Background
Introduction of the Organization
Microsoft is among the leading technology companies in the world and was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen as a software and hardware store. The corporation has its headquarters in Redmond, Washington, United States, and is headed by Satya Nadella as its chief executive officer (Parker, 2019). Microsoft has grown to become the largest technology company in the United States by including operating systems, mobile and computer apps, and cloud computing services into its products. As of 2018, Microsoft had 134,944 employees who the corporation is centered around. Though Microsoft has dominated the technology market for decades, it now faces stiff competition from Apple, Google, HP, Sony, and SAP (Parker, 2019). However, the corporation has a robust market and workforce joint with a stable financial base that has enabled it to cope with stiff competition in the technology market. Microsoft has been keen to meet customer expectations on quality and ease of using their gadgets to create customer loyalty and increase purchase frequency, as can be seen by its devotion to creating an enabling support experience for customers.
Situational Analysis
The internal environment of Microsoft corporation includes its business model that targets to develop software, hardware, services, and technological solutions that will be of value to the customers and help the customers and businesses to optimize their potential (Warner, 2019). The corporation intends to provide solutions to all software needs of the customers by improving the quality and ease of use. Microsoft's competitive advantage is based on its strategy to create value for money. Besides, following the appointment of Satya Nadella as the CEO, Microsoft has engaged in artificial intelligence programs, cloud computing, quantum computing, and mixed reality to capture the drastically changing technology space.
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Externally, Microsoft faces competition from various companies. For example, the company competes with cloud computing services from Apple, which by 2018 had a market share of 32.3% compared to Microsoft's 16.5% (Warner, 2019). Microsoft also faces stiff competition for communication services such as Skype and Skype for Business from Google and Facebook. Also, Microsoft's gaming technologies compete with consoles from Nintendo and Sony, which enjoy a larger customer base (Warner, 2019). Generally, Microsoft Corporation capitalizes on the solid and competitive rivalry to improve the quality of products and build its customer base. In addition, the corporation's customers have moderate bargaining power while the suppliers have low bargaining power (Warner, 2019). The suppliers have a low bargaining power since Microsoft has a broad market that many suppliers cannot ignore. Also, the corporation faces a low threat of substitutes and a moderate threat of new entrants into the technology market (Warner, 2019). Therefore, the external environment allows Microsoft Corporation to grow and expand its customer base into developing markets.
Microsoft Corporation SWOT Analysis
Microsoft's strength comes from its big market share in software technology. Microsoft is the world's largest producer of computer operating systems and commercial clouds (Parker, 2019). Microsoft enjoyed a market value of approximately $750.6 billion in 2018, which ranked it as the fourth most valuable company globally (Parker, 2019). Besides, Microsoft has a vast market in over 190 countries, having grown significantly due to advancements in technology. Microsoft also capitalizes on its strong brand and huge market value to attract suppliers and customers. However, Microsoft's weak links are due to the instability in the computer market, which results in fluctuations in prices and hence risking the software and hardware market. Also, cybercrimes have exposed Microsoft to cyber-attacks that paralyze operations. Lastly, Microsoft is slow in innovation compared to Apple, Amazon, and Google and hence, the corporation has declining hardware product sales.
Unlike most of its competitors, Microsoft has an opportunity in the cloud business and artificial intelligence since it is already established in these technologies. Microsoft can also utilize the fast-growing smartphone industry and capitalize on the high demand for phones (Parker, 2019). The corporation can also employ cost leadership strategies to lower the costs and increase the sale of its products. Nevertheless, the corporation faces stiff competition and rapidly changing consumer preferences that might be difficult to satisfy fully. The corporation's productivity is also at risk since there has been criticism on employee diversity imbalance which risks its reputation (Parker, 2019). Lastly, Microsoft is likely to experience more piracy and cybercrimes that can interfere with its security network systems.
Internal Communication Strategies
Microsoft Corporation employs a communication system that allows real-time sharing of information between the stakeholders and the organization to facilitate organizational goals and objectives. Internally, Microsoft facilitates employee engagement and collaboration where employees can access data and transmit feedback to the management promptly to enable an employee-centered management approach. Microsoft uses enterprise-level social networking that connects all employees to enabled sharing of ideas and information. Besides, Microsoft uses Yammer as a communication channel that links the management and the employees (Hougaard et al., 2019). Yammer creates a sense of community and association since the employees are involved in discussions on critical matters in the organization. Microsoft also applies the daily pulse checks that sample the employees' views on the corporation's operations and culture. Moreover, Microsoft holds monthly live events to engage all stakeholders on the corporation's priorities and progress worldwide.
Internal Communication Issue
Microsoft Corporation has been using frequent meetings as a strategy of employee engagement and internal communication. Though the meetings have been involving employees, they have not been improving employee engagement in the corporation (Abed, 2019). Additionally, Abed (2019) note that employees in Microsoft were engaged in long meetings that involve 20 to 30 people in one room before the pandemic, thus limiting engagements. Unhappy employees spend about 27 hours every week in meetings, which has had a negative impact on employee satisfaction and relationship with the management. Therefore, Microsoft Corporation needs to develop a new internal communication plan that will meet employee needs, while trying to incorporate their views.
New Internal Communication Plan
Audience Analysis
The target audience for the new internal communication plan is to the junior employees and the management in Microsoft Corporation globally. The communication plan will also benefit the minority employees who might be discriminated against in policy discussions and formulation.
Goals and Objectives
The new communication plan will improve effective employee engagement strategies by making them friendly to the employees. Besides, the plan seeks to improve satisfaction levels in the company. In addition, the new plan will seek to maximize employees' inputs in the engagements between them and the management. The plan will target to create an employee-centered communication strategy that facilitates positive interaction, collaboration, and sharing of ideas among employees and the management.
Key Messages
The internal audience should know that they are essential stakeholders in the operation of Microsoft Corporation, and so, their satisfaction and input are essential to the business's success. Therefore, employees should think of innovative ways to communicate their ideas to the management since the company’s managers and the CEO cannot interact with every employee globally. The management should figure out ways to use the employees’ supervisors to advocate for better communication and engagement strategies to address the organization's goals and objectives effectively.
Strategy
The new internal communication plan will include the agile communication strategy that involves real-time handling of information and feedback and effective engagement of all stakeholders. The agile communication strategy will be implemented by setting the anchors on the stakeholders, including the employees and the management. Besides, Welz (2018) suggests that the management should understand the audience, the employees, to ensure that the applied communication strategy is effective regarding employee satisfaction and engagement. Besides changing how messages are delivered, agile communication strategies demand that the messages be refined to ensure that they are only engaged in only what relates to them. Agile communication strategies will minimize the time taken in meetings in Microsoft and the number of people in each meeting to ensure that every stakeholder contributes significantly to the discussed topics. The meetings will be made shorter by encouraging departmental meetings rather than general meetings where the agendas are fewer and more relating to the employees in those departments. General meetings should only be held when the management intends to engage all the employees on the institution's matters.
Channels
The new communication plan can be communicated through departmental heads since they will be in charge of the departmental communications. The departmental heads will explain how the agile communication strategy works and their role in implementing the new strategy to address the employees’ communication concerns.
Evaluation
As Buhmann & Likely (2018) state, evaluation is the basis of effective communication plans. Therefore, the agile communication strategy will include internal surveys to monitor employee satisfaction in relation to more effective engagement and communication. The surveys will be done at the departmental and company levels to compare which communication method is more effective in employee engagement. The surveys will estimate employee activity during the engagement sessions, satisfaction indexes, and the level of association with the corporation after communications. The analysis can use randomized tests to check whether agile communication strategies significantly impact employee satisfaction and ease of engagement.
References
Abed, R. (2019). Microsoft found that banning this 1 thing led to happier employees. INC. https://www.inc.com/robbie-abed/microsoft-found-that-banning-this-1-thing-led-to-happier-employees.html .
Buhmann, A; Likely, F. (2018): Evaluation and measurement in strategic communication. In R. L. Heath, W. Johansen (eds): The International Encyclopedia of Strategic Communication . pp. 652-640. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
Hougaard, R., Carter, J., Hogan, K. (2019). How Microsoft builds a sense of community among 144,000 employees . Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2019/08/how-microsoft-builds-a-sense-of-community-among-144000-employees
Parker, B. (2019). Microsoft SWOT Analysis 2019. Business Strategy Hub. https://bstrategyhub.com/swot-analysis-of-microsoft/
Warner, J. P. (2019). Microsoft: A Strategic Audit . University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Welz, T. (2018). How to build a solid yet agile communications plan . Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2018/12/10/how-to-build-a-solid-yet-agile-communications-plan/
