Microsoft

Background

 

Microsoft is an American multinational technology company. Microsoft develops, manufactures, licenses, supports and sells computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers and services. Its best known for its software products such as microsoft window and its line of operating systems, Edge web browsers and internet explore. Microsoft’s mission is to help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential.  This is achieved by encouraging engineers to branch out of their comfort zone when working; “if an engineer is only doing what he/she is good at and not attempting to learn new methods, then they can’t help the company grow.”  Founded in 1975 by Paul Allen and Bill Gates, Microsoft rose to dominate the personal computer operating system market. As of 2016 it is the world’s largest software maker by revenue, and one of the world’s most valuable companies.

Innovation

Input

Microsoft puts an emphasis on innovation. They encourage communication across all departments and personal time to develop new projects or bring a creation to life. To help the process and promote innovation, Microsoft created a facility called the “Garage” which acts as a workshop for all employees to use. Each department in Microsoft has a main focus to be innovative. However, the metrics to determine successful products are different. To assist with bringing ideas to life Microsoft has created a “ship channel” which also gives employees the resources to develop their ideas. The openness of the work culture allows any level employee to bring an idea to their manager so they can either utilize the ship channel or Garage. Innovation at Microsoft is strategically implemented and done well.

 

Process

Microsoft focuses on inter-team collaboration. For example, if you have a question about how to use powerpoint, go and ask the team that built it. This is a huge cultural shift in the past 5 years since Satya Nadella took over. Microsoft is focused on becoming more open as a company.  Examples of this include their maker space (‘The Garage’), open-sourcing their software (.NET), and allowing employees to use competitors’ products.

This new culture allows for a more flexible work environment. Even giving employees the freedom to work on personal project during work hours as long as developers finish

Teams prioritize speed by setting benchmarks that are usually set by project managers or the software developers themselves.

 

Output

Microsoft mentioned they both have metrics for each project, but also metrics for the company and every project as a whole. The concrete metrics of success for each project are:

• Scorecards – measure accomplishments
• Crash Rate/Reports
• Customer Satisfaction (Feedback from users both online and in-person. The feedback gives a score which measure the customer satisfaction)
• Revenue

For all projects and the company as a whole, Microsoft believes that customer satisfaction and that each product or service should make people happy. Microsoft believe that a customer-oriented approach that makes its users happy will also bring successful company to it. “A goal is always to have more people happy than not happy, and that will equal success”. Therefore, Microsoft measure its success from results of metrics last year, but also by evaluating the happiness of its customers. To summarize, the goal is to always create and work with your customers and employees to try keep everybody happy and that will automatically result in a successful company.