Building High-Performing Organizations: Microsoft and EFQM Model

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Microsoft Corporation through the lens of the EFQM (European Foundation for Quality Management) Business Excellence Model. The analysis begins with an executive summary and a critique of the EFQM model, highlighting its application in the European context and its support for Total Quality Management. The report then delves into Microsoft's specific application of the EFQM model, focusing on Criterion 4 (Partnership and Resources) and Criterion 5 (Processes, Products, and Services). It evaluates Microsoft's relationships with partners and suppliers, including its segmentation strategies and policies. Furthermore, the report offers a justification for a supply chain/operations strategy that Microsoft could pursue to enhance its performance. Part B of the report explores potential impacts of changes in the macro-environment on Microsoft's marketing strategies, including an examination of competitive advantage, segmentation, targeting, positioning, and branding. Finally, the report identifies and assesses two growth opportunities for Microsoft within the changing macro-environment.

Running Head : BUILDING HIGH-PERFORMING ORGANIZATIONS
Building High- Performing Organizations
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

2BUILDING THE HIGH-PERFORMING ORGANIZATIONS
Executive Summary
The paper deals with the summary and critique of the EFQM business excellence model. This
particular model is known for the quality management in the European context that is utilized by
the maximum organizations. The quality management framework supports the concepts of Total
Quality Management. The organizations are supported in sharing information in a proper way.
The organizations can also take other insights for meeting the higher standards of performances.
The paper then shows the application of the EFQM business excellence model in terms of the
Microsoft Corporation. In the EFQM model, the criterion 4 and 5 are given special importance.
The relationship management with the partners and the suppliers are given special importance in
the criterion 4. The Microsoft Corporation segments the suppliers and the partners in complying
with the strategy of the organization. It has adopted various policies to work with both the
groups. It has built a sustainable relationship with suppliers and the partners founded on mutual
trust. Then the paper provides suggestions and justification regarding the supply chain strategy of
the organization. In the part B, the paper shows change in any of the MACRO environment
forces of the organization. The organization should focus on the mobile smartphones. The paper
then outlines the marketing strategies of Microsoft Corporation covering the competitive
advantage, the segmentation, targeting, positioning and branding of the company. Lastly, it picks
up two of the growth opportunities and elaborates those further.

3BUILDING THE HIGH-PERFORMING ORGANIZATIONS
Table of Contents
PART A...........................................................................................................................................4
The summary and critique of the EFQM Business excellence model.............................................4
Application of the EFQM business excellence model in Microsoft Corporation...........................4
Microsoft Corporation.................................................................................................................5
Criterion 4- Partnership and Resources.......................................................................................5
Criterion 5- Processes, products and services..............................................................................7
Justification of supply chain/operations strategy.............................................................................8
PART B.........................................................................................................................................11
Change in any of the MACRO environment forces......................................................................11
The marketing strategies of Microsoft Corporation......................................................................11
The competitive advantage........................................................................................................11
Segmentation, targeting and positioning:..................................................................................13
Branding....................................................................................................................................16
Two growth opportunities of the organization..............................................................................17
The Intelligent Cloud to dominate other segments....................................................................17
Success through acquisition.......................................................................................................18

4BUILDING THE HIGH-PERFORMING ORGANIZATIONS

5BUILDING THE HIGH-PERFORMING ORGANIZATIONS
PART A
The summary and critique of the EFQM Business excellence model
The EFQM stands for the European Foundation for Quality Management and was
founded in the year 1988 having the aim of developing a platform where the firms can easily
learn from others for improving the performance continuously. The benchmarking with the
European organizations is supposed to be leading to the sustainable economic growth. The
EFQM helps the managers and the directors in training, ideas sharing and innovating having the
support of EFQM model being the framework. The EFQM business excellence model is famous
for quality management in the context of Europe and it is used by most of the organizations. The
quality management framework covers the concepts of Total Quality Management(TQM)
(Escrig-Tena, Garcia-Juan & Segarra-Ciprés, 2019). It helps the organizations to share their
information in a particular way being irrespective of various cultures, sectors and life stages
where they are located. Thus, organization can take other types of organizations as their model
and gain insights from them in meeting high standards of performance. In the EFQM model,
there are different enablers such as leadership, strategy, people, partnership and resources,
process, product and services leading to the customer results, the people results, society results
and the business results (Para-González, Jiménez-Jiménez & Martínez-Lorente, 2018). The
EFQM model also consists of the EFQM assessment that helps an organization in determining
their position in the quality process. This assessment begins with reviewing the results. This is
rather an underlying principle that improves the results through measures taken in one of the
organizational areas. This particular model along with the assessment provides insight to the
maturity level of an organization.

6BUILDING THE HIGH-PERFORMING ORGANIZATIONS
Application of the EFQM business excellence model in Microsoft Corporation:
Microsoft Corporation
The Microsoft Corporation is considered to be the top developer of the personal-
computer system and all the related applications. This organization publishes multimedia titles
along with producing the hybrid tablet computers. It also offers the e-mail services, the
electronic-games systems and the computer peripherals too. Bill Gates and Paul G. Allen
founded the organization in the year 1975. The company expanded itself rapidly with the
electronic publishing division that was created in the year 1985.
Criterion 4- Partnership and Resources:
It is to be noted that the successful organizations can plan manage the outer part of the
organization where the business partnerships, the suppliers along with the internal resources
become extremely important for receiving proper support when needed. It ensures that the
organization manages effectively the social and the environmental impacts. The requirements
under partnership and resources criterion asks to ensure that the shareholders and the suppliers
and well-managed for sustainable benefits (Gómez, Martínez Costa & Martínez Lorente, 2017).
It also shows that the finances are well-managed for securing sustained success, the equipment,
building, the natural resources and materials are managed in a sustainable manner. It also
requires that the technology of an organization is well managed in terms of supporting the
strategy delivery. The information along with the knowledge are also managed properly for
supporting an effective decision-making and building the capability of the organization.
In terms of maintaining relationship with the partners, Microsoft keeps a progressive
approach towards their own role in the channel. The organization can be referred to as a

7BUILDING THE HIGH-PERFORMING ORGANIZATIONS
‘managed partner’. The company has medal tiering program like other large vendors for almost
25 areas of competency such as the customer relationships management, the business
intelligence, the content and collaboration and many others. There always a subjectivity
regarding who becomes selected for the managed partner in Microsoft and they make decisions
founded on the list of partners having different levels of accomplishments. In Microsoft, they try
to produce the products following strict environmental criteria and the products are designed for
being compliant with the legal requirements that are applicable. The products and their services
are also spearheading the future of then office. Microsoft also conducts the business obeying the
applicable laws and the polices (Abdolshah et al., 2016). Further, they strive for building
sustainable products for protecting the employee safety, the customers and the public too. The
organization also takes care of the energy conservation, reusability and recycling where possible.
They conserve all the natural resources through use of the recyclable , recycled and the
renewable materials. They do it through efficient energy use and participating in the recycling
programs for their products. The performance of the organization is continually improving since
their target is set on continual environment and the management systems from the employee and
the suppliers. They also identify the environmental risks along with the areas from further
improvement. The raw materials are sourced responsibly as stated in the Responsible Sourcing
of Raw Materials Policy. It is also aimed at collaborating with the industry groups, the people
and the NGOs enabling the organization to maintain their standards.
Through their policies and facilities, the organization can eliminate the wastes by reusing
the materials, the recycling and the source reduction. The waste is proper handled by them and
disposed by some sage and environment friendly methods (Calvo-Mora et al., 2015). The
Microsoft Corporation segments the suppliers and the partners in complying with the strategy of

8BUILDING THE HIGH-PERFORMING ORGANIZATIONS
the organization. It has adopted various policies to work with both the groups. It has built a
sustainable relationship with suppliers and the partners founded on mutual trust , openness and
values. It also monitors to determine whether the suppliers and the partners are operating
properly in line with the organization or not. The potential partnership options are enabled in the
organization to enjoy benefits. It is also for gaining enhanced value for the stakeholders,
resources, knowledge and supporting each other with expertise. Regarding the financial aspect, it
can be said that the Microsoft Corporation has designed the financial planning, the reporting and
controlling processes for optimising the resources usages (Fonseca, 2015). It has also allocated
the resources for providing long-term needs instead of the short-term gains for remaining
competitive always. Then waste management policies help the organization in measuring and
optimising the impact of their activities such as product lifecycle and the public health and
safety. It also puts effort on minimising the local and the global environmental impacts such as
challenging goals having exceeded the legal standards.
Criterion 5- Processes, products and services
Regarding the processes, it is found that Microsoft believes in bringing the country
forward through the help of technology and processes. The operations in the organization
supports the operations in the region covering the customer contract along with the order
processing, the information processing, credit and the collections with vendor management and
logistics. The data centres across Europe, Americas and Asia regions are operated well by the
data operations centres. In order to serve different needs of the customers in the whole world
through improving the usability and quality of the products in the global markets, they use to
localize most of their products for reflecting on conventions and local languages. The product
localization might need the user interface modification and translating the text. They also

9BUILDING THE HIGH-PERFORMING ORGANIZATIONS
contract the manufacturing activities for games and Xbox 360 and different retail software
packaged products. They are also connected with the surface devices along with the Microsoft
PC hardware to the third parties. The products can also include few components available from
limited resources. On the other hand, the integrated central processing graphics is purchased
from IBM.
Additionally, the embedded dynamic random access memory chips are bought from
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing company. There are sole source suppliers that produce
primary components for surface devices. The Microsoft Corporation have the capability to utilize
other manufacturers when the current vendor becomes unable and unavailable to meet other
requirements. They also have multiple sources for the raw materials, components and supplies. It
can also often acquire the component parts and material on discounts. The client-based software
continues to be the significant part of their business and they deliver additional value to the
cloud-based customers. The online content and the service are provided to the consumers by the
help of MSN portal, Bing and other channels such as Windows Phone Marketplace, Zune
Marketplace. They distribute the software through OEMs which pre-install the software on the
PC, the smartphones, the servers and different intelligent devices sold to the end –customers.
The process in Microsoft are planned and managed for optimising the stakeholder value. They
develop a meaningful mix of the process performance indicators having enabled the review of
efficiency and effectiveness of key processes along with their contribution towards the strategic
goals. They also use data on current performances along with capabilities of their processes. It
used to drive benchmarks, the creativity and improvements with innovation.

10BUILDING THE HIGH-PERFORMING ORGANIZATIONS
Justification of supply chain/operations strategy
The supply chains encompass end-to-end information flow , money and the products.
The way the supply chain of an organization is managed helps the organization in maintaining
the competitiveness of working capital, the product cost, the service perceptions, speed to market
and others. In this particular context, the business strategy should be aligned with the supply
chain strategy for ensuring the business performance level. Although there have been some
advancements in the theory of supply chain, there are some traditional approaches to the
formulation and validation of supply chain strategies that are less successful. This is due to the
fact that, traditional strategies have not paid proper attention to the combinations of primary
drivers and connections among them throughout the value chain. The traditional strategies were
also less aligned to the competitive framework of the industry that is most important in the value
proposition. For addressing such shortcomings, there are two aspects where utmost focus should
be given. Firstly, there is a compilation of the relevant key drivers in a supply chain strategy.
There is a clear understanding of the key drivers interrelations with the competitive framework
of an industry and the competitive positioning of a business. Also, there are six generic supply
chain types such as fast, efficient, agile, continuous-flow, flexible and custom-configured.
The business having supply chains do face certain constant pressure on their profits
margins due to their global competition. The customers do expect an online and digital
experience and demand the personalized engagement, the real-time notification and higher levels
of interactions. On the other hand, the operations team also need full visibility across the entire
supply chain and the processes in the warehouse and backs offices. In a particular organization,
the management team requires timely and accurate information for making the information
decisions and watch the wholesomeness of business. Every organization should have the

11BUILDING THE HIGH-PERFORMING ORGANIZATIONS
business benefits through strategic supply chain. There should be efficient warehouse functions
along with strong controls for more effective picking and warehouse movements. It can also
lead to less shrinkage and greater accuracy of stock.
After reviewing the current position of Microsoft Corporation, it can be said that the
Microsoft Corporation needs a successful supply chain execution that consists of the order
fulfilment, the shipment and the distribution processes in order to complete the delivery cycle of
products for the customers. It should be noted that the supply chain execution starts in the factory
with the partner solutions founded on Microsoft operating systems that dominate the plant. It
runs throughout the firm with solutions that can promote the collaboration and visibility in its
supply chain. The supply chain execution can help the manufacturers in integrating the
warehouse, the distribution centre, the labor and the transportation system with processes. The
Microsoft Corporation should adopt the tools for allowing them to track the inventory by the
process of order fulfilment. The warehouse and the distribution centre managers should look for
the ways to label and track inventory through the lots. It can reduce the inventory carrying costs,
maintain the work orders and enhance the overall productivity. The Transportation providers
also require proper solutions that can help in consolidating the orders and optimizing the loads.
Therefore, the Microsoft Corporation should improve their supply chain execution
process through providing some solutions that tightly couple the planning and the execution
capabilities. It further strengthens the collaboration among the third-party logistics, among the
customers, the distribution partners for providing visibility into the demand. Through
developing the industry-standards, the Microsoft Corporation should sue some emerging
technologies such as Radio Frequency Identification or RFID for the advancement of the
performance and execution capabilities. Such technologies can also help them in improving the

12BUILDING THE HIGH-PERFORMING ORGANIZATIONS
asset utilization and labor productivity and at the same time comply with the customer mandates.
Moreover, the effective supply chain execution systems can provide the information flow and
inventory visibility required by the organizations for managing the enterprise transportation. A
well-structured supply chain execution system can provide the information flow and inventory
visibilities that also help in the warehousing and fulfil the needs internationally.
PART B
Change in any of the MACRO environment forces
The economy does not affect the revenues and the profits of the organization. There are
the social factors too that every business must understand to run the business properly. When an
organization does not keep track of the change in the cultural aspects, a business can become
negatively influenced through it. It becomes more difficult, when a business operates in different
countries. The outcomes of the cultural and the custom changes should be well-studied. It has
been found that the organizations such as IKEA have put more emphasis on it but the companies,
as Microsoft has not given it proper attention. In the recent years, there have been an increased
level of Mobile device usage and the websites are supposed to be smoothly running on these
devices. The operations are expected to be fast and easy to handle. The fact is that, Microsoft
has not yet adapted properly to the smartphones. There are most of the Microsoft products built
for the computers only (Microsoft.com 2019). Little attention is given to the mobile users and the
result is that other similar companies are fulfilling the gap Microsoft has created. Hence, if
Microsoft wants to see more profits and success, it should modify their way of thinking and
launch themselves in the genre of smartphones too. The other organizations might take the lead if
Microsoft is left behind.

13BUILDING THE HIGH-PERFORMING ORGANIZATIONS
The marketing strategies of Microsoft Corporation
The competitive advantage
Microsoft is in the business of world’ no one products and services that provides an edge
over the organizations in the world. The company has its offering in the Microsoft tablet Xbox
console games to the software. The meta-market industry has helped the organization is terms of
using the shared capabilities for excelling in the functional business. The acquisition strategy is
the most significant strategies of the organization. The Microsoft corporation has acquired few
best firms in the world such as Nokia, Skype and the Visio Corporation. Another biggest
competitive advantage of the company is its competition with Apple. Microsoft’ operating
system can be easily installed in any PC or laptop having no such hardware binding on uts
operating system. However, there is loss in bulk due to piracy. On the other hand, the product
line of Microsoft also provides advantage to the firm. It is the leading operating system company
and dominates the entire industry when compared with the world There are three main parts of
Microsoft’ business strategy. They emphasize on the ‘ cloud first’, ‘mobile first’ strategy. The
intelligent cloud is the main source of the competitive advantage of Microsoft and its business
strategy (Annualreports.com, 2019). The ‘Mobile First’ is for the mobility of experiences and
this organization pays huge attention to it. It also focuses on growing through mergers and
acquisitions. The mergers and the acquisitions are important in the business strategies of
Microsoft. This multinational technology organization involves itself in the mergers and the
acquisitions in order to enhance the product ranges, the capabilities and the value offerings. The
most notable acquisition is Nokia’ Devices and the Services for 9.4 billon USD. In the year
2016, the organization also acquired LinkedIn for 196 USD. This acquisition has been proved to

14BUILDING THE HIGH-PERFORMING ORGANIZATIONS
be the greatest. It is in terms of connecting the world’ professional network and professional
cloud having developed new value and new experiences for the business users.
The combined data graphs are expected to improve the sales and the way the HR
professional work in the organization. The company completed more than 12 acquisitions
starting with the video games producers, the artificial intelligence to the employee engagement.
Microsoft also focused on the augmented and the virtual reality. Both the augmented and the
virtual reality are central to the business strategy of Microsoft. The company concentrates on the
way virtual reality can improve the shopping experience in the automotive and education design.
It is also argued that the leadership in virtual and augmented reality can help in being one strong
source of competitive advantage of Microsoft. It is also similar to the leadership in the cloud
segment having some positive implications on the long-term perspective. Driven by the tech-
savvy world, the company has focused on the ‘tech-intensity’ that is a new addition to the
business strategy of Microsoft. The very term ‘tech-intensity’ can be described as the fusion of
business processes and cultural mind-set that rewards the propagation of digital capabilities
which create the end-to-end feedback loops. It is further noted that tech-intensity is for the
empowerment and advancement of others. Hence, it can be seen that the competitive advantage
of the company is gained through the acquisition strategy of the company mostly. The strategies
of the company has allowed it to produce a good service for the end users in a desirable manner.
These are the conditions that allow the organization to generate more sales and revenues as
compared to the market rivals.
Segmentation, targeting and positioning:
The segmentation, targeting and positioning of Microsoft can be referred to as a
particular set of activities that make up the marketing efforts for the multi-tech firm. The

15BUILDING THE HIGH-PERFORMING ORGANIZATIONS
segmentation also consists of population segregation into different groups based on few
particular characteristics. There are business that concentrates on the position and
products/services to satisfy the requirements of the specific segments. The Microsoft Corporation
also targets different customer segments with different service packages and products too. Taken
for example, Dynamic 365 is a software for the development and support of customer
relationships. On the other hand, there is Unified Operations Plan designed for different segment
of customers who are always ready to pay extra for additional functions. On the other hand, the
standby positioning technique consists of the development of services or products that can await
the changes in the particular market in finding demand in the future. The cloud first, mobile first
strategy has been announced in the year 2014, where the cloud data has been a new segment.
The cloud services have been focused on having used the technique of positioning. The
Microsoft Corporation makes use of the demographic, behavioural, psychographic segmentations
in the groups having similar characteristics.
The demographic segmentation is utilized for the products such as office products and
operating systems applicable to all. The behavioural segmentation is further used for the products
such as Microsoft Windows server operating systems or the windows mobile phones. It further
has the presence in large range of software and hardware businesses beginning from operating
systems to the selling and manufacturing. On the other hand, the wide range of products in
Microsoft enables the company to use the mix of differentiated and undifferentiated targeting
strategy. In the Microsoft office and the entire Windows operating system, the population is
found to be quite homogenous (Menon et al., 2015). In the mobile developing tools, the
organization is required to gain a differentiated target since there is huge competition in the
market based on the features. In terms of the rebranding of products and services and the logos,

16BUILDING THE HIGH-PERFORMING ORGANIZATIONS
the Microsoft Corporation has undergone a turnaround in the recent years during re-positioning
itself as the value based organization (Morgan et al., 2019). It has also enriched the lives of
worldwide people with such strategies. When the positioning of Microsoft is talked about, the
positioning of the operating systems and software come into the mind. Due to the brand value of
Microsoft, any product launched by this company receives good positioning. In some of the
cases, products of Microsoft might not be at the top . Taken for example, the Microsoft phones
are not that popular when compared with phones of Apple or Samsung. The target of Microsoft
is almost the whole world having access to computer services. In this manner, it is evident that
the STP strategies have helped the company in simplifying the market segmentation process , the
targeting process and positioning too. The company is successful in terms of identifying
attractive segments for making the business profitable. The segmentation, targeting and
positioning is given below in table format:
The segmentation type The segmentation criteria Target customer segment
Geographic Region / density Global marketplace and Urban
/rural respectively
Demographic Age/ Gender/ Life-cycle
stage / occupation
16 and older/ males and
females/ bachelor , single
people, newly married
couple / students, professional
and employees
Behavioral Loyalty degree/ benefits/
personality/ user status
Hard core loyals/ efficiency ,
speed and accuracy/ potential

17BUILDING THE HIGH-PERFORMING ORGANIZATIONS
users, first-time users and ex-
users
Psychographic Social class/ lifestyle Lower class, middle class,
working class and upper class/
mainstreamer, succeeder,
reformer, explorer
(Macrotrends.net 2019).
Branding
It is evident that Microsoft has launched an evolution of the brand mark in one of its
opening store of Boston. They have focused on the critical aspect of keeping the visual language
relevant and fresh. Since Microsoft operates in such a market that continues to evolve every now
and then , the products and the services are also supposed to evolve along with it. It is extremely
important for the brand to continue its modification and evolution. The previous band mark of
Microsoft was the most popular logo. The flag like coloured logo having italicized type design
has got almost synonymous with the company since the year 1987. These visual elements have
become the valuable assets of Microsoft. The new logo retreats to a developed set of aesthetic
cues. Branding is a marketing practice where the company develops a symbol, a design that is
identifiable easily to the company. It helps in identifying a particular product to distinguish it
from the other products (Cacciolatti & Lee, 2016). The branding of a brand is important as it
helps to create a memorable impression on the customers and the clients in knowing what they
can expect from the organization. It is a specific way of distinguishing a particular brand from

18BUILDING THE HIGH-PERFORMING ORGANIZATIONS
the similar bands. The brand is built for becoming a true representation of the business
operations or activities. In this term , it can be said that Microsoft has put good effort in the
branding for getting recognition through its unique name and logo. The logo has helped the
company in making memorable impressions on the customers in the first glance. The branding of
the company has also increased the business value of the company.
Two growth opportunities of the organization
Fro, the above analysis, it is found that there are many strengths of Microsoft
Corporation. Firstly, it has acquired the position of leading software company. It is also the
undisputed company having global market reach in the software industry especially in the cloud
computing. It is also the largest developer of Windows OS in the whole world. It is also the
largest company of the world having dominant market share. The company operates in almost
200 countries worldwide and there is constant growth demonstrating the strong growth in the
cloud business. Additionally, it has easy to use software, powerful brand reputation, an effective
adverting platform, huge market capitalization and it is also a reputed brand with optimum
customer loyalty (Jaworski, 2018). These are the strengths that have paved way for various
opportunities of the organization. In the MACRO environmental context, it is found that the
company has two of the greatest growth opportunities.
The Intelligent Cloud to dominate other segments
Microsoft has long connections with Windows Operating System along with the office
software tools. The cloud based services of Microsoft have received huge growth and success in
the running days. Hence, it creates an opportunity for the company to expand the cloud business.
Azure is one part of the cloud segment of Microsoft that includes the on-premise servers along
with the software and enterprise consulting services. This particular cloud business is the small

19BUILDING THE HIGH-PERFORMING ORGANIZATIONS
segment of Microsoft as of now. In the last quarter, this Azure intelligent cloud grew 22 % faster
as compared to the other products (Rutz & Watson, 2019). Founded on the guidance of
Microsoft, this intelligent cloud leapfrog to become the largest segment of Microsoft in the
coming years. Microsoft has become the greatest company when decided by the market capital.
The cloud segment has taken over the higher growth and it is expected that this growth rate in
spite of its huge size. It is also apparent, that the cloud is giving way to Microsoft in terms
innovation of new products in future. Microsoft can enter the market of edge computing and
internet of things. It is expected that Azure could surpass the Office 365 Commercial being the
biggest product of Microsoft in few years. This can bring huge advantage for major Cloud
Infrastructure leaders.
Success through acquisition
The mergers and the acquisitions help the organizations in expanding and growing more.
It is extremely significant for exploring multiple functionalities where different types of risks and
engaged too. The acquisitions focus on the optimum utilization of every available resources that
result in the achievement of economies of scale establishing string talent base having installed
and integrated R & D platform. It improves the profitability ultimately. In future, the company
can acquire intentional software that is focused on the creation of a platform for new generation
of team productivity apps. The acquisition can help the company in being productive in the
information rich world (Aghazadeh, 2015). The Intentional software technology and the talent
can help in enhancing the existing capabilities and at the same time strengthen the ability of
adding new services to the productivity offering of Microsoft.

20BUILDING THE HIGH-PERFORMING ORGANIZATIONS
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