For a decade or more, Microsoft damaged so many significant technology trends that the company became funny.
But Microsoft is more than survived the epic error.
Today, it is (once again) one of the world’s technological superstars.
Microsoft’s ability to develop even though doing almost all mistakes might be an encouraging story about the reinvention company.
Or maybe a sad demonstration about how monopoly is very difficult to kill.
Or maybe it’s a bit of both.
Understanding the power of Microsoft remains relevant when considering important questions at this time: Is the great tech superstar now successful and popular because they are the best in what they do, or because they become very strong so they can slide in past success? In the end, anxiety about major technology in 2021 – demands of antimonopolic demands, the newly proposed law and shouting – emptying on the debate about whether the characteristics of our digital life are dynamics that encourage progress, or whether we really have a dynasty.
And what I ask is, which is Microsoft? Let me go back to Microsoft’s dark days, which can be sprinkled from the mid-2000s until 2014.
They strangely not as bad as that.
Yes, Microsoft is so not cool that the company is baked in Apple television advertisements and many people in the technology industry have nothing to do with it.
The company fails to make popular search engines, trying in vain to compete with Google in digital advertising and have a slight success of selling the operating system or its own smartphone device.
However, even in the saddest years in Microsoft, the company makes a lot of money.
In 2013, Steve Ballmer’s semi-thrust for retirement as CEOs, the company produced more profits before taxes and several other costs – more than $ 27 billion – compared to Amazon in 2020.
No matter how many Microsoft software – and many What is done – many businesses are still needed to buy Windows computers, email software and Microsoft documents and technology to run a strong back-end computer called the server.
Microsoft uses products that are needed as leverage to branch out to new and profitable business paths, including software that replaces conventional company telephone systems, databases, and file storage systems.
Microsoft is not always good in those years, but it’s pretty good.
And recently, Microsoft shifted from stepping on the water to become financially successful and relevant in the latest technology.
Likewise these turnarounds are a healthy sign or who discourages? On the healthy side of the ledger, Microsoft did at least one big thing right: Cloud Computing, which is one of the most important technologies in the last 15 years.
That and cultural change is a changing foundation from Microsoft to win even though there are strategies and products to win because of them.
This is a type of corporate rotation that we should want.
I will also say that Microsoft is different from a friend as big as a big technology in a way that might make it more resilient.
Business, not individuals, is customers and Microsoft technology sold to organizations does not need to be good to win.
And now the explanation is discouraging: What if the lesson from Microsoft is that the fading stars can take advantage of its size, smart marketing and attract customers to remain successful even if it makes MEH products, loss of grip on new technology and disturbed by a soft bureaucracy.
? Is Microsoft so big and strong that it is invincible, at least long enough to come up with the next action? And now is Facebook or Google which is comparable to Microsoft 2013 – very rooted that they can develop even if they are not the best? I do not have definitive answers, and size and power does not guarantee that the company can face many mistakes and remain relevant.
But many dramas and fighting with technology in 2021 hinges on those questions.
Maybe Google Search, Amazon Shopping and Facebook’s add is very good.
Or maybe we can’t imagine a better alternative because strong companies don’t need to be great to win.