Marketing Myopia

Marketing Myopia and Microsoft: The Perfect Storm

Curing Myopia

Dr., Levitts' article is timeless because it speaks to the perceptual bias companies gain after a little success, which breeds compliancy and then arrogance and an illusion of invulnerability. From the electric car industry to the railroads to energy today, no industry is protected from competitors or the broader and uncontrollable market dynamics that force change. The customer is constantly speaking and its up to the companies that serve them to quit being so inward focused and listen to them. That message alone is what makes Dr. Levitts' article so powerful and timely, no matter what era it is studied in.

Improving Microsoft

If the ephinany surrounding the Internet and the need for pervasive and clear integration of systems as a dominant need from customers had not been discovered by Microsoft, if the ephinany had not happened, one can postulate which company would be the world leader in software. It certainly would not be Microsoft, as this ephinany happened several years ago and Microsoft still struggles with its ramifications.

Areas specifically of the most struggles for Microsoft are in product development and release schedules aligning with expectations of customers, product quality at release, and the continual need to become easier to do business with. Microsoft continues to struggle on these three points, perhaps because they are the last bastions of control internally that may not be entirely aligned with customers yet. In terms of improving Microsoft, resources need to be aligned to beat committed launch dates; this is an area where the company fails most often. Second, quality assurance needs much more work for initial releases of operating systems. It is common knowledge that it's best to wait for the first service pack to be release for an operating system before installing it. Finally the licensing and pricing practices of the company are still very difficult for enterprise customers to work with. This final area needs the most work by far, as competitors find this an area where they can quickly surpass Microsoft in sales cycles and win enterprise-wide accounts over quickly. Microsoft is still in the midst of transforming itself from a technology-centered and myopic company to one centered on markets. Initial successes in the last several years have saved the most profitable business they have, which are Microsoft Office applications. Yet with the advent of Linux and open source operating systems, Microsoft's challenges regarding its own myopia are more acute than ever.

Microsoft nearly misses the Internet due to Myopia