Caltex and Microsoft: Communication Strategies Comparison Report

This report provides a comprehensive comparative analysis of the business communication strategies employed by Caltex and Microsoft. The report begins with background information on both companies, followed by an examination of their non-electronic and electronic communication methods. A SWOT analysis is then conducted for each company, highlighting their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats in relation to their communication practices. The report then compares the communication strategies of Caltex and Microsoft, focusing on the differences in their approach to electronic and non-electronic communication. Finally, the report concludes with recommendations for improving the business communication strategies of both companies, based on the comparative analysis and SWOT assessments. The report emphasizes the importance of effective communication in the business environment and provides valuable insights for students and professionals alike.

Running head: Business Communication
Business Communication
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction and company background......................................................................................2
Company background of Caltex Petroleum 185........................................................................2
Company background of Microsoft...........................................................................................3
Synopsis of non-Electronic Communication method................................................................3
-Caltex....................................................................................................................................3
-Microsoft...............................................................................................................................4
Synopsis of electronic media and communication strategies.....................................................5
-Caltex....................................................................................................................................5
-Microsoft...............................................................................................................................6
SWOT analysis of overall communication methods..................................................................7
Caltex:....................................................................................................................................7
Microsoft:...............................................................................................................................8
Comparison between communication practices of Caltex and Microsoft.................................9
Recommendations and conclusion...........................................................................................10
References:...............................................................................................................................12

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Introduction and company background
This report makes and in-depth analysis between the communication strategies
employed by the two companies, namely Caltex and Microsoft. After the company
background provided in the initial part, summary of both electronic as well as non-Electronic
Communication strategies employed by organisations have been provided in this report.
Based on the factors of advantage and disadvantage in communication channels of both
organisations, detailed SWOT analysis have been contacted. In the next part, that is inception
four assessment and comparison between the communication practices have been displayed.
Lastly, recommendations have been provided keeping both the organisations in mind in
context to the improvement of their business communication strategies.
Company background of Caltex Petroleum
Caltex Petroleum is one of the biggest successful joint ventures where 50% share is
owned by chevron and other 50% by Australian shareholders. The Assets of the company are
better than their closest Rival, the Royal Dutch Shell group. Chevron Corporation As Well As
Texaco. The market expense of the organisation spread across Petroleum And convenience
products. Caltex Petroleum has equity interest over 14 fuel refinery, 17 lubricant blending
facilities along with more than 500 Ocean depots as well as terminals. There is major
presence of the company in East Africa, East Asia, delete, South Pacific, Southeast Asia and
other areas as well and it is the only Petroleum company which operates in all the major
markets of Asia. The well trained as well as efficient International workforce of the
organisation, comprising of 7500 members are engaged in activities like oil refining,
marketing as well as production of facilities for operation. However, 98% of the employees
of the company belong to the domestic market. Since its Inception, organisation has

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emphasised on development of overseas opportunities for oil refining as well as marketing of
their products (Caltex 2019).
Company background of Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is a multinational company on the software and technology
industry, headquartered in the USA. The organization is one of the leaders in the market and
specializes in the development manufacture, licensing, spport and sales of software,
hardwires and computers as well as various consumer electronic products. Its famous
software products includes the Microsoft Windows Operating System, Microsoft Office
Package, Web Browsers (such as EDGE and Internet Explorer) as well as flagship products
such as X-Box consoles. In terms of its revenues, Microsoft is the largest manufacturers of
software and is considered one of the most valuable companies in the worlds, ranking at 30
among the Fortune 500 companies. Founded in 1975 by Paul Allen and Bill Gates, the
organization currently makes an annual revenue of 110.4 billion USD, with a net operating
income of approximately 35.1 billion USD, net income of 16.6 billion USD and employing
about 135,000 people (as of 2018). In 2018, Microsoft also became the most valuable
company that is publicly traded, surpassing Apple Inc., after being replaced by Apple Inc. in
2010, thereby gaining back their long standing position in the market. In 2019, the value of
Microsoft was estimated to be about 1 trillion USD (Microsoft 2019).
Synopsis of non-Electronic Communication method
-Caltex
The non-electronic communication methods that are used by Caltex includes the following:
 Face to Face meetings: Caltex uses face to face meetings are the primary form of non-
electronic communication, which are conducted on both on eon one as well as a group

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bases. This approach helps to maintain the human interaction. Furthermore, face to
face meetings helps to develop better communication between people, ensure clarity
and openness in the communication, provide people to use and understand the use of
body language and supports better focus among the participants.
 Mails: Caltex also relies on physical mains over emails for confidential and important
mail communication. The approach is especially used for communication with the
external stakeholders of the business and for the communication of certain
announcements to the internal stakeholders. Mails are used mainly to ensure and
maintain the formal nature of the communication. However, it should be noted that
this method of communication can often be very slow, compared to electronic mails
thereby making them ineffective for urgent communications.
 Printed Feedback Forms: Caltex also uses several printed feedback forms as a way to
support non-electronic communications within the organization. The feedback forms
allows the employees to communicate their opinions and ideas to the leadership and
the management and this set to a two way communication within the organization.
(Pearson 2017
-Microsoft
The non-electronic communication methods used by Microsoft includes the following:
 Meetings: Microsoft uses face to face meetings for its important business related
communication with its employees. Even though Microsoft significantly augments
meetings with technologies that allow long distance meetings, face to face meetings
are still preferred within the work promises that allow better communication between
the employees. The board meetings and various team meetings within the
organization are usually held face to face, where all the members have to be present in

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the meeting rooms physically. This practice have always been the traditional approach
for meetings in Microsoft. Moreover, the meetings were also aimed to be confidential
by ensuring that they are held behind closed door while discussing confidential
business matters. Develop a communication with the employees. Individual meetings
are moreover used to discuss important business agenda or performance reviews with
the employees.
 Mails: Microsoft also utilizes mails to communicate with the stakeholders and with its
employees in a formal manner. However, Microsoft is currently trying to reduce the
usage of printed papers in an attempt to reduce its carbon footprint.
(Sherrow et al. 2016)
Synopsis of electronic media and communication strategies
-Caltex
The electronic media and communication strategies used by Caltex includes the following:
 YouTube marketing: The Company uses YouTube for its marketing activities, and
advertisement campaigns, through which the business reaches out to millions of
global customers and thereby develop a positive brand image. Caltex uses effective
strategies to keep its videos and campaigns active in YouTube communities through
regular activities and updates.
 Podcasts: Caltex releases podcasts and updates on its products on a regular basis in
order to maintain engagement with the business. The podcasts also helps the business
to create a communication channel with the subscribers through which the business
can communicate important business updates and performance reviews with the

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stakeholders. The podcasts are released on a weekly basis to ensure continuity and
regularity.
 Virtual Events: The virtual events are important for the company to engage the
customers over a long distance over audiovisual meetings and events and contests
through which the company can engage the customer’s and other stakeholders with
the progress of the business and keep them informed of the updates from the business
on a real time manner. The virtual events also allows the stakeholders to engage with
the business without having to be present physically in the business premises.
(Cardon and Marshall 2015)
-Microsoft
The electronic and media communication strategy that is used by Microsoft includes the
following:
 Social Media Marketing: Microsoft uses Social Media platforms to reach out to the
social media users regarding product launches and releases and therefore engage with
the customer base. The social media platforms also allows the customers to share their
views and feedbacks with the business.
 Online advertisements: Microsoft uses online advertisements that are aired on online
platforms such as YouTube. These platforms allows Microsoft to ensure its online
presence is felt on major online platforms thereby indicating its leadership position.
 In App communication services: Microsoft also has inbuilt communication services
within kits software and app through which diagnostic reports, technical data and
customer service information can be relayed with the users. The in App
communication modes also ensures a secure more of communication with the

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organizations while providing a reliable and failsafe channels for the customers to
reach for assistance while using Microsoft products.
 Emails: Emails are widely used by Microsoft to communicate with its stakeholders on
a regular basis and also ensure a faster email response time. Microsoft generally
utilize email services to ensure that the communication can be traced and therefore
helps in references in business meetings.
(Ha and Riffe 2015)
SWOT analysis of overall communication methods
Caltex:
 Strengths: Some of the key strengths of Caltex in terms of its overall communication
is the fact that the company uses multiple communication channels to effectively
engage with the stakeholders and focuses on the two way and open communication
that helps the business to understand the views and feedbacks of the customers.
Additionally the company also has strong and efficient teams that engage with the
customers in order to ensure optimal success.
 Weaknesses: The weakness of the business includes its inability to use technological
advances to support more efficient electronic communication within the business.
Caltex also lacks adequate measures to ensure security of its online communication
due to which there has been incidents of data breach in the recent years. Caltex also
lacks effective strategies to support its teams to have a good inter team
communication platforms online.
 Opportunities: The business has a significant opportunity on the development of new
technological advances that can not only allow better security but facilitate better
connectivity and easier sharing of information and data. Furthermore, the technologies

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can also allow better engagement of the stakeholders with the business and its
processes. The communication systems also has the opportunities of being integrated
more effectively with the business processes and provide the employees and
continuous, consistent and better connectivity with each other.
 Threats: The only major threats that faces the scope of communication includes
external factors that can affect the business processes as well as internal processes that
can cause disruptions to the business.
(Steele and Plenty 2015)
Microsoft:
 Strengths: The strongest aspects of Microsoft’s communication system is the
massive support system through which it has to address its communication needs,
including several call centers through which the customers can communicate with
the business on a regular basis. Microsoft also uses several communication
channels to support better communication both within as well as outside the
organization and utilizes advanced technologies to facilitate better a\and more
secure communication.
 Weaknesses: A key weakness of the communication system used by Microsoft is that
is is primarily one way through which information usually flows from the business to
the stakeholders. However the flow of information from the stakeholders to the
business are poorly supported by the communication systems
 Opportunities: The Company has several opportunities in the form of communication
developments and new technologies that can help businesses grow and prosper. It has
also been seen that the new opportunities for technological developments that can

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facilitate better communication with the stakeholders can aksi be developed by the
company.
 Threats: The biggest threats for the communications systems for Microsoft is cny
change in the culture that can adversely impact the communication systems of the
business. The company can also be affected by economic and political factors that can
impact communication systems of the region there they operate.
(Ganguly 2017
Comparison between communication practices of Caltex and Microsoft
The communication system used by Microsoft uses technology more efficiently
compared to Caltex and has more lenience towards used advanced communication
technologies such as fiber optics, 4G communication or VPN for connectivity and
communication compared to Caltex. Microsoft on the other hand focuses on the flow of
information from the business to the stakeholders and does to have strong feedback systems
that can allow the business to understand the mindsets of the stakeholders more efficiently. It
can be understood that Caltex incorporates a more open form of communication as well as a
dual communication system where the business was able to understand the perspectives,
mindsets and feedbacks of the customers through efficient feedback systems used by the
company. Microsoft however failed to introduce such system into its operations. The
communication system of Microsoft was more oriented towards the usage of technology
thereby making it very expensive to use and thus also leads to an underutilization of the
communication resources to minimize the expenses. Due to which several important
information fails to get communicated within the business, which in incase of Caltex
Microsoft’s communication systems uses a universal model of communication that
includes consumer and enterprise grade service, user experience from IM and voice calls to

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messaging services, enterprise voice services, multiple video conferencing modalities, single
identity and presence across workloads, on premises hybrid or cloud deployment, and native
sharing tools all of which aims to promote better communication for the business and its
stakeholders. The communication systems of Caltex however lacks such technologies, and
instead focuses mainly on the traditional formats of physical and electronic communication
channels. Moreover, the limited usw if technology also leads to the physical communication
media being used more frequently in the organization.
Microsoft has its own email and communication systems through which the global
workforce can stay in direct communication with each other. This direct communication
channel can help the employees to reach anyone in the organizational hierarchy regarding
their concerns and grievances and thus ensure better employee loyalty. The communication
systems used by Caltex has been able to create a respectful environment within the
organization due to which the organization has been able to promote better engagement with
the employees and stakeholders thereby allowing the organization to overcome the challenges
it faces due to the underutilization of the resources within the business. Even through its
usage of technology is less than Microsoft, its better success has been supported by the
engagement with the stakeholders’ within the communication process. Microsoft on the other
hand has an extensive network of communication with the business stakeholders however
most of the communication is one sided and mainly facilitates the flow of information from
the business to the stakeholders and not the other way around (Pearson 2017).
Recommendations and conclusion
The following recommendations can be given for the both Microsoft and Caltex in order
to help them make their communication systems more effective and efficient:

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 Ensuring clarity in communication: It should be ensured that the communication
language, media and concepts are clear and well understood by people and there is no
misunderstanding in the communicated ideas and concepts.
 Supporting bidirectional flow of information: Businesses should moreover focus to
ensure that the communication takes place bi- directionally thereby ensuring that both
the parties gets to hear each other out and understand each other’s points of view and
perspectives.
 Training employees on communication technologies and strategies: Companies
should also provide training to its employees on how to use technologies to support
best communication methods and also set up best practices in communication
technology usage. Training can therefor also reduce underutilization of technological
resources of the business.
 Ensuring respect in communication: Companies can ensure that the communication
strategies used by the business is respectful for the business stakeholders and
understand their concerns as well as address them in a responsive and respectful
manner.
 Using both verbal and nonverbal communication strategies: Both verbal as well as
non-verbal modes of communication while engaging with the employees and
stakeholders on a face to face bases can help to develop better understanding the
communication and therefore facilitate the business in a better way.
Following these recommendations it can be possible for businesses to design and
develop better communication within its system and also support better sharing of knowledge
and information within the organization. This report manages to provide a detailed analysis
between the communication strategies employed by Caltex and Microsoft, and with these

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recommendations, a way of improvement of their business communication strategies has
been found.

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https://www.microsoft.com/en-in [Accessed 31 May 2019].

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