Business Strategy – speaking generally, emphasizes two basic things:
- the organization’s “value proposition” – i.e. the way it’s going to make money
- the way the organization is going to achieve it’s value proposition
Stated simply, business strategy refers to what the organization is going to do, and how it is going to do it. Companies regularly ask the question: What business are we in?
Microsoft’s answer to these strategic questions has almost always been: we’re in the software business and we achieve that goal by creating software products that we sell direct to consumers (individual consumers) and more importantly by selling to computer manufacturers (IBM, HP, Dell, etc.) who install our products in the computers they manufacture
As described in the following link, Microsoft is radically changing its strategy. Think about how this shift in strategy impacts its business partners (HP, Dell). How do you think these traditional business partners are reacting to Microscoft?
This is an important trend in the technology industry and it’s important to be aware of what is going on in that important sector of the US economy.
