Presentation on how important is innovation and enterprise to today\'s business on Microsoft PDF

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Microsoft windows, office, the company's USP, innovation, enterprise, creative process, exploiting an idea, adding value to existing products, adding services to exploit new markets, finding new ways to increase business efficiency and profitability. Success and failure. Innovation risks, excellent...

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Unit 1 Assignment 3 Task 1 - Presentation

First slide – The Title How important is innovation and enterprise to today’s business – introduction to the presentation

Second slide This slide is about the enterprise and innovation of Microsoft. It covers both of the factors; and is about how;  Innovation – the introduction of something new, an idea, method or device. Which is aimed to bring in customers.  Enterprise – An organisation or a business itself. Or a project that is especially difficult, complicated or risky, which is aimed to manufacture money for the owner. Enterprise and Innovation is the process of translating an idea into a product or service which will generate money for the organization. Also useful for integrating new ideas and concepts found while also adding new products and services to the business. (Tutor2u, 2018, https://www.tutor2u.net/business/reference/enterprise-and-innovation - Accessed 25th January)

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Unit 1 Assignment 3

Third slide This slide is about how innovation and enterprise contribute to the success of Microsoft: 

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Microsoft Windows – Microsoft continuously updates their operating system, while also having different improved versions throughout the technological advances, which clearly shows great customers service and experience. Microsoft Office – Microsoft developed one of the first ever operating system on computers, and ever since has been the only company to have their operating system sold with the desktop computers/laptops. This is because the company has such a great reputation and trust factor of other companies which sell their product. The company’s USP is that it doesn’t only provide operating systems for customers, but also sells a set of software (PowerPoint, Word Document, Exec, etc.) which is used by millions of people around the world. Bought by schools for education, business purposes and individuals in general. The innovation of Microsoft’s products were led by a specific demand, such as making an operating system for computers allowed customers who are less familiar with computers and less capable of interacting with such complicated technology to be able to use them, as the operating system provided an interface for a user. Making the process of using a computer much easier, therefore the company gained a lot of sales, denoting a large amount of profit.

(The Record, 2018, http://www.technologyrecord.com/Article/how-microsoft-is-driving-innovation-andentrepreneurship-61577 - Accessed 26th January) (Microsoft News, 2018, https://news.microsoft.com/apac/2016/11/25/25-innovations-by-microsoft-you-mightnot-have-known/ - Accessed 26th January) (Microsoft blogs, 2018, https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2018/07/19/powering-our-customers-theinnovation-story-behind-microsofts-earnings/ - Accessed 27th January)

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Unit 1 Assignment 3

Fourth slide Is about what ways Microsoft can innovate: 

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Creative Process – staged journey which could be broken down into 5 stages; preparation, incubation, illumination, implementation and evaluation. o Preparation – Could include research, or formulating different advertisement ideas. o Incubation – Processing the ideas, beginning to construct a creation. o Illumination – Ideas beginning to developed, the construction of the idea makes sense. o Implementation – The implementation of an idea or solution is the process of transforming the idea into a final product. o Evaluation – Evaluating whether the insight is worth the pursuit. Exploiting an idea - Successfully exploiting an idea is both innovative and enterprising and can be used to start a new business or develop an existing business (Microsoft developed one of the first fully functional user interface (Windows)). Adding value to existing products – This is where companies develop their existing ideas or products and upgrade them for better performance or more features. An example could be adding cameras to mobile phones. Adding services to exploit new markets – Expanding the business by entering or developing into new markets. Such as the company “Virgin” started as a record shop, and now offers telecommunications, banking, trains and airlines. Finding new ways to increase business efficiency and profitability – This will allow the business to decrease the spending (cut costs), improve profitability and increase the productivity which means bigger turn overs.

(Microsoft News, 2018, https://news.microsoft.com/apac/2016/11/25/25-innovations-by-microsoft-youmight-not-have-known/ - Accessed 26th January)

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Unit 1 Assignment 3

Fifth slide This slide contains just an Image of Bill Gate’s quote “Never before in history has innovation offered promise of so much to so many in so short a time” (Quote Fancy, 2018, https://quotefancy.com/quote/774910/Bill-Gates-Never-before-in-history-has-innovationoffered-promise-of-so-much-to-so-many - Accessed 27th January)

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Unit 1 Assignment 3

Sixth slide Discusses how successful innovation and enterprise have been for Microsoft: 

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Success – Windows is the most popular operating system in the world. The approximate percentage of people using Windows is 88.2% which is 1.5 billion people. While Linux is 1.3%, other is 1.8%, meaning the closest competitor to Microsoft is Mac OS with 8.7% of users. Success – The Xbox is also one of Microsoft’s most innovative and successful products. This allowed the business to enter a new market for gaming and gain a bigger customer base. This made the company gain a massive amount of popularity and is currently a giant business, since 2001. Microsoft also brought to life the Kinect, which is arguably the most innovative product from Microsoft, being able to map real life movements into various games and apps. Failure – However Microsoft did experience some failures such as the Windows Phone operating system. The idea was very innovative. It had live tiles, quick access to all of the applications. But sadly it was too late as the other operating systems, such as Android and iOS had a head start, which didn’t allow Windows Phone to catch up.

(MSN, 2018, https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/projectinnovation/what-makes-microsoft-an-innovativecompany/ar-BB9fg9g - Accessed 28th January) (Wikipedia, 2019, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox - Accessed 28th January) (Fortress doors, 2018, https://www.fortressofdoors.com/steam-linux-sale-results/ - Accessed 28th January) (The Verge, 2017, https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/10/16452162/windows-phone-history-glorious-failure Accessed 28th January)

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Unit 1 Assignment 3

Seventh slide How successful innovation and enterprise have been for Microsoft: The slide consists of 3 points;  Innovation risks – There were multiple risks when creating software, especially in the 80s, when computers weren’t around for long. A problem had occurred when Windows 1 was manufactured and released. It caused Microsoft to lose a great amount of reputation and trust from their customers. It wasn’t compatible with new computers which were just launched. Which didn’t allow owners to use Windows OS which they bought. This forced users to downgrade to use other less advanced operating systems but was shortly fixed.  Excellent leadership – The Company has a great organisational structure and all employees are treated equally and own a shared and equivalent amount of responsibility to do with their jobs. Thanks to the CEO of Microsoft (Bill Gates) which has made some excellent management choices and took advantage of the opportunities listed below until 2014.  Opportunity – Microsoft’s aim was to gain a bigger customer base and produce more profits, this would be achievable by increasing the market share of the business. Bill Gates (CEO) decided to create a gaming console called Xbox and join the gaming market which in this case the innovation made it highly successful for the business.  (TechLog360, 2018, https://techlog360.com/failed-microsoft-products - Accessed 28th January)

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Unit 1 Assignment 3

Eight slide Why innovation is necessary justified in Microsoft 

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Microsoft has such great success in its business because of multiple factors, these consist of; o Competitive advantage – As mentioned in previous slides, Microsoft was the first ever company to develop a full functioning operating system and has been improving its product since. The competition of Microsoft is monopolistic, as it does not have many rivals, the biggest threat to the company’s business is its rivals which provide operating systems for free such as Linux as it has more options and better functionality but is less user friendly, less updates, etc. Another company which could have an impact on Microsoft’s business is Apple which sells its products with the Mac OS. o Company’s brand image – Microsoft’s products have become so popular it developed into a household name, and their operating system are provided with most computers which are sold by external companies, such as; o Alienware o Acer o Dell o Asus The company probably wouldn’t exist without innovation as their products are unique. Microsoft’s Xbox console is similar to others but still have their own design. Whereas Windows is the only product to be sold in the particular market.

(Computer world, 2018, https://www.computerworld.com/article/3247650/microsoft-windows/why-ismicrosoft-so-successful.html - Accessed 28th January) (Quora, 2018, https://www.quora.com/Why-was-Microsoft-successful - Accessed 28th January)

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Unit 1 Assignment 3 Task 2 - Reflective Account How has Microsoft used enterprise and innovation? The founder of Microsoft Microsoft was found by Bill Gates and his friend Paul Allen, who later on dropped out of Microsoft. Bill Gates is currently 63 years of age. The business was launched in 1975 by himself and Paul Allen, when Gates was only 20 years old. The company soon after became the world’s largest PC software company. In 2000 the chief executive officer stepped down but Bill Gates remained as chairman and created the position of chief software architect for himself. The company’s income made Gates the richest man in the world from 1995 to 1996, 1998 to 2007, 2009 and has been since 2014. Until Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, took over in July 2017.

Microsoft The organisation develops, produces, licenses, supports and sells computer software, electronic devices, computers and services which relate. The company’s aim was to develop and sell “BASIC” interpreters for the “Altair 8800”, which was the operating system at the time. In mid 1980s the organisation rose to dominate the personal computer OS (operating system) market with “MS-DOS”, which was followed by Microsoft Windows. It made three billionaires and an estimate 12,000 million among Microsoft employees. In 1985, first Windows was released, under the name “Windows 1.0”. It was a GUI operating system which allowed users to see user friendly icons on screen. Microsoft started to introduce a new innovation of its company in 1990. Which was a group of productivity applications, called Microsoft Office. It included of Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and all the others we use to this day. Also, from 1990s it spread from the OS market and has made a number of corporations. First being LinkedIn, followed by Skype. In 1995 Microsoft decided and began to redefine its offers and expand their products line into computer networking and the World Wide Web (“WWW”). After releasing Windows XP (2001), Xbox was launched, allowing the company join the game console market, which was dominated by Sony and Nintendo at the time. A few years later, in 2005, the Xbox 360 was released. Afterwards, in 2009, the first retail Microsoft Store was announced and open in Scottsdale, Arizona. Which allowed the company expand their market. And on the same day, Windows 7 was officially released to the public. As the smartphone market exploded in 2007, the company struggled to keep up with other companies like Apple and Google. In result, Microsoft replaced Windows Mobile with new Windows Phone OS. Lastly the Kinect, a motion-sensing input device, introduced and developed by the organisation, which was first released in 2010. Microsoft is also a founding member of the Open Networking Foundation which started in March, 2011. Other founders were Google, HP Networking, Yahoo, Verizon, Deutsche Telekom and 17 other companies. The organisation was non-profit which focused on providing support for a new cloud computing initiative called Software-Defined-Networking (SDW). It meant to speed innovation through simple software changes in telecommunications networks, wireless network, data centers and other networking areas.

History of Microsoft It was begun by two childhood friends, Bill Gates and Paul Allen who planned on to make a business, using their shared computer programming skills. 1972 they founded their first company, called “Traf-O-Data” which sold a rudimentary computer to track and analyse automobile traffic data. Bill Gates was then studying at Harvard University but later dropped out and worked at Honeywell. After that both colleagues introduced Microsoft on April 4, 1975. In 1977 they created an agreement with ASCII Magazine in Japan, which resulted them having a first international office; “ASCII Microsoft”, but then in 1979 the business moved to Washington. The company fully entered the OS market in 1980, with their own version of “Unix”, called “Xenix”. But it was “MS-DOS” that attracted the popularity to the organisation.

Microsoft Windows The first version of Windows, called Windows 1 was released on 20th of November 1985. As mentioned above it was able to run as a graphical user interface (GUI) with 16-bit multi-tasking shell on top of an existing “MSDOS” installation. It also provided an environment that allowed user to run graphical programs designed for Windows. By 1995 his fortune had grown to $12.9 billion. Windows 1.0 was delayed for about 2 years as it was meant to be released in 1983. The company sold the OS for $99, which came with the GUI itself, a notepad, clock, card file, terminal application, file manager, a game of Reversi, Windows Write and Windows Paint. Windows 1.0’s selling point was its Graphical User Interface, intended to replace the MS-DOS-style command

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Unit 1 Assignment 3 prompts with a much simpler style that looked more like the multitasking we are used to today. The operating system was launched when most computers were still primarily text-based, the hardware requirements for a desktop operating system were expensive, so not everyone was able to use Windows 1. Even though developing Windows was a very successful innovation it had some criticism by critics. It was stated that Windows 1 did not meet their expectations. It was particularly said that there was too much attention on the mouse input at the time when mouse with lower computer hardware specifications. Microsoft ignored this criticism as it was a big and important milestone for the company, as it introduced the Microsoft Windows line. In 2001, it was declared that Windows 1 was obsolete and Microsoft stopped providing updates and support for the system.

Xbox Xbox was firstly launched in 2001, and has been in the console gaming market since. Microsoft constantly releases new versions of the console and competes with other companies like Sony and Nintendo. Xbox is clearly one of the most successful innovations of Microsoft, as it has brought massive amounts of profit to the company, and helped the organisation in spreading into multiple markets. In 2002 Microsoft launched Xbox Live which allowed users who owned Xbox to play online multiplayer, and brought in more profit and popularity for the company. In 2005 Xbox 360 was realised and sold over 77 million consoles worldwide, calculated until April 2013. Finally the current version of Xbox, Xbox one was released in November 2013, which was sold in 21 markets in total.

Kinect The Kinect was first introduced in November 2010. Which is a motion-sensing input device, which was designed as a video game controller. It was upgraded in 2013 after the Xbox one release. The Kinect could function in the dark, because of infrared sensors, higher-end processing power and new software. The ability to distinguish between fine movements (such as finger movements), it could tell the user’s heart rate by examining the face and it had an ultra-wide 1080p camera. This high-end technology interested customers and persuaded into purchasing the product. In July, 2013, Microsoft’s stocks suffered its biggest one-day percentage sell-off since the year 2000, after its fourth quarter report raised concerns among the investors on the poor showing of both Windows 9 and the Surface tablet. This caused Microsoft to lose more than $32 billion.

Windows Mobile and Windows Phone OS Microsoft began to release Windows Mobile in 2000, it was first called “PocketPC 2000” but its origin data was back to Windows CE in 1996. The phone renamed shortly after in 2003, to “Windows Mobile”. Similar to the PC version of the OS it was aimed at businesses and enterprise consumers. Around mid-2000s it became the most popular phone but then faced rapid popularity fall until 2010 where competitors such as Apple’s iOS and Android. Shortly the “Windows Mobile” was discontinued, after releasing the latest version of it, which was 6.5.5. Then the mobile was replaced with “Windows Phone”. Microsoft then began to work closely with smartphone manufacturers, such as Nokia, and providing a consistent user experience across all smartphones using the Windows Phone OS. The company implemented a new user interface design language, which was codenamed “Metro”, it used simple shapes, typography and iconography, utilizing the concept of minimalism.

Nokia Around July 2013, Microsoft announced that it would reorganise the business into four new business divisions, which consisted of;  Operating Systems  Applications  Cloud Storage  Devices It was planned that all other, previous divisions will be diluted into new divisions without any workforce cut, meaning that employees would not lose their jobs and the company would remain a good reputation. After that in September 2013, Microsoft agreed to but Nokia’s mobile unit for $7 billion. Microsoft did this as they planned to triple its smartphone market share over the next 5 years, as it would allow the company to use this acquisition to further merge their software and hardware engineering and design, it also allowed the company to partner with other brands like Acer or Alcatel to deliver Windows Smartphones. But after 3 years, in 2016

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Unit 1 Assignment 3 Microsoft sold Nokia to a subsidiary of Taiwanese firm Foxconn Technology and newly-established firm HMD Global for only $350 million. After wasting at least $8 billion on the failed Nokia experiment, including the costs of restructuring and severance payments for thousands of employees. Originally Microsoft hired 25,000 Nokia employees, but then cut off 1,850 jobs to do with Nokia phone development and almost a year after another 7,800 employees were fired, and only a small number of Nokia employees remained at Microsoft. Which clearly shows that Windows Phone and Nokia, Windows OS was a totally a failed innovation.

Conclusion Microsoft has innovated and created many products as a company, which is one of the reasons why it has such a successful business outcome. Windows changed many lives, and made it far easier to use a computer for people. The interface which was invented by the two colleagues, brought a huge amount of profit towards the company, as it was something that was demanded by many people and was hoped for. Then Microsoft decided to enter other markets, one of the first was the gaming marke...