Strategic Planning: Action Plan, management assignment help
Use your completed strategy map to formulate functional-level strategy for the primary business functions included in your plan. Functional-level strategies are the action plans used by departments within organizations to support the execution of business-level strategy at the managerial level. Create a 500-750 word action plan that addresses the following:Identify which management tactics and strategies you will implement to meet your strategic goals for each of the stakeholders, departments, or business functions impacted by your plan: MBO, MBM, single-use or standing plans, competitive advantage, contingency planning, building scenarios, crisis planning, and innovation.Provide an explanation of how you will apply managerial decision-making methods throughout your action plan.Which business functions will be impacted by your action plan? What tactics will you use to manage implementation across business functions? What can you do to enhance collaboration/cross-functionality to ensure the success of your plan?Identify leadership strategies you plan to implement throughout the execution of your action plan. In particular, explain which strategies you would implement to foster team collaboration among the multiple stakeholders who must collaborate to successfully implement the plan. Why do you think these will be successful?While APA format is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and documentation of sources should be presented using APA formatting guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.You are required to submit this assignment to Turnitin. Please refer to the directions in the Student Success Center.some things that are needed to complete this questionSWOT Analysis for Microsoft
Strengths
Putting into
consideration recent statistics, Microsoft’s Windows computer system has quite
a significant stake of the current market share in the desktop OS segment.
Their existing management techniques have been attained over time through
building various levels of brand loyalty that prompt positive inferences on
company finances.
Desktop Operating System Market distribution
As
characterized in the above chart, Microsoft has a broad range of cloud-based
computing services that include Skype, Microsoft Azure, Yammer, Microsoft
Office365 as well as Bing. Furthermore, the revealing of strategies by rival
companies that Microsoft is approximated to earn close to twenty billion
dollars through cloud computing goes out further to emphasize the commitment by
subscribers to the precise business. Moreover, this factor goes out to
accentuate Microsoft’s presence in the prevailing cloud computing venture.
Likewise, the increased popularity of the previously mentioned aspect aids in
explaining the high growth that is occurring between different aspects of the
economy.
Weaknesses
On the other
hand, Microsoft to some extent has overtaken its key competitors such as Apple
since they focus on designing creative and efficient products as well as
services that are designed to provide cost-efficient elements hence solving
everyday challenges. Nevertheless, besides the fact that competitors are
primarily consumed by ideas such as the introduction of the Smart television
and Apple watches, Microsoft creates products that are impeded on tackling
problems that face all people in the society without necessarily discerning
them based on their financial abilities. Nevertheless, Microsoft is viewed to
be biased regarding which consumers have access to their products. A relevant example is that Windows updates
are only available for devices that work with Windows operating systems
subsequently leaving out customers that do not possess Windows-enabled devices
(Jurevicius, 2013).
Opportunities
Previously,
Microsoft mainly relied upon intermittent upgrades of Windows and Office
systems to generate new revenue. However, over time, Windows users stuck with
outdated versions as opposed to upgrading. Recent findings show that close to
seventeen percent of personal computers worldwide function on Windows
8/8.1.Similarly, it was also discovered that twenty-eight percent of companies
that were surveyed were currently using Windows Office 2003 (Jurevicius, 2013).
In the
combined effort of decreasing the recent fragmentation, Microsoft is focused on
implementing a "One Windows" approach. For example, Windows 10, which
is projected to be accessible as a free advancement to a large number of
periodic Windows 7 and Windows 8 users, could unite all the current tablets,
computers, smartphones and through a joint operating system. The overall
capability of the above mentioned operating system serves to strengthen Microsoft's
strong suit in personal computers so as to counterbalance its weakness in
mobile phone devices. Microsoft also has opportunities to expand in the area of
cloud services and software as the consumer demands for these services continue
to expand (Jurevicius, 2013).
Threats
The current
largest perennial threat to Microsoft products is Google. This is regarding the fact that Google
heavily relies on advertising proceeds as a form of revenue generation; Google
can repetitively offer free and efficient substitutes to Microsoft's paid
software. A good illustration is that
Chrome operating systems and Google Docs are becoming quite detested as opposed
to Windows and Office. Nonetheless, the steady development of the previously
mentioned system in the inconsistent software market has subsequently required
Microsoft to reduce their initial charges (Jurevicius, 2013).
From a
different standpoint, the target market for software development is focused on
the young generation since they are viewed to be much more energetic and
resourceful. What is more, the favored market for the aspect mentioned above
similarly characterizes itself as overly broad in the sense that they are
focused on solving prevalent challenges in the society.
Strategic goal
The strategic
goal for Microsoft in this scenario is to produce software that is easily
accessible to its target market and equally ensures that it is user-friendly.
Similarly, putting in place of incentives to the existing target market will go
a long way in facilitating better customer relations hence promoting the
popularity of the product.
Reference
Jurevicius, O. (2013). SWOT analysis of
Microsoft.Microsoft SWOT
Analysis 2013,1. Strategic Planning
Strategy Map
Microsoft Corporation can utilize the scorecard
because the tool is designed for both the profit and non-profit organizations
to facilitate maximum generation of capital. Microsoft operates under the
mission of enabling the people and the businesses throughout the world in the
realization of their full potential. Microsoft considers the mission statement
for the corporation as a commitment to serving the customers of the
corporations.
The Microsoft stakeholders include the customers, the
stockholders, the IRS, and the employees. Stakeholders are usually analyzed in
a five-step process in the facilitation of identification of the employees in
their order of importance. The first step includes defining the shared goal.
For Microsoft, the shared output or outcome is defined by considering at what
the corporation is trying to achieve by the service they are delivering. The
second step involves defining the group of the stakeholder. Microsoft can
define the group of the stakeholder for the goals in question. However, the
internal and external factors are essential in this step, and maximum
information should be included in the coverage (Varvasovszky, 2000) .
The third step of identification of the stakeholder
includes an analysis of the relationship. The basis for the engagement must be
clearly defined, and Microsoft can consider a different approach based on the
resources that the corporation is willing to surrender in this process. At this
level, Microsoft will be in a position to determine the level of engagement
with each stakeholder and rank the priority of each of the stakeholders in
engagement. Finally, there is the need of developing an engagement plan. At
this step, the information created in the third step should be developed. This
step creates coordination and a mechanism that defines how the users can work
out together as well as how the users of the corporate products can relate to
the various stakeholders (Varvasovszky, 2000).
By the use of the above analysis, stockholders can be
given the priority followed by the employees, the consumers and finally the
IRS. One primary duty of a corporation is being the stockholders and increasing
the stoke value of a corporation. The stockholders play this role in the
Microsoft Corporation. They directly contribute to the corporate development
through funds and decision making in the critical organizational situations,
hence given the highest priority. The corporate employees, be it the manager or
the CEO, or the subordinate employees, plays another fundamental role in the
corporation. They make decisions on the real time issues on the ground. They
make things happen and ensure that the goals are refined into shape. They
provide tangible items for the supply to the consumers that consequently
generate income for the corporation, hence ranked after the stockholders.
Consumers are ranked after the employees because they buy the Microsoft
products, giving the corporation revenue that keeps it moving. Finally, we have
the IRS (Varvasovszky, 2000).
The strategic goal for Microsoft from the previous
scenario is the production of readily available software to the target market
and software that is at the same time ensuring that it is user-friendly.
Besides, it is Microsoft’s strategic goal to put incentives to the existing
target market by going a long way in the facilitation of better customer
relations. This measure will promote the popularity of the corporate products.
References
BurgeSmani, R. A., &
Wheelwright, S. C. (2004). Strategic management of technology and innovation. READING,
1(1).
Hulen, C., Chau, C., & Yang, V.
(2005). U.S. Patent Application No. 11/039,714.
Rarick, C. A., & Vitton, J.
(1995). Corporate strategy: Mission statements make cents. Journal of
Business Strategy, 16(1), 11-12.
Varvasovszky, Z., & Brugha, R.
(2000). A stakeholder analysis. Health policy and planning, 15(3),
338-345.