Competitive Advantage - Microsoft Case Essay Example for Free

Competitive Advantage Microsoft Case Essay When trying to spill the beans of MSs success, the titles of two books from Bill Gates slip into my mind. They are The Road Ahead and Business @ the speed of thought, which I would translate into Direction and Speed and could be the reason for MSs success be good at setting strategy and adapting to the changes. However, to reframe them within the context of Modern Competitive Strategy, the reasons for MSs success are to create and maintain its modern COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES. With the analysis of it competitive advantages, MSs profitability was more rely on its ability to DEFEND its market position rather than to create. To put it another way, the usage of MSs resources and capabilities can be better understood in light of isolating mechanisms. On one hand, MS focus on increasing customer retention. Software is an experience good. It can be tell exactly from the name Windows XP where XP is short for experience. For an experience good, the search costs, training cost and learning cost are high, which in turn help to increase customer retention. Here is a classic example. In 1998, Bill Gates gave his speech at Washington University and talk about piracy in China, and he said: About 3 million computers get sold every year in China, but people dont pay for the software. Someday they will, though. As long as they are going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. Theyll get sort of addicted, and then well somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade. For the same reason, MS bundled Office Suite, expanded server platforms, and gave many stuffs/features for free like IE and Media Player. We can expect the adding to the list will grow on and on. Its broad scope of products and global presence also helped MS to increase customer retention. On the other hand, MS defend its market position fiercely. A typical tactic used by MS is the prohibitive development cost. For example, it spent $2 billion alone in 2001 for its .net platform. When MS identifies a potential threat, it react with all of it resources and capabilities to compete with. Through advance technology, enticement OEM manufactures, or even giving for free, it won battles over Office Suite, OS, Internet browser and media player. As a result, MS stands above its competitors and reaps its profit like printing money. For example, while application software price dropped by an average of 8.9% at 1989, MS could raise its OS price. While WordPerfect was priced at $79, MS charged $249 for upgrades of Office 2000. The challenges MS faced somehow derived from its own marketing activities. The antitrust litigation is a warning for its aggressive assault on its competitors. In general, Microsoft should keep focus on defending its market positions, using its resources and capabilities cautiously and smartly. Its isolation mechanisms could be enhanced by strategies like product development and acquisition, platform integration, user and channel enticement, all happen at prohibitive cost.

Agony Ang The Extacy, Ethical Considerations Concerning Mich Essay exam

Michelangelo Buonarroti was a natural born artist. As an artist he was capable of different mediums of expressing his artistic talent. However he much preferred sculpting out of them all, it made him most satisfied. When Pope Julius II experienced Michelangelo’s painting he insisted that Michelangelo share his talent with the rest of Italy. Julius II also commissioned Buonarroti with other artistic projects but none were as important as that of the Sixtine Capella(Sistine Chapel). Michelangelo didn’t want to paint the ceiling of the chapel, it was too large of a project and even more he didn’t want to paint at all. He was an excellent painter but he just didn’t have the same motivation as he did with sculpting for example.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  My goal in this short paper is not to educate the reader with the facts and life of Michelangelo Buonarroti, but to discuss, non-persuasively, the ethical and philosophical situations throughout his life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I will start with his most well known accomplishment, the Sistine Chapel. At the time of his assignment he made it clear to Pope Julius II that he did not want to undertake such a big project. Not only was he concerned with the size of it; he wanted to have complete freedom with what he was to paint. Considering these facts was it ethical for the Pope to force Michelangelo into devoting years of his life to doing this job that he didn’t want to do in the first place? Or one could ask, was it eth...

A Broken Taboo

Several weeks ago the news about tragic death of a famous talented Hollywood actor of Australian origin Heath Ledger shook the world up. The 28-year-old actor is widely known for many roles, including his work in a controversial movie Brokeback Mountain, directed by a Far Eastern filmmaker Ang Lee.This movie became a milestone motion picture in the whole history of Hollywood, which sparked a lot of criticism and public debates. For the first time in cinema art male homosexual relationships were shown with a great frankness and openness, and there are certain concerns that breaking this taboo can have some far-reaching negative ethical consequences in the nearest future.The plot of the movie is based on complex and unorthodox love affair between two young cowboys, who were hired by a Wyoming ranch owner as herds, so they had to spend several months in isolation on the Mountain of Brokeback. Within this time a special bond was developed between the two men, which eventually evolved int o a deep emotional and physical relationship.After finishing their job, the cowboys separated and started living their lives, had families, but the unique feelings they shared on the Brokeback Mountain were left as scars on their hearts to be carried on to the rest of their lives.Certainly, it was not the first motion picture featuring male homosexuality. Such movie stars as Antonio Banderas, Jason Alexander or Tom Hanks have portrayed homosexual characters before. But it is hardly possible to disagree that Brokeback Mountain demonstrated more frank and intimate sides of gay relationships which have been never shown on cinema screens to general public before. In my opinion, the movie with its several scenes involving affectionate embraces, a kiss, and so on, had too close focus on physical aspects of gay relationships, which were always skipped in modern media, especially in cinema art.That is why public reaction on Brokeback Mountain was absolutely contradictive. While many liberal critics and art specialists in America and Europe were pleased with the depth of the plot, good acting, music and high-quality production, many social activists from Christian fundamentalist or Family-oriented social groups expressed their concern about possible negative effects (especially on teenagers and youth) of publicizing male homosexual relations.Moreover, since homosexuality is a terrible irremissible crime in Islam, in more conservative and religious countries of the Middle and Far East, including the director’s homeland Taiwan, the film was banned or censored.Undoubtedly, Brokeback Mountain was not a cheap â€Å"B† movie. Many were fascinated with convictive acting of young Hollywood performers, and numerous awards received by the cast are the best recognition of this work. Besides, the movie teaches being tolerant and respectful to the feelings of other people.Nevertheless, with its too forthright covering of homosexual relationships, this motion picture c an become the first step on the way to more frequent and freer employment of gay themes in modern cinema, as well as to more open popularization of the idea of male homosexual love. Certainly, it will affect our moral principles and aesthetic sensibility to a great extent.Brokeback Mountain is a multifaceted, unusual and quite difficult movie which evokes strong emotions and makes the viewers empathize. But the question remaining after viewing this screen version of a tragic story about gay cowboys is: whether our society is really ready to enjoy watching such relationship or not?Will the majority of us find beauty in male homosexual intimacy? In my opinion, the answer is not clear enough, because certain moral stereotypes and traditional values are still very strong in our modern society, even in such open-minded country as the U.S.Works Cited:Harris, Paul. â€Å"Hollywood to Break Last Taboo with Gay Cowboys.† The Guardian. Guardian Unlimited. 18 Jan. 2004. 11 Feb. 2008 .

The Civil Rights Movement Essay - 891 Words

The 1960’s were a time of freedom, deliverance, developing and molding for African-American people all over the United States. The Civil Rights Movement consisted of black people in the south fighting for equal rights. Although, years earlier by law Africans were considered free from slavery but that wasn’t enough they wanted to be treated equal as well. Many black people were fed up with the segregation laws such as giving up their seats on a public bus to a white woman, man, or child. They didn’t want separate bathrooms and water fountains and they wanted to be able to eat in a restaurant and sit wherever they wanted to and be served just like any other person. During the Civil Rights Movement a lot of the white people who wanted†¦show more content†¦This site was created by Charles Moore, a freelance photographer who seemed to always be at the right place at the right time. All of the pictures on this web site were taken by Charles Moore who was especially found of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and what he stood for. There are pictures from the freedom march of 1963 and the Selma March of 1965. Pictures here show Dr. King marching non-violently with both black and white supporters. There is a picture of Andrew Young leading marchers through Selma in prayer. Governor George Wallace was against the Marches and wanted to stop them no matter what, but later he apologized for his segregationist views and actions during the 1960’s. During the march a picture was taken of police beating marchers with billy clubs. Another section on this page is voter’s registration, they showed black people explaining how to vote to other blac ks. People like Medger Evers who was fighting for the right to vote was shot down in his drive way as he was coming home from work one night because of what he believed. This page is formed so people can understand through the art of photography that human beings had to go though a lot to be treated equal. This page is very effective in getting the message across because of the graphic nature and up close (realness) of the pictures. When looking at the pictures used to tell the story in this site you can’t help butShow MoreRelatedThe Rise Of The Civil Rights Movement1179 Words   |  5 Pagessegregations. Out of the numerous elements that arose in the 1960s, there are three movements that truly affected the American society. Firstly, the rise of the civil rights movement was greatly influenced by racial discrimination of colored people in the South. Secondly, the women’s movement aimed to convince the society that women are capable of achieving and maintaining higher waged job like males. Lastly, the gay rights movement aimed to gain acceptance and stop discrimination of homosexuality. 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