Leadership and Strategy: Microsoft Sales Organization Overhaul Case

This case study examines the transformation of the Microsoft sales organization, led by Jean-Philippe Courtois, in response to the shift to cloud computing. The assignment delves into the challenges and strategies employed during the massive overhaul, which involved restructuring, hiring, retraining...Read More

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Course Code
Name of Student
Institution Affiliation

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The Article
The case is about, Jean – Philippe Courtois, how he made the most of a massive
business opportunity like the migration of computing to the cloud. While achieving this, he
had to face a lot of challenges. He had to go through a lot of tough situations during the most
significant change that was experienced by the Microsoft Sales Organization. Furthermore, in
the later parts, the study provides context about how Microsoft was managed under their third
chief executive, Satya Nadella. Moreover, the case offers how Jean – Philippe controlled the
situation of the prolonged change, how he controlled the massive recruitments and put
everything to proper use. Also, he addresses what is still left to do (Finkelstein et al., 2009).
It’s been more than 15 years since the change has started, and they still have a long way to
go.
Theories and Frameworks
The key idea is to get a clear view of the individuals at the level, their backgrounds,
talents, beliefs, social relations, expectations, and other individual characteristics to explain
why organizations are doing what they are doing or behaving as they do. A comparatively
few core individuals in the domain of an entity may significantly influence the behavior or
inactions of an object. Strategic leadership involves specific employees, in particular chief
executives, management committees or senior management teams, and regulatory bodies,
especially directors (Ibarra & Jones, 2019).
Personal Takeaway from the Case
Primarily I learned a lot about how to manage any kind of operations, whether it is
massive or small scale operation. If anyone who is supervising the process of any scale must
keep calm and keep on assessing the situations at hand and make proper plans according to it,

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any situation can be accepted and can be dealt with. So, I learned how to deal with
organizational problems in the future.

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References
Finkelstein, S., Cannella, S. F. B., Hambrick, D. C., & Cannella, A. A. (2009). Strategic
leadership: Theory and research on executives, top management teams, and boards.
Oxford University Press, USA.
Ibarra, H., & Jones, A. (2019). Jean-Philippe Courtois at Microsoft Global Sales, Marketing
and Operations: Empowering Digital Success. Harvard Business Review case no.
LBS218 (Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing.