Microsoft’s Mission Statement & Vision Statement (An Analysis)

Microsoft corporate mission statement, corporate vision statement, consumer electronics, cloud, computer software hardware business case study
A Microsoft building in the European Union. Microsoft’s corporate mission statement and corporate vision statement are synonymous in representing the computer software and hardware, consumer electronics, and online services business. (Photo: Public Domain)

Microsoft Corporation’s success as a global company is founded on the fulfillment of its corporate mission and vision statements. The corporate mission statement presents the business purpose and a general idea of the technology business’s strategic approach to satisfying the corporate vision statement. In this sense, Microsoft’s corporate mission specifies what the business aims to do to increase customers’ success. On the other hand, the vision statement directs the development of the computer technology business toward a desired future condition. Currently, Microsoft’s corporate vision includes what the business can do for individual and organizational customers. Also, the corporate mission is strongly aligned with the corporate vision statement. This alignment is essential to optimizing strategic decisions, especially in addressing the competitive force from multinational firms like Apple, Google, Amazon, and IBM. As the Five Forces analysis of Microsoft Corporation indicates the strong force of competitive rivalry involving these firms, the company implements its corporate mission and vision statements to strengthen its competitive advantages.

Microsoft’s corporate vision and mission statements emphasize empowerment as a value or benefit that the company’s products can provide to customers. The corporate mission statement directly reflects the corporate vision statement of the computer hardware and software, consumer electronics, and online services business. This matching enables the company to apply strategies and tactics that motivate workers to achieve more, in support of growing the technology business. Microsoft’s corporate culture also contributes to the fulfillment of the corporate mission statement and the corporate vision statement, especially in terms of human resource support.

Microsoft’s Mission Statement

Microsoft’s mission is “to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.” This mission statement shows that the business focuses on the empowerment of people and organizations, through the company’s information technology goods and services. The following components are significant in Microsoft’s corporate mission statement:

  1. Value proposition: Empowerment to achieve more
  2. Target market: All persons and organizations in the global market

The first component of the corporate mission shows Microsoft’s value proposition in offering its products to target customers. One of the company’s main strategic goals is to ensure that its information technology products provide empowerment to customers, so that they can achieve more of their own objectives. For example, customers can satisfy their productivity objectives by using Microsoft 365 apps. In this case, the corporate mission statement directs the business organization to develop products that support customers’ productivity through technology. This product development emphasis in the mission statement affects Microsoft Corporation’s generic strategy for competitive advantage and strategies for intensive growth, which also facilitate the fulfillment of the firm’s corporate vision statement.

The second component of the mission statement describes Microsoft’s target market, which is specified to include all persons and organizations around the world. A corresponding strategic objective for this component is to maximize market penetration to reach all potential users of the company’s computing products. This objective, based on the corporate mission statement, is supported through worldwide product distribution, which is included in Microsoft’s marketing mix or 4P. However, considering that people and organizations have different needs, the company offers multi-functional technologies that can be customized or configured to suit the preferences of individual users and organizations. In conjunction with the corporate vision statement, the corporate mission requires that Microsoft’s products remain flexible, while also satisfying high quality standards.

Microsoft’s Vision Statement

Microsoft’s vision is “to help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential.” This vision statement shows that the company presents its computing products as tools that people and business organizations can use for their personal or organizational development. Microsoft’s corporate vision statement has the following components:

  1. Value proposition: To help realize their full potential
  2. Target market: People and businesses throughout the world

The corporate vision’s components are directly related to the components of the corporate mission statement, indicating that Microsoft focuses on its value proposition and target market. For example, the vision statement specifies that the company’s value proposition is that its information technology products can help customers realize their full potential. This emphasis on helping and satisfying customers agrees with the strategic objective of addressing the concerns of customers as a stakeholder group in Microsoft’s corporate social responsibility strategy and stakeholder management approaches. This means that individual users and organizations are a focus in the product development strategy of the technology business.

Microsoft’s corporate vision statement also specifies the target market. In stating “people and businesses throughout the world,” the technology company defines its target market as composed of every person and business organization in the world. In this way, the corporate vision describes a business condition where Microsoft continues as one of the leading global providers of computer technology and related online services to customers around the world. Maintaining this market position requires competitive advantages for success despite competing firms also operating in the information technology and Internet services market. In this regard, the business strengths detailed in the SWOT analysis of Microsoft Corporation support the fulfillment of the corporate vision statement.

An Assessment of Microsoft’s Mission Statement & Vision Statement

Microsoft’s corporate mission statement presents the global scope of the business and a general idea about the company’s value proposition. However, the corporate mission does not clearly define the business in terms of its nature or what it does as an information technology and online services provider. Ideally, the mission statement should provide a general idea about the nature of the business, its operations, and its purpose and objectives. In this case, a recommendation is to improve Microsoft’s corporate mission statement by including how the organization achieves its corporate vision. For example, the mission statement can specify that the company provides information technology to empower people and organizations. Also, Microsoft can state rapid innovation as a strategy for developing the products that customers need.

Microsoft’s corporate vision statement shows the target market and product value to customers, directly reflecting the points of the corporate mission statement. However, the corporate vision lacks details for guiding the organization’s strategic development. The ideal vision statement should describe a desired future situation of Microsoft. A recommendation is to revise the current corporate vision statement by adding information about where the business is heading and how this future can be achieved. The objective of this recommendation is to provide more guidance to the technology company’s strategy formulation. Microsoft’s corporate vision statement can present information about the desired market leadership position, as well as the general strategic plans to reach such a position for the business.

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