Microsoft Company Good Governance

and Social Responsibility

A Final Term Output

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the

Requirements for the Good Governance and Social Responsibility

By

Cantoria, Ryson

Canedo, Mary Angelica

Deguito, Trisha Laine

De Leon, Celline Khate M.

Ebias, Katherine

Mendoza, Mary Christine

Tambuyat, Angelica

June 3, 2022
 Microsoft Company Good Governance and Social Responsibility

Company Background

Company and Brief History

Microsoft was originated by Bill Gates and his childhood friend Paul Allen on April
4th, 1975. Little did they know that they would soon become two of the richest people in the
world. They both quit their jobs to focus on the company in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and
eventually relocated to Washington state.

In the year 1978, they had already topped sales of more than $1 million. By the year
1981, the company was moving so swiftly that they were able to license its MS-DOS
operating system to IMB. But, sadly in 1983 Allen had separated due to his illness and
pursued other business ventures. Through both of their management skills, they were able to
start a multi-million-dollar company that is used worldwide.

The performance of Gates throughout the years was truly amazing at how fast the
company grew. Within 7 years he was able to create Windows and raise $61 million in
shares at headquarters. Microsoft had become the world’s biggest personal computer
software company by the late 80s. The way that Gates was able to innovate and manage this
company was truly something that changed the internet forever. He was able to implement
new ideas and bring more ideas to the table and even came out with the Xbox system in
2001. Gates is truly a master at managing and dominating the computer software world.

Company Mission

To empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more is the
mission statement of Microsoft. They have strived to empower the rest of the world to
achieve their own goals and aspirations. The mission is action and creating innovation all
around the world. Innovation will impact the world in big and small ways, and we will use
this as a force of good. There's always room for growth especially when you have a vision
and goal in hand.
 Microsoft Company Good Governance and Social Responsibility

Company Vision

A vision for Microsoft right now would be Artificial Intelligence. They have started a
new team of about 5,000 engineers to focus on these AI products. With this new project,
they are setting grounds for an intelligent cloud and intelligent edge where computing is
more distributed. We can add this project to the many in the past where they are evolving the
world for all their customers. This vision is set along with all the goals that they are wanting
to achieve throughout the next couple of years.

Company Goals and Strategies

There are three strategies that Microsoft is focused on such as ‘cloud-first, ‘mobile-
first, and growth through mergers and acquisitions and exploring business opportunities.
These are all used to improve and expand the company as widely as they can. The goals that
are wanting to be achieved are to reinvent productivity and business processes, build an
intelligent platform and create more personal computing. These goals and strategies will
severely impact how all the customers will be working and daily living as Microsoft is a big
part of most of our lives.
 Microsoft Company Good Governance and Social Responsibility

Programs and Activities

Programs

• Microsoft workers contributed USD158 million to non-profit organizations serving

their communities and the community.
• The Lagos Solar project in Nigeria employs solar-powered batteries, as well as clever
inverters linked to Microsoft Azure Internet of Things technology.
• Temenos, an international software supplier, uses Microsoft Cloud services to reach
individuals in Myanmar who do not have access to banking, providing them with
prospects for greater financial stability and access to microcredit and other financial
services.
• Microsoft's 4Afrika Initiative offers a variety of initiatives designed to empower
African youth, entrepreneurs, developers, and corporate and civic leaders.
• YouthSpark is a global initiative that aims to make computer science more accessible
to all young people, allowing them to achieve greater success for themselves, their
families, and their communities.
• Office 365 in 2013 is a software that was provided for free or at low cost in 92
countries worldwide.
• The Microsoft CARES employee assistance program (EAP) offers confidential
consultations and referral information to employees to help them maintain a healthy
and balanced lifestyle.

Activities

1. The Lagos Solar Project in Nigeria

Students in 172 schools around Lagos now not only have access to computers, but
they can also charge headlamps to use for studying in their gloomy homes in the
evenings. This is due to high-tech, self-contained solar systems developed with
Schneider Electric technology and supported by the United Kingdom. The Department
for International Development (DFID) and the Lagos State Government the Lagos Solar
project employs solar-panel-charged batteries, as well as clever inverters linked to
 Microsoft Company Good Governance and Social Responsibility

Microsoft Azure IoT technology, which not only converts battery power into usable
electricity but also allows for remote monitoring and maintenance.

2. Temenos

According to the United Nations Capital Development Fund's Making Access

Possible report, more than 70% of individuals in Myanmar lack formal access to loans,
deposits, and other financial services. Temenos is assisting in changing this by placing
its primary banking application on the cloud with Microsoft Azure, a component of the
Microsoft Cloud. Temenos clients, and financial institutions, may reach even the most
remote consumers worldwide who received a loan from Temenos client Fullerton
Myanmar. Fullerton Myanmar loan officers go to visit customers where they live and
work and perform safe transactions using Temenos software and the Microsoft Cloud on
cellphones and tablets.

3. Microsoft’s 4Afrika

The 4Afrika Initiative is Microsoft's African commercial and market growth engine. It
was founded in 2013 to unlock and accelerate Africa's potential to generate technology
not just for the continent but also for the rest of the world. The latest project has been
developed to provide digital tools and training resources to small-scale farmers and
agriculture-related small companies in Africa. The Microsoft 4Afrika program,
developed in collaboration with IFC, intends to accelerate digital transformation in
Africa's agriculture sector, modernize supply networks, and increase farmer productivity
and revenue.

4. YouthSpark Program (2012)

Microsoft donated software to schools in order to improve student's learning. They

created computer science training to improve skills of each youth specially those blind
and low vision Filipino youth. With a help of local NGOs, they delivered a greater
access of technology and technical training for a better future of young people regarding
to visual impairment.
 Microsoft Company Good Governance and Social Responsibility

5. Office 365 (2013)

It is a software that was provided for free or at low cost in 92 countries worldwide.
This Microsoft CSR helps the community to in development with their works and gives
a employees satisfaction. According to research, most of the Microsoft employees
promoted Microsoft to others because of their office 365 offer. With the same study it
says that 94 percent of employees was recognized by their superiors and noteworthy
efforts in improving the lives of humans.

6. Employees Health and Safety (2019)

The Microsoft CARES employee assistance program (EAP) offers confidential

consultations and referral information to employees to help them maintain a healthy and
balanced lifestyle. Microsoft employees receive personalized attention from qualified
specialists who can help them overcome life's difficulties and meet their daily demands
to improve their overall well-being. This program offers free services that include
personal and family counseling, stress management, support for aging parents, and many
more.
 Microsoft Company Good Governance and Social Responsibility

Policies

Microsoft CSR Policies in Good Governance

Microsoft Corporation constantly improves its corporate social responsibility

strategy by basing the company's corporate citizenship activities on international
standards and guidelines to meet and address the stakeholders' interests, which have a
major impact on the business (Microsoft, 2021).

The Microsoft Corporation has always applied the CSR approach to increase,
not only its reputation as a firm but also as a society. The company has a wonderful
CSR program that greatly facilitates the company's efforts. They want to give an
extraordinary address to various circumstances associated with facilitating the quality
of life to maintain the CSR phenomenon.

Policy Agenda

In October 2016, Microsoft launched a cloud policy roadmap that seeks to maximize
the opportunities and minimize the challenges that cloud computing brings.

• Trusted with policies addressing personal privacy, government access to data,

cross-border data flows, and cybercrime prevention.

• Responsible for policies that balance human rights and public safety, prevent
technology fraud and online exploitation, promote environmental sustainability, and
address Artificial Intelligence.

• Inclusive with policies enabling affordable and ubiquitous access, digital literacy,
next-generation skills, including people with disabilities, and supporting businesses of
every size.
 Microsoft Company Good Governance and Social Responsibility

Impact on the Stakeholders

Positive Reputation

The Microsoft Office 365' software that was provided free to appropriate non-
governmental organizations in 2013 had a significant impact on community
development and employee satisfaction, this is also known as being a “good corporate
citizen.”

Enhanced Self-Esteem and Volunteerism

The company and its employees gain from the wonderful feeling of doing
something good for others when they are actively involved in giving back to the
community (working with a specific charity, financing community organizations and
scholarships, or making a socially responsible investment). As a result, the
organization's employees can realize how big of a difference they can make in other
people's lives, making their difficulties seem smaller and more manageable.

Facilitating the Quality of Life

The Eye Control function in Windows 10 provides crucial accessibility and

improves usage for low vision users and the blind. As a result, the company has
provided great accessibility to the company's products and services, which are tailored
to satisfy the demands of all clients, including the one billion people worldwide who
suffer from impairments.
 Microsoft Company Good Governance and Social Responsibility

Assessment

In our perspective, the main reason for introducing CSR and making it
mandatory was to sensitize the corporates towards their responsibility to society so
that they do not operate just with the money-making concept, rather they should
operate keeping the larger interests of the society in mind.

The activities they undertook directly help them to build goodwill, thus,
improving their brand value. Remember a few advertisements sharing every purchase
you have made to help in school, education, and so on.

Help them to build good corporate culture inside the company. Employee
volunteerism provides new opportunities to let stem off, reduce work-related stress,
re-energizing employees, find meaning in a job, realigning the employee goal along
with corporate goals. This also gives them the flexibility to provide different types of
learning opportunities to their associates.

Helping its company to come at ease with their local community which has
many grudges and concerns against companies. Their goodwill activities place them
in the good books of society making their work easy.

In the end, the corporates use resources from the society and the nature
towards their own goals and it seemed befitting that they should give something back
in return.
 Microsoft Company Good Governance and Social Responsibility

Group Collaboration

De Leon

(Company Background, Impact on the Stakeholders)

Ebias, Tambuyat, Canedo, Tambuyat

(Policies)

Mendoza MC, Cantoria, Deguito

(Programs and Activities)

 Microsoft Company Good Governance and Social Responsibility

References:

Company Background

Microsoft Founded. (2015). History Website, A&E Television Networks.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/microsoft-founded.

Company Mission, Vision, Goals and Strategy

Levy, Nat. (2017). Microsoft's New Corporate Vision: Artificial Intelligence Is in and
Mobile Is Out. GeekWire4. https://www.geekwire.com/2017/microsofts-new-
corporate

Programs and Activities

Ray, S. (2018, January 18). Schneider Electric harnesses the sun to power remote
Nigerian schools and clinics. Transform.
https://news.microsoft.com/transform/schneider-electric-harnesses-the-sun-
to-power-remote-nigerian-schools-and-clinics/

Choney, S. (2018, February 28). There’s a bank ‘branch’ in your neighborhood – no

matter how remote it is. Transform. https://news.microsoft.com/transform/theres-a-
bank-branch-in-your- neighborhood-no-matter-how-remote-it-is/

Armah, S. (2021, September 2). Microsoft 4Afrika partners International Finance

Corporation to unveil a digital transformation initiative for Africa’s Agri-
food sector. Https://Agrictoday.Com.Gh/.
https://agrictoday.com.gh/2021/09/02/microsoft-4afrika-partners-
 Microsoft Company Good Governance and Social Responsibility

international-finance-corporation-to-unveil-a-digital-transformation-
initiative-for-africas-agri-food-sector/

Dudovskiy, D. (2019). Microsoft Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR): a brief

overview. https://research-methodology.net/microsoft-corporate-social-
responsibility-csr/

Choney, S. (2015). Microsoft YouthSpark Expands Youth Programs for Computer

Science Education. Microsoft. Retrieved fromhttps://news.microsoft.com/en-
ph/2016/08/17/microsoft-youthspark-program-creates-computer-science-
training-opportunities-for-blind-and-low-vision-filipino-youth/

Siew, S.(2016); Microsoft YouthSpark program creates computer science training

opportunities for blind and low vision Filipino youth
https://news.microsoft.com/en-ph/2016/08/17/microsoft-youthspark-program-
creates-computer-science-training-opportunities-for-blind-and-low-vision-
filipino-youth

Policies

Microsoft. (2016). Retrieved from:

https://www.acer.com/ac/en/PH/content/supportproduct/8899?b=1&pn=N
X.ADDSP.00G

Impact to the Stakeholders

Heyward C. (2020). The Growing Importance of Social Responsibility In Business.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2020/11/18/the-growing-
importanceof-social-responsibility-in-business/?sh=239cdd0f2283
 Microsoft Company Good Governance and Social Responsibility

Microsoft (2021). Corporate Social Responsibility. https://www.microsoft.com/en-

us/corporate-responsibility