On Oct. 29, Microsoft once again overcame Apple to grab the top place as the world’s most valuable publicly listed firm.

The other week, the business gave an overview of all things Microsoft at its annual Ignite conference, emphasizing why it deserves to be at the top of the list. It’s because, unlike other firms, such as Facebook, Microsoft prioritizes its consumers over its profits, rather than revenue.

Excessive concentration on revenue and profit is now at the heart of why other companies are not performing as well and are facing regulatory responses while Microsoft is the leading company.

Diversity and Inclusion

It may seem strange to start with diversity and inclusion, but we’ve discovered that companies that don’t encourage diversity and inclusion (D&I) aren’t as successful as their competitors. Minorities are underutilized, realize they are underpaid, and underperform as a result of this.

When it comes to D&I efforts, most organizations bring in a human resources executive to talk about the programs they have in place to handle the problem. The true test of a D&I program, however, is how the employees feel about it. Microsoft presented a panel of minority workers who praised the company’s diversity and inclusion initiatives at Ignite.

Employees were asked questions regarding how they were treated, and they were responded in real-time. The panel discussed how they were handled properly in terms of pay and benefits, and how they felt like they were part of Microsoft’s family of employees.

Because there is so much hatred between the rank and file and management, it is hard to convince a group of employees who have been underpaid in the past that they are being treated properly. As a result, seeing minority employees describe their company as a collaborator rather than an opponent in their fight for equal treatment speaks loudly.

Employees at Microsoft, particularly minorities, appreciate that the effort is effective, unlike some other Big Tech businesses (Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google have all had serious problems with employee revolts).

Focus on Customers

Revenue and profit are important to Apple, Amazon, Facebook, and Google. Microsoft did as well up to the early 2000s. The corporation was laser-focused on growth and profit during most of Steve Ballmer’s tenure as CEO. It made a lot of money, but it also made a lot of costly mistakes that showed a lack of concentration on what was essential.

Yahoo and Nokia, for example, were destroyed by badly thought purchases and efforts. However, during the last decade, the corporation has made a difficult shift toward a customer-centric approach that focuses on client demands, happiness, and loyalty.

What happens when a corporation turns its attention from revenue and profit to the people who buy and use its products and instead focuses on the people who utilize them? Improvement in financial performance that is consistent and significant.

Microsoft is lucky in that its customers and users are all the same. In stark contrast to Facebook and Google, whose money derives from ads, this user-customer relationship. Customers, not products, become the individuals who utilize those platforms.

Apple looks to be having problems acquiring new consumers and losing market share under Tim Cook, who is more like Microsoft under Steve Ballmer, but without as many catastrophic blunders.

Because Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Amazon commerce are so distinct, a single senior executive would not be able to maximize both key companies with the same set of talents. Furthermore, Amazon competes with corporations such as Walmart, which may otherwise be users of AWS, limiting the latter’s market.

Microsoft’s Chief Product Officer, Panos Panay (the closest thing Microsoft has to Steve Jobs), spoke about how one of the key designers for Windows and Surface is disabled, providing critical usability insights into product development, making Microsoft’s products more inclusive, at Ignite, drawing a parallel to the topic of diversity and inclusion.

Integration and Advancement

Microsoft and Bill Gates are well-known for bringing the internet into the corporation and implementing.NET it across the board. Standard components and frameworks are difficult to adopt across the board in most firms since they are highly compartmentalized. Microsoft does not appear to have this issue, as seen by the company’s presentation of its collaboration and communication technologies at Ignite.

When a corporation produces anything that has a competitive advantage, it helps both its consumers and its employees since it employs its goods internally.

When businesses provide services, they usually come into conflict with efforts to automate, which are often thwarted as a result of the danger of losing money. These conflicts are greatly limited by Microsoft’s structure. During Ignite, Microsoft demonstrated market-leading levels of automation, aiming for the day when a business manager could build their code utilizing Microsoft’s increasingly powerful AI and natural language processing (NLP) without the support of IT or a third party.

Although those breakthroughs diminish service income potential, Microsoft looks to be more able and willing to integrate common frameworks and capabilities across its projects and fight for improvements that consumers demand.

Getting to the End

Companies that were excessively focused on profit and sales have historically shaped the IT industry, setting the tone for the industry. As a result, the gap between what customers demand and what IT businesses provide has widened.

Even though this transition reduces service income, Microsoft has switched its attention to focus on customer demands in a new way. Interestingly, this has improved the company’s financial performance. With Microsoft at the helm, other firms will follow Microsoft’s lead and move away from exploiting customers for profit in favor of discovering innovative methods to address their issues.

As opposed to Apple’s strategy of locking customers into an ecosystem that also locks out new customers, Microsoft creates interoperability and migration bridges that make it easier for customers to move around and trusts that these customers will choose a vendor that cares about them over one that doesn’t.

Most businesses have struggled to focus on what their consumers want rather than sales, profit, or competitive replies. Microsoft has proven that not only is this a viable option, but it also offers significant financial advantages.

Here at CourseMonster, we know how hard it may be to find the right time and funds for training. We provide effective training programs that enable you to select the training option that best meets the demands of your company.

For more information, please get in touch with one of our course advisers today or contact us at training@coursemonster.com