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Microsoft Corporation

Microsoft Corporation


TABLE OF CONTENTS

MICROSOFT HISTORY 1
EARLY INFLUENCES 2
FIRST BUSINESS VENTURE 3
EDUCATION ATTEMPT 3
THE MOTIVATIONAL SIDE OF FEAR 4
A JAPANESE CONNECTION 5
IBM INFLUENCE 5
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST 6
A CRUCIAL DEAL 6
COMPETITION ERRORS 7
BIRTH OF WINDOWS 7
MISSION STATEMENT AND ANALYSIS 8
INDUSTRY AND COMPETITVE ANALYSIS 9
DOMINANT ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS 9
Market Differentiation 9
Pace of technological change 10
Advances to the Printed Word 11
DRIVING FORCES 12
The Internet 13
The Information Highway 14
KEY SUCESS FACTORS 14

Microsoft History

Historians categorize blocks of time with the discovery of certain raw materials
that humans utilized. The Bronze Age and the Iron Age were two periods in human
history that proved through the discovery of artifacts that humans learned to
harness these raw materials ingeniously. The Industrial Revolution of the late
nineteenth century brought the discoveries of the Bronze and Iron Ages to new
heights, and the advent of the locomotive, automobiles, cargo ships and
airplanes were the most evident by-products of such raw materials. Use of these
by-products from the earth's raw materials dramatically changed the world of
business and trade. With the subsequent invention of wire communications (i.e.,
tapping out Morse code and speaking over telephone lines), business and trade
grew exponentially. Wireless communications via the inventions of radio,
television, and motion pictures contributed greatly to the advances of the
Industrial Revolution. The need to find better ways of doing business to keep
the marketplace fresh and innovative has driven the human race toward the brink
of a new eraCthe Information Age. Unlike more tangible qualities of prior ages,
the Information Age offers less defined qualities. At the heart of this new age
is the advent of the...