The Microsoft Corporation was founded in 1975 with its headquarters in Albuquerque, New Mexico (Microsoft, 2019). The firm is among the leading developers of personal computer software, applications, and systems. The organization has sales offices all over the world with research labs in seven different places across the world. The Corporation has144, 106 worldwide employees with its biggest percentage of financial breakout falling on engineering followed by worldwide commercial business (Microsoft, 2019). The firm enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent edge and cloud, with its mission to empower every organization and person in the world to achieve more.
Overview
In 1975, two childhood friends converted the BASIC mainframe computer programing language to be used on the Altair- the first Personal Computer ever, and the two friends were Bill Gates and Paul Allen. From their first personal computer, they have managed to create more operating systems, applications, and even venture into the gaming and mobile fields. The firm has a good reputation among its shareholders who are proud of their accomplishments and have much optimism about their future innovations and projects. The firm is able to uphold a good reputation by being innovative and helping their consumers. The firm also has good corporate communication strategies that could improve by fostering more internal communicators and meeting its shareholders halfway.
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Objectives
Identify the reputation of the firm among its stakeholders
Identify the ways the firm upholds its reputation.
Identify the corporate communication strategies of Microsoft Corporation and determine their importance
Identify two recommendations to Microsoft's corporate communication strategies.
Company Overview :
In 1975, two childhood friends (Bill Gates and Paul Allen) decided to convert the BASIC mainframe computer programing language to be used on the Altair. Shortly after, they founded the Corporation, which they named Microsoft from the terms microcomputer and software (Microsoft, 2019). Gates and Allen then continued to refine BASIC and advance more programming languages. Half a decade later, IBM contracted Microsoft to create an operating system for the firms' first PC (Microsoft, 2019). The Corporation then purchased an operating system from another organization and modified it to create the MS-DOS, which brought in massive revenues for the Corporation as numerous pc manufactures licensed it as their operating system (Microsoft, 2019). Microsoft continued to venture into new fields of gaming and mobile production. As years passed, Microsoft grew more launching more programs, applications, and stores around the world.
Reputation :
Satya, the current CEO of the firm, acknowledges that the shareholders are proud of the accomplishment and innovation that have occurred (Microsoft, 2018). They are also satisfied with the help that they have aided to their customers to navigate through the transformation. The shareholders share optimism in their future endeavors. Hood, the CFO at Microsoft, explains how the previous financial year saw them grow in industrial and technical expertise alongside the reorganization of their engineering team (Microsoft, 2018). Thus the firm has a good reputation from its profitability, innovation, and help they give to its consumers.
The company has a good reputation that it manages to uphold. The company is an innovative firm that has the interest of its consumers at heart. They unveil new products that help realize its mission. It also explains why the firm is highly productive as they fulfill the needs of their employees without fail. The firm also has other endeavors that it uses to further its good reputation. In January this year, they unveiled the $500 million affordable housing commitment in the Puget Sound region (Microsoft 2019). This is among the many charitable deeds that the film indulges in to create a better world for its consumers, thus boosting their reputation.
Corporate Communication Functions :
Corporate communication and public relations are two terms that can be used interchangeably. There are several examples of corporate investor communication strategies at Microsoft. The three corporate investor communications strategies are as follows
Yearly shareholder meetings where they interact with their investors (Microsoft, 2019). The firm holds annual meetings that allows the investors to learn about the profitability and risks and future plans of the company.
Effective employee relations where they have a website that has all the necessary events posted for their employees (Microsoft, 2019). The firm measures how engaged their audience is according to how they act regarding the messages they receive (Microsoft, 2019). They also nurture modern communications among its employees.
Other communication strategies include its media relations. The firm realizes that the media is a form through which all their stake holders acquire information from. They have created their press release site where they provide shareholders, and consumers the necessary information on the company (Microsoft, 2019).
These corporate communication strategies help the company to achieve its goals by facilitating open communication channels. Investors, consumers, and employees are up to date with everything the firm plans on doing and the benefits they get in return. Sources like the Microsoft News Center ensures there are no misleading information about the firm to preserve the integrity of information that is shared regarding the firm. These strategies are important to the Corporation as they help it achieve its success as shareholders are able to understand the corporate activities and weigh in on them.
Recommendations :
The company could improve its corporate communication strategies in the following two ways. First, I believe the firm could improve more on making employees internal communicators. This will help the firm further its reach and gain more profit as employees will be able to communicate better on the current projects that they undertake or any other initiatives that come their way. The second way that Microsoft could improve its corporate communication strategy is through meeting their employees and shareholders where they are. The firm tries a lot to reach everyone, especially during the annual shareholder meeting. Last year's annual shareholder's meeting attendance was 87.5% (Microsoft, 2018). This may partially be because the remaining shareholders did not get the notice through the means that they use most. They should conduct surveys and learn more about their shareholders to meet them halfway to ensure they get all notifications and attend necessary meetings .
References
Microsoft. (2018). Microsoft Annual Shareholder Meeting. Retrieved from https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https://c.s-microsoft.com/en-us/CMSFiles/ASM_2018.docx?version=518e9a25-c91e-3779-8485-01d410cf1d51
Microsoft. (2019). Retrieved from https://news.microsoft.com/category/press-releases/
Microsoft. (2019). Retrieved from https://news.microsoft.com/facts-about-microsoft/
Microsoft. (2019). Retrieved from https://resources.techcommunity.microsoft.com/employee-engagement-communications/
Microsoft. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/about
Microsoft. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/growth center/resources/improve-communication-in-the-workplace-to-grow-your-business
Microsoft. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/investor
