'Marketing Myopia' and Microsoft

Paper Summary:

This paper takes the issues discussed in Dr. Theodore Levitt's article, 'Marketing Myopia' and applies his theory to the Microsoft Corporation. This paper defines how the Microsoft culture had become so myopically focused on their own technologies and the processes used to create them. The paper also looks at the reversal that happened after their dominance of the PC Desktop came under serious risk. The paper goes on to say that Microsoft's epiphany regarding their myopic view of themselves is perfectly defined in Dr. Levitt's classic article.

Outline:
Curing Myopia
Improving Microsoft
Microsoft Nearly Misses the Internet due to Myopia
Microsoft's Marketing Euphony
Battling For the Desktop
Markets and Competitors

From the Paper:

"Based on the strategies of gaining greater voice-of-the-customer data, committing to only build applications after customers had provided feedback and quantification of market demand, instituting customer satisfaction ratings for the first time, and requiring every product have integration to the Internet in its first release, Microsoft had to also completely re-align its organizational strategy not around technologies, but markets. In response to the threat of losing the Desktop, Microsoft created divisions specifically aligned to customer needs. Just as Marketing Myopia, 1975 points out, for companies to survive they must become owners of markets and not technologies, Microsoft took this path with the result being the creation of entirely new types of operating systems including Windows XP Professional, Windows XP Home, Office 11, and widespread adoption of the XML protocol which is highly efficient integration approach customers have en masse adopted in their own companies as well. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• Marketing Myopia (1975) - Dr. Theodore Levitt. Marketing Myopia. Harvard Business Review. September - October, 1975.
• Johansson and Nonaka (1987) - Johnny K. Johansson and Ikujuro Nonaka. Market Research the Japanese Way. Harvard Business Review. May - June, 1987.

More papers on 'Marketing Myopia' and Microsoft:

• Article Review # 146838 : "Avoiding Green Marketing Myopia"
• Research Proposal # 105717 : "Globalization and Microsoft"
• Essay # 26790 : "Contemporary Marketing Problems and Capability-Based Marketing"

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