Microsoft has been a leader in the operating systems market for many years. From the company’s foundation, the presentation of Microsoft Office programs, and their first operating system named, Windows 95, Microsoft was the trendsetter in its field, and even today, they continue to grow. However, it is impossible to achieve something without mistakes and failed periods. In 2005 Microsoft acquired strong competitors, such as Play Station in terms of entertainment, Apple for phones, and Google for web services. That is the reason why they needed to restructure to stay competitive hereafter. Even though the 2005 restructuring did not achieve its goals, the 2013 Microsoft reorganization was crucial for the company’s future perspectives and a vital step toward its growth.
Overall, 2013 was a year of ups and downs for Microsoft. Last year’s Windows 8 failed, and the company continued to recover from its crisis. People started to prefer tablets over computers, and that directly affected the sales of their new operating system. However, in 2013 Microsoft strongly developed its cloud services and began to compete in the market. Satya Nadella was the head of the Cloud and Enterprise Engineering Group at the moment and became new Microsoft’s CEO after Ballmer because of his success.
The company was in a bad state primarily because of Ballmer. He was contradictory in his impact on Microsoft, which is why investors raised the company’s shares when he announced his retirement next year. Many people blamed the company during Ballmer’s management for a belated movement to the mobile market and untimely decisions in general. Microsoft needed a fresh impulse and a new leader that shareholders would trust, understand how to use the strengths of the company, and make the weaknesses stronger.
The main reason for the 2005 failure was that Microsoft’s divisions were competing with each other for resources and did not cooperate enough. The company did not take the lead in the search engine or mobile phone markets. The company’s then-CEO Steven Ballmer created a plan called “One Microsoft” that was meant to help the company develop and get out of the crisis. It can be seen today that this reorganization was a significant and needed decision. Nadella replaced Ballmer as CEO in 2014 and made the system more collaborative, as well as made an accent on cloud services. That way, Microsoft became one of the leaders in cloud computing with Azure, which challenged Amazon in this field. In 2019’s April, Microsoft became one of the three US public companies worth over a trillion dollars, along with Amazon and Apple (Danh, 2020, para. 11).
Microsoft’s shares’ constant growth is only one of the reasons why this company is moving correctly and competently. Even though the 2013 reorganization needed many changes to work right, it can be seen that “One Microsoft” was the impulse that the company needed to rehabilitate.
To conclude, “One Microsoft” was a good idea that saved the company and helped Microsoft to stay competitive. The company founded decades ago needed a change to grow, develop and remain relevant for modern people. The 2013 reorganization was significant for the company’s future and its outlook. This restructuring caused many challenges but was the beginning of something promising. As a result, Microsoft became one of the leaders in the global market of cloud computing and came to unprecedented heights.
References
Danh, V. (2020). “One Microsoft” vision in 2020 hindsight. Medium. Web.