Business Strategy

Microsoft used the Focus busisness strategy.Microsoft began to reinvent itself.It restructured key business units,streamlined decisions,making processes, and realigned itself to become more quicky and easily in producing software. The restructuring iniciative was undertaken at the same time with the company's new diversificationstrategy beyong the personal computers(PC) softare business and into other devices such as mobile phones , television, setup boxes, and game consoles.

To be a successful industry or business the company must know the five different forces and how to balance them accordingly. Microsoft’s success is due to their in depth knowledge of these forces and using them to their advantage. First force is buyer power and perhaps their strongest force. People don’t have too many choices on what programs and software to place on their PCs. Microsoft has made a type of a monopoly in the sense that they have at least one of their programs in virtually every PC in the world. The second law is supplier power another one that is strong for Microsoft being that they produce their own software so their technically isn’t any supplier power, they are their own supplier. Third, is the threat of substitute products which is Microsoft’s weakest force. This has to do with technology’s development. New technologies and programs are created every day and so it is a growing and moving business. As of now Microsoft is in perfect conditions to stay at the top, but with new inventions and ideas they must keep up with the fast growing pace of technology before someone possibly takes their place. The fourth force is the threat of new entrants which is another one of their strong forces. Microsoft has made themselves a global name and new entrants are basically against impossible odds at taking over. Lastly is rivalry among competitors, another one of their weak points. When it comes to software yes, there’s virtually no competitors but when it comes to entertainment and other products, competitors like Apple have a upper hand with products such as the iPhone and iPod. The way they reduce their supplier power is by producing their own products. Microsoft makes and develops everything they make so they are not at the mercy of their suppliers. Like mentioned before they have at least one of their programs on basically every PC in the world, giving them no problem when it comes to buyer power. The entry barrier wasn’t really created by them but sort of by luck. They were one for the first to place programs in PCs and grew with the business, as they grew their competitors shrunk and entry barriers almost disappeared. Microsoft has basically closed the window of opportunity for a lot of companies, programmers, or any one of the sort. Microsoft is a prime example of an industry who uses the five forces to their advantage.