in which it competes? Which of these forces represent current or future opportunities? Which of these forces represent current or future threats? Provide analysis on each that force below that affects the firm in a major way.

Societal Environment – What general environmental forces are currently affecting both the corporation and the industry in which it competes? Which of these forces represent current or future opportunities? Which of these forces represent current or future threats? (See Strategic Management 5th ed., chap. 2). Provide analysis on each that force below that affects the firm in a major way.
• Demographic
•
• Economic
•
• Political-legal
•
• Sociocultural
•
• Technological
•
• Global

18 Competitive forces: Use porters 5 forces

19 Driving forces:

20 Strategic group map

21 Boston consulting Matrix

22 Competitive analysis: Synthesize the external environment discussion up to this point into a coherent competitor analysis. Suggest which competitor or competitors will make the next moves – and the nature of those moves. This may require some creativity on your part. Do not be afraid to make assumptions and provide a coherent analysis.

23 Key success factors: What factors will result in success or failure

24 Industry attractiveness

Internal Environment

25 Corporate structure: Present corporate culture

26 Decision making authority: Is it centralized or decentralized

27 Organizational structure:

28 Corporate culture: analyze current company culture eg clan culture, bureaucratic culture……

Corporate resources
(Note: For the corporate audit, depending on the structure of the organization, some resources may need to be discussed with respect to each division, SBU, etc. The finance section should be kept at a corporate level with all ratios calculated using consolidated numbers.)

29 Marketing (provide analysis)

30 Marketing objectives:

31 Marketing strategies (general)

32 Marketing specifics eg Mass-Market Strategy – No segmentation. Firm or business unit goes after the entire market. Example: Wal-Mart.

• Large Segment Strategy – Firm or business unit pursues the largest segment
• Adjacent Segment Strategy – Firm or business unit pursues a segment, and then once it saturates in that segment, it pursues an adjacent segment. Example: Toyota starting with the Tercel and progressively moving through the Corolla, Celica, Camry, etc. all the way to the Lexus line.
• Multi-Segment – Firm or business unit segments market, and then pursues multiple segments simultaneously.
• Small Segment Strategy – With relatively limited resources, a firm or business unit may pursue a small segment that larger competitors ignore.
• Niche Segment Strategy – Firm or business unit pursues a very specialized segment (associated with very high levels of product differentiation).
Mass Customization – Firm attempts to address every customer’s needs through rapid manufacturing of customized products. Example: Dell’s potential customization of every ordered computer.

33 Marketing Mix

Finance
34 Financial situation

35 Ratios

36 Altman’ Z

37 Discussion on financial strategies

Operations management

39 service and pro design

40 Quality management

41 Process an capacity design
42 Location ( how does the company decide where to locate its facilities)

43 Layout design

44 Human resources and job design

45 Supply chain management

46 Inventory and material requirement

47 Aggregate planning

48 Reliability and maintenance

49 R&D
Provide analysis of current r&d
50 Human resources management

51 Information technology

Summary internal factors
52 Core competencies

53 Distinctive competencies

54 Analysis of strategic factors
55 Situational analysis

56 strategic management

57 review of mission and objection

58 Analysis of strategic issues

59 Strategic alternatives and recommended strategy

60 Recommended strategy

61) Implementation

62) Evaluation and control

63 Lessons learned