5 Strategies MSFT got Right

For a long time, I’s thinking how Microsoft (MSFT) became a Software Giant.

Last day I got an article, captioned “5 Strategies Microsoft got Right”. I'm replicating the same. The original article can be find here.

A) Software is King

Microsoft was among the first companies to see software as the business, not just an add- on sale to hardware. It acted on that insight in a big way.

B) Outsource Your Sales Force

How did Microsoft grow so big so fast? In large part it was the company’s partner strategy. Today, more than 90% of Microsoft products are sold by somebody else. OEM partners such as HP sell most copies of Windows and large reseller partners such as CompuCom sell most copies of Microsoft’s enterprise software, including Exchange, SQL Server, and SharePoint. In fact, you’d have a difficult time trying to call Microsoft to order a product directly.

C) Developers, Developers, Developers!

More than any other software company, Microsoft courts developers, lavishing them with powerful tools, free training, and low-cost support. Visual Basic enabled a whole generation of developers to create custom line-of-business applications on top of Office. Now Visual Studio is the tool of choice for serious corporate developers. Microsoft has been rewarded for this generosity by a torrent of third-party applications and custom solutions that have made Windows indispensable on the corporate desktop. Robust developer support for products such as the Office suite and SQL Server has also helped Microsoft products to flourish where competitors once had the field to themselves.

D) Technology for the Masses 

Microsoft has consistently figured out how to make powerful technologies once exclusive to big business—business intelligence, intranets, systems management—accessible to smaller IT shops at a fraction of the cost. In the process, Microsoft has created and captured new customers en masse.

E) The Long View

Microsoft has always taken the long view. It routinely invests billions of dollars in expansive ventures such as Xbox, MSN, and Dynamics with an eye to far-off opportunities and threats. Once engaged, it very rarely retreats. The company will sustain breathtaking losses to gain a foothold in a market (think of Xbox) and endure hits to its image to change a business model that isn’t working (think of MSN). Microsoft continually looks inward and studies how it can improve itself. But despite some long false starts and outright failures (LAN Manager, Windows Mobile, and WebTV), Microsoft has assembled the industry’s largest portfolio of enterprise and consumer software—the least of which generates revenue in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Ok. Wait. If they are following strategies, there might be some lessons. What do they learned from these strategies ? What are they ? Lessons per strategies, as follows, respectively:

1) Question the rules. Change the game.

2) Create win-win partner situations to grow fast.

3) Don’t neglect your customers’ most important need: a better price.

4) Make it easy for partners to customize your product.

5) Business isn’t a sprint; it’s a marathon. Be persistent.