Strategic Planning of Microsoft Corporation

Strategic Evaluation
The purpose of this paper is to develop strategic planning on different levels to set and maintain goals for Microsoft Corporation. Business, corporate, and global level strategies will be developing to help achieve the goals of growing the corporation to the next level. The strategic planning for Microsoft Corporation will determine what direction the company should proceed to take for long-term achievements.

Potential Business Level Strategies for Microsoft
Business-level strategy is used to obtain a customer base and sell a product at a profit (Garcia, 2018, para 1). The business level strategy use can help Microsoft focus on ways of obtaining and satisfying their consumers, how they offer their products and services to meet the needs of the market their products are based in and increasing profits. Microsoft Corporation should concentrate on putting themselves in a position where they are staying competitive and up to date on market trends and technology changes (Garcia, 2018).
The two potential business level strategies that Microsoft Corporation should converge on is cost leadership and differentiation. Since the technology field is very competitive and there are many businesses that are innovating products that rival Microsoft cost leadership should take part in winning over customers through aggressive pricing and making profits through high efficiency (Garcia, 2018, para 3).
Cost leadership is one strategy where a company is the most competitively priced product on the market, meaning it is the cheapest (Leonard, 2018, para 1). Microsoft can use cost leadership strategy to discover new customers. Advertising some of its products at a cheaper price will demonstrate to consumers that they could save money, avoid the hassle of other cheaper products that do not work properly, and are not compatible with their devices.
This is a business level strategy that put Microsoft products in the consumer hands and build a relationship where the consumers will come back to Microsoft because they will eventually be in the market for newer devices to purchase that are priced higher.
Differentiation of Microsoft products in a way of uniqueness can give them the edge to set their prices on a higher scale. Apple Inc. seems to have no problem doing this with their iPhones. The technology industry is competitive, so price differentiation can help Microsoft stand out in the demographic target area of technology.
Being the least expensive or the most expensive will rely on the quality and personal experience for Microsoft clients. The Microsoft Office Suite software and Windows programs separate Microsoft from its competitors by putting definite focus on what kind of audience they are seeking. Convenience and expertise are differentiated business level strategies that can increase customer traffic and establish Microsoft Corporation a place in the technology industry and make their products more attractive (Joseph, 2018).

Microsoft Potential Corporate Level Strategies
Corporate level strategies in Microsoft Corporation expresses the scope of a company’s activities and the way a company’s business processes support company goals (Nordmeyer, 2017). Corporate level strategy for Microsoft center on acquiring a business mix of products that will help the company succeed. At the corporate level strategy Microsoft Corporation should be able to share resources without the necessity to duplicate. A strategic corporate strategy that can allow Microsoft to have more control of the availability and pricing of their products is to buy out a supplier (Garcia, 2018). This is based on vertical integration, which will provide the corporation with better opportunities to differentiate and have suitable control over their products that are going in and out of production.

Potential Global Strategies for Microsoft
Global strategy consists of being able to distinguish a company’s resources, capabilities and current international position (Lynch, 2014). Microsoft can use global strategies to consider the world as one big market and source for its products and services. Microsoft potential of using global strategies is to increase their brand to be recognized throughout the world and lower labor and input costs deciding what manufacture to select from that have low labor costs.
Microsoft Corporation can use global standardization strategy to promote their products internationally. Global standardization in marketing is a standardized marketing approach that can be used internationally. This type of marketing strategy conforms to work across different cultures and countries to promote a product (Vogt, 2018, para 2). Microsoft can develop an integrated marketing outline that can be effective across different time zones that will save the company time and money (Vogt, 2018).

Recommendation and Rationale
After proactively evaluating different strategies for Microsoft to implement in their company. It is important to ensure that the implementation strategy fit the corporation. To confirm effectiveness there need to be an efficient plan to accurately execute the strategy. The recommendation for Microsoft is to implement the subscription model. The subscription model offers consumers a monthly fee to use a service provided by a company. Microsoft can benefit more from this service because subscription models ensure you’re continuously running the most updated version of the software possible, and not just the most updated version of old software.
Therefore, Microsoft is even moving towards selling businesses Windows as a subscription (Wilson, 2018, para 4). The best thing about using subscription model in a business is that Microsoft 365 business can be assess anywhere in the world and give businesses the opportunity to connect all devices.
Remarketing is another strategy that Microsoft can use to advertise their business. Remarketing is a concept where consumers visit a website, leave it and goes to a different website where the previous ad will be display on the new page. This type of tracking tool can amass consumer data for Microsoft and help develop targeted brand marketing (Mimouni, 2017).
Remarketing gives businesses the opportunity of using specific and tailored ads and offers relating to their experience on the website to lure back indecisive customers. Hence, in simple terms, remarketing gives businesses another chance to close the deal (Mimouni, 2017, para 11). This type of marketing can help Microsoft Corporation connect with the right target audience to purchase their products and services.

Conclusion
Microsoft should be aware on how to tailor and adapt their products and services through strategies that do not ignore cultural context. When Microsoft chooses to market itself internationally, it faces a unique set of challenges. While the company wants to maintain a consistent image across different markets, it must also consider the cultural context into which its marketing material is entering (Wolfe, 2018, para 1). By using the different potential strategies within the corporation of Microsoft they could evaluate the strategies before implementation and make amendments and evaluate again to prevent inaccuracies in the future.