Running Head: SWOT ANALYSIS FOR MICROSOFT 1

SWOT Analysis for Microsoft

Sofie Bower

BUS/475

Heike Soeffker-Culicerto

November 1, 2021
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SWOT Analysis for Microsoft

Strengths Weaknesses
1. Global market 1. Susceptible to cybercrime
2. Constant growth 2. Inadequate innovations
3. The software is easy to use and 3. Unsuccessful acquisitions
understand
4. Overreliance on the PC market
4. Customer confidence
5. Efficient advertising platforms
6. Positive brand reputation

Opportunities Threats
1. Expansion in cloud business 1. Cyberattacks

2. Increased innovations and Artificial 2. Policies on anti-encryption

Intelligence
3. Changing customer tastes and preferences
3. Provision of remote work solutions
4. Criticism from the workforce
4. Investing in smartphone industry
5. Competition
5. Diversification
6. Partnerships and acquisitions
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Opportunities Microsoft can get from its strengths

Microsoft’s success in the global market can be largely attributed to the uniqueness of its

product and large market share. Seeing that it is the 2nd largest company in the world, its products

are available in most parts of the world. This strength of dominating the global market can be

very useful when Microsoft is expanding its business and diversifying into more income-

generating avenues. With its global presence, Microsoft can also take advantage of the growing

popularity of working from home to provide better solutions to remote working where people

can productively work from home. Microsoft customers are loyal and have confidence in the

Microsoft brand. Microsoft can use this strength to venture into the smartphone industry.

A company’s reputation has a lot of effects on the success of the company. Microsoft is a

reputable company, and every tech-savvy individual can attest to how reliable Microsoft’s

products are. Microsoft can rely on its brand reputation and the numerous advertising platforms

at its disposal to market its innovations. Microsoft can use its global presence and reputation to

lure partners and make acquisitions. By partnering with Microsoft organization is set to reap

benefits such as an extensive market, efficient advertising platforms, and customer confidence.

How Microsoft can convert its weaknesses to strengths

All businesses have their weaknesses which may be attributed to factors such as changes

in market trends, advancements in technology, and government policies among others. However,

it does not imply that solutions cannot be sought to turn weaknesses into strengths. One of

Microsoft’s largest weaknesses is its overreliance on the PC market. Its largest market share is in

PC’s which puts the company at risk. Microsoft should diversify by investing in other devices
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such as smartphones (Zhelyazkova, 2021). Smartphones are so popular that they may even be

considered a basic need. By diversifying, Microsoft will also spread its risks.

Cyberattacks are not an uncommon phenomenon in this digital age. Cybercrime is

becoming a nuisance in the technology world and customers would like to be assured that while

using Microsoft’s software they are protected from cyberattacks (PARODI, 2013). Microsoft

should add more security features to ensure customers' data is protected. Such features may

include inbuilt antivirus detectors, regular automatic updates, and the installation of biometric

verifications on PCs. Most of Microsoft’s innovations are on hardware and not technology.

Microsoft should also invest in making advancements to the current technology to suit the

current needs of their loyal customers and attract a new customer base.

Strategies Microsoft can implement to advance its goals

Microsoft envisions itself reinventing business processes, empowering people through

transformative technology, creating an intelligent cloud platform, and increasing personal

computing. Microsoft should align itself with partners that share the same vision and are actively

working towards reaching the goals. The acquisitions that Microsoft makes should also be

purposeful and in line with their goals. Microsoft should offer incentives to employees to

encourage them to work toward reaching their goals. Employees that perform exemplarily should

be rewarded. Microsoft can hold talent competitions where they can pick the best talents in the

technology world to enable realize their goals.

Businesses are having to adapt by changing from what had been perceived to have been

‘normal’. Microsoft is a business that exists in the technology world, and it may not understand

some of the changes businesses such as hotels may have to make. To make it easier to customize
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their products to suit different organizations, Microsoft should partner with these businesses to

better understand the changes and improvements it can make to enhance business processes.

Cloud platforms have gained so much relevance and most of Microsoft’s profits are from cloud

platforms. Microsoft should inject more resources into cloud computing research. Personal

computing has also become a necessary need and Microsoft should improve the features and

security of PCs.

Interrelationships between functional areas in Microsoft and their effects

The success of Microsoft is dependent on the productive interrelations of its functional

areas. The operations department is expected to develop efficient products that will satisfy the

customer's needs. The operations department depends on the finance department to avail the

necessary resources for production. Marketing has a duty to extensively market the products

designed by operations. If one department fails in executing its mandate, then the entire company

is affected. For instance, if operations produce faulty goods or the software has glitches then the

company’s reputation is at risk and customer confidence reduces. Excellent interrelationships

between the functional areas are therefore vital to Microsoft’s success.

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References

PARODI, F. (2013). The Concept of Cybercrime and Online Threats Analysis. International

Journal Of Information Security And Cybercrime, 2(1), 59-66.

https://doi.org/10.19107/ijisc.2013.01.07

Zhelyazkova, M. (2021). Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Whiteboard – Between Reality and

Opportunities. Педагогически Форум, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.15547/pf.2021.001