Research and Analysis of Microsoft Canada Inc.'s Business Operations

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RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS
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Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY........................................................................................................... 3
ENVIRONMENTAL CONSTRAINTS ON MANAGEMENT OF MICROSOFT CANADA INC
....................................................................................................................................................... 4
STAKEHOLDERS OF MICROSOFT CANADA INC.................................................................6
PLANNING AND STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT OF MICROSOFT CANADA INC..............7
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE AND DESIGN OF MICROSOFT CANADA INC............9
CONTROLLING FOUNDATIONS............................................................................................11
RECOMMENDATIONS.............................................................................................................13
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................ 14
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In this part of research and analysis, the changes that management of Microsoft Canada Inc., the
subsidiary company of Microsoft Corporation took in context with environmental constraints are
being discussed. The stakeholders of the company and the analysis of the same are done. It also
evaluates the business strategies developed by the management of Microsoft Canada Inc. with
the help of SWOT analysis that has been discussed earlier in the former part. The key elements
in the organizational structure that plays a vital role in the success of the company and the
controlling actions of the management are to be discussed.
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ENVIRONMENTAL CONSTRAINTS ON MANAGEMENT OF MICROSOFT CANADA
INC
The environmental management system of Microsoft Canada Inc. is licensed for meeting the
standards of ISO 14001. It provides the framework for understanding the factors that affects the
business objectives of Microsoft Canada Inc., identifies the risk and develops the opportunities,
address the environmental facets and their importance in the management, establish the business
objectives to achieve the environmental targets and also analyses the information and process of
energy management and consumption of water and eliminates the waste (Bernabeu & Khalidi,
2016). The environmental constraints that affect the managerial decisions of Microsoft Canada
Inc. can be analyzed with the help of PESTLE framework as follows:
Political factors: The political factors affected the Microsoft Canada Inc. by improving the sales
in the local markets with the help of the support of the government for automation by increasing
the sales of the computer technology through government clients (Bernabeu & Khalidi, 2016).
Economic factors: The economic factors such as considering the economic stability of the
developing countries, high growth of the developing countries, and enhancing the disposable
income of the middle-class people should be focused by the Microsoft Canada Inc. so as to
increase the sales of hardware and software (Bernabeu & Khalidi, 2016).
Social Factors: The social factors that affect the macro-environment of Microsoft Canada Inc.
are specifically in terms of the behaviour of customers and expectations towards the products of
Microsoft. The social factors like the constant attitude of the customers towards the luxurious
products, constant demand for the best service quality highly influence the Microsoft business
(Bernabeu & Khalidi, 2016).
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Technological Factors: The performance of Microsoft Canada Inc. can be improved by
innovating the software devices and adapting the demand for on-going technology. Sometimes
technology factor becomes a threat for Microsoft as it enables the competition.
Environmental Factors: As there is an increase in the consumption of the green products,
Microsoft Canada Inc. has to enhance the sustainability by increasing the use of eco-friendly
products in the business operations (Bernabeu & Khalidi, 2016).
Legal Factors: The legal factor provides the opportunity to Microsoft Canada Inc. to increase
the disposal of wastage through electronic mode and implement the effective reprocessing and
emission programs. The improvement in patent laws has also enabled the company to reduce
issues like software privacy (Bernabeu & Khalidi, 2016).
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STAKEHOLDERS OF MICROSOFT CANADA INC
For every company, stakeholders are the biggest responsible factor that helps in developing and
sustaining the business in the long-term. Microsoft Canada Inc. has classified the stakeholders in
two groups such as the stakeholders that are directly affected by the business operations such as
customers, employees, investors, suppliers and communities while the other is the stakeholders
that influence the business operations of Microsoft Canada Inc. such as government, unions,
regulatory bodies, etc. (Pigé, 2017).
Figure 1 Stakeholder Mapping of Microsoft Canada Inc.
(Source: Thompson, 2019)
The analysis of stakeholders can be made through the stakeholder mapping of Microsoft Canada
Inc. it helps in analyzing the interest level of stakeholders. With the help of mapping, the
management of Microsoft Canada Inc. is able to list the priority that influences the interest of the
stakeholders in a positive or a negative way (Microsoft, 2019).
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PLANNING AND STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT OF MICROSOFT CANADA INC
The strategic planning of Microsoft Canada Inc. can be developed on the basis of SWOT
analysis made in the part-1 of this research.
SWOT analysis of Microsoft Canada Inc. (Gürel & Tat, 2017):
Strengths Weakness Opportunities Threats
 Brand image and
loyalty
 Easily utilizations
of software
 Efficient channel
of distribution
 Strong financial
stability
 Acquired the
Skype
 Lack in
healthy
investments
 Depends on
hardware
suppliers
 Criticism
regarding the
privacy and
security
 To develop
cloud
computing
services
 To introduce
the mobile
promotion
 Focus on
effective
acquisitions
 New entrants
of the software
products
 Fluctuating
needs of the
consumers
 Easy
accessibility of
the projects
 Probable
litigations
With the help of the above-mentioned strengths and opportunities, Microsoft Canada Inc. has
practised in overcoming the weaknesses and focused on effective acquisitions and remove the
criticisms of privacy issues and tries to overcome other weakness and threats. In the present,
technological advancement has made the needs of the customers to be dynamic and to cope up
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with the same; Microsoft Canada Inc. is also bringing changes in the business operations of the
company and is also planning to introduce the mobile phone which is based on latest windows
with the new software applications and availability of internet with high speed and suitable to the
needs of the customers by introducing new strategies within the Hotmail, the oldest product of
Microsoft (Katsioloudes & Abouhanian, 2016). Microsoft Canada Inc. planned the strategy to
develop and take advantage of the opportunities such as developing the cloud computing
network so that it enlarges its customer base. Thus to strengthen the core competencies through
acquisitions and mergers, Microsoft Canada Inc. is constantly working on the innovation,
approachability research and responsiveness (Katsioloudes & Abouhanian, 2016).
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ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE AND DESIGN OF MICROSOFT CANADA INC
The organizational structure of Microsoft Canada Inc. is the key factor in the organization that
helps the company to grow along with taking into consideration the various changes that are
needed to be implemented. The organizational structure of Microsoft Canada Inc. lays down the
emphasis on the business objectives. The company is the top leading in the market of IBM-PC
compatible operating system and therefore to gain the competitive advantage it uses its structure.
The structure of the organization tries to reciprocate with the changing needs of the market
through hardware and software business (Lombardo, 2018).
The main elements of Microsoft Canada Inc. organizational structure are it is classified into
product divisional types, corporate groups globally and other segments geographically.
In the product divisional types, the company Microsoft Canada Inc. focuses on innovating the
products and also includes the productivity and business processes, personal computing,
intelligent cloud and other corporate divisions (Lombardo, 2018).
In the global corporate groups of Microsoft Canada Inc., such groups emphasize the departments
that work for computer technology. It includes various departments such as CEO’s office,
commercial business in the world, marketing and related operations, human resources, finance,
business development, research and development, service and application group, windows and
devices group, legal groups, etc. (Lombardo, 2018).
In the segmentation part, the company divides the business operations into the groups for the
financial reports. There are two geographic divisions in Microsoft Inc. such as the United States
and International (which also includes the Microsoft Canada Inc. (Lombardo, 2018).
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Thus the organizational structure of Microsoft Canada Inc. focuses on developing the product
and contributes to gaining the competitive advantage for the products of Microsoft (Lombardo,
2018).
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CONTROLLING FOUNDATIONS
The managers of Microsoft Canada Inc. are responsible to develop the responsibilities to ensure
that the company delivers the services effectively. These responsibilities are in the form of
support, service, operations, architecture, management, compliance and solutions. Such
accountabilities are recorded in the Excel and SharePoint which can further be used for
documentation. Sometimes due to the inefficient and insufficient assignment of the tasks, there is
a lack in the efficient work from the IT Staff (Microsoft 2019). So the manager of Microsoft
Canada Inc. analyses the inefficiencies by filling the gaps in the allocation of the assignments
and the projects. They also keep the proper track record of such projects and improve the ways of
assigning the tasks. The manager of the company enhances the productivity at the bottom line
thus by enhance the efficient and using the technologies that are required to develop the business
opportunities (Microsoft 2019).
Motivational strategies used by managers of Microsoft Canada Inc.
The motivational strategies used by the managers of Microsoft Canada Inc. to get the best
outcome from the employees can be done as following:
To provide the attention to the employees: the managers of the Microsoft Canada Inc. values,
understand and listen to the grievances of the employees and tries to provide the better solution
so that they are able to work effectively. There should be an effective channel of communication.
Microsoft Canada Inc. also underlines the optimistic behaviour so that the employers can provide
positive feedback to the staff (Kotler et al., 2019).
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To reward the best one: Microsoft Canada Inc. always rewards the employees who accomplish
with the targets and performs effectively. These rewards include the incentives, promotion
benefits and recognition for the outstanding performance (Kotler et al., 2019).
Participation of employees in the decision-making process: the employees of Microsoft
Canada Inc. are involved in the decision-making process which not only motivates them but also
identifies their managerial skills and on the basis of that they are recognized in the organization
(Kotler et al., 2019).
Proper training and development programme: the employees of Microsoft Canada Inc. are
provided with the proper training at the workplace which makes them feel developed at the
company itself by adapting new3 skills and learning the experiences. Sometimes Microsoft
Canada Inc. also sends the employees at the off job training which makes the employees feel
motivated as their skills are developed by the company (Kotler et al., 2019).
To define the roles of the employees: Microsoft Canada Inc. defines the description of the job
and makes understand the employee their responsibilities. So that the employees get the
knowledge of their roles and responsibilities and they will work according to the pre-determined
objectives (Kotler et al., 2019).
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