Group 12 – Microsoft’s digital strategy

22

October

2017

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In our report, we conduct a structured analysis concerning the digital strategy of Microsoft, by utilizing a relevant economic theories and conceptual models. The primary goal is to understand the current business and digital strategy and to propose a new digital strategy that will transform the company in five years. We found that even though Microsoft has become one of the market leaders in the technology industry, an urgent need to enhance customer experience and leverage existing customer relationships remains. Key problem areas in the B2C segment were revealed to be inadequate customer support, besides insufficient customer engagement with current and future customers.Microsoft also continues to face organizational resistance in light of recent structural and cultural changes which may hinder its digital transformation.
The following managerial recommendations are suggested to Microsoft: 

As we have seen, there is a lack of awareness with regards to the company’s products and their functionalities, especially in the B2C market. In addition, Microsoft’s customers do not feel overly attached and engaged with the company, but favour its products only based on performance criteria. Therefore, we would suggest increasing the marketing efforts in the following years, and focus on experience-based marketing rather thanMicrosoft’s traditional information marketing strategy. In addition, we would recommend implementing across-media strategy in order to increase the level of customer engagement. These efforts should result in increasing product awareness and in the “creation” of a strong community, which, in turn, will lead to increased customer loyalty.
Second, we would recommend Microsoft to fully exploit its leadership position in the field of AI and machine learning, as well as the company’s data analytics capabilities in order to (1) optimize employees’ knowledge of the B2B clients they deal with; and (2) provide customers with a fully personalized experience during the whole customer journey. By providing a customized customer experience, Microsoft will differentiate itself from competitors and strengthen its position in the market.
Third, it is important to recognize the fact that the technological landscape is constantly changing at a rapid pace. Therefore, Microsoft should make sure to monitor and analyse digital trends on a regular basis, and revises its strategy accordingly. At the same time, the company should ensure that each digital initiative is accepted internally as well by making efforts to decrease barriers to change, and help employees transition into the digital era. HR should make effort to suitably define the organizational culture so that the digital transformation o fMicrosoft remains sustainable, furthermore reckon the digital skills required to maintain competitive advantage and recruit accordingly. Talent management is crucial with the introduction of AI and machine learning which demands professional expertise and a creative, flexible mindset at work, empowering employees to collaborate, share ideas and take risks.
Fourth, Microsoft should consider implementing its own cutting-edge technologies and solutions to internal processes, automate currently outsourced non-core activities, and provide a virtual personal assistant service to employees, enabling streamlined workflows, moreover enhancing the transfer of valuable knowledge within the company. By utilizing the same technologies as its customers, Microsoft will gain unique insight to business operations, moreover the shared platform ecosystem would allow a seamless delivery of solutions.
Finally, based on our insider knowledge and the interviews we conducted, Microsoft does not have a clear written digital strategy, but rather derives it from the company’s business strategy and mission. Thus, we would recommend Microsoft to officially develop a clear digital strategy with well-defined objectives for the following reasons. First, it provides the whole organization a clear vision and goals, making it possible for all regional branches to have a clear understanding of the strategy and work towards the same objectives. Second, ensuring that there is broad support for a digital activity within the company can be difficult which is much easier to obtain if there is a written documentation detailing the aims to accomplish, how it fits with the company’s other marketing priorities, and thus provide a framework to measure its performance.
Summary of the digital transformation project
Guohuibin Li
Minh Quang Nguyen
Tran Truong An Nguyen
Yu Wang

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AI you are welcome to steal my job!

26

September

2017

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Almost a century ago, in 1930, the famous economist John Maynard Keynes made a prediction that technology would make us so productive that a major problem we will face will be “how to occupy the leisure which science and compound interest will have won for him, wisely and agreeably and well?” (Keynes, 1933).

Nowadays, with the rise of new technologies, machines, and artificial intelligences, many people are starting to thing that he was right and that AI-powered robots are going to steal their jobs. But is that really true? Will AI really make us all unemployed?

 

Of course it is certainly true that the always-improving technologies will render several human jobs redundant and unnecessary. For instance, the United Kingdoms have announced that, by the end of the year, they would release a “fleet of driverless lories” to be trialled on the UK’s motorways (Swinford and Krol, 2017). Autonomous car technology has already successfully being tested in other European countries, and we can expect it to render many jobs (e.g. truck and taxi drivers) irrelevant in the future. Similarly, robots and AI have a non-negligible impact on many other industries, especially in production processes.

 

However, even if automation will undoubtedly steal away many of our jobs, it is not really a problem. In fact, it has already happened before. As Kurzeil, director of engineering at Google Ray, said during his interview with Fortune, around 1900, most people worked in farms and factories, but most of these jobs don’t exist anymore nowadays (Lev-ram, 2017). Nevertheless, most people are still employed, because for each job eliminated, new ones were created. The same is likely to happen in our technological era; it is just too soon to see what the career landscape will look like in 5 or 10 years, which can be quite unsettling.

 

So does that mean that there is no need to worry about the future, and that everyone will still be able to easily find a job? I believe not. Indeed, as technology evolves and reshape or take over human tasks, the knowledge needed to perform these modified or completely new jobs change as well. The question is, will people have the necessary to perform these new tasks? Whereas us Bimmers are lucky enough to learn about subjects relevant for the future (e.g. Machine learning, Big data), I don’t believe that it is the case for all students, and even less for currently employed people.

I will finish by asking you what you think we could do to address this skill gap? What could we do to ensure that current employees have an easier transition from one occupation to another? Let me in the comments!

 

References:

  • Keynes, J. M. (1933). Economic possibilities for our grandchildren (1930). Essays in persuasion, 358-73.
  • Lev-Ram, M. (2017). Futurist Ray Kurzweil Isn’t Worried About Technology Stealing Your Job. [online] Fortune.com. Available at: http://fortune.com/2017/09/24/futurist-ray-kurzweil-job-automation-loss/ [Accessed 26 Sep. 2017].
  • Swartz, J. (2017). Businesses say they just can’t find the right tech workers. [online] USA TODAY. Available at: https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/talkingtech/2017/03/28/tech-skills-gap-huge-graduates-survey-says/99587888/ [Accessed 26 Sep. 2017].
  • Swinford, S. and Krol, C. (2017). Fleets of ‘driverless’ lorries will be trialled on Britain’s motorways from next year, Government announces. [online] The Telegraph. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/24/fleets-driverless-lorries-will-trialled-britains-motorways-next/ [Accessed 26 Sep. 2017].

 

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AI as a mean to reduce criminality

13

September

2017

5/5 (3)

A few years ago, I watched Person of Interest – a TV series in which Artificial Intelligence (AI) is used to analyse data from cameras, computers, and other electronic devices, making it possible to predict and prevent crimes before they even happen. At the time, I never thought something like that was possible but well, that has changed. Even though AI technologies available today are nowhere as sophisticated as in the show, experts affirm that there have been some serious progress in that direction.

 

According to Dr. Simon See – director for NVDIA AI technology center – “AI can predict the probability of crime in a location by detecting anomalies and faces”. This is exactly what China is aiming to do. Cloud Walk, a company located in Guangzhou Tianhe Software Park, combines its facial recognition software and big data analysis tools to track people’s location and behaviour in order to assess the odds of them committing a crime. Suspicious behaviours, such as frequent visits to gun shops or transportation centres (a good target location for terrorists), are flagged, and a warning is forwarded to the local police. The law enforcement forces can then intervene before the crime even happens.

In addition, in Durham, England, the law enforcement forces are making use of HART – an AI system developed by a Professor of Cambridge University – to help them determine whether a suspect should be released or keep in custody. HART uses the police’s database to forecast the risk of a suspect re-offending by putting them in either a low, moderate or high-risk category. The police can then decide on the appropriate course of action based on the ranking. Although the system is not yet ready to be deployed on a large scale, the tests conducted in Durham are quite encouraging as only 2% of low-risk suspects went on to commit a serious offense. Similarly, in the US, law courts and correction departments are making use of AI to help them pass judgement. Similarly to HART, the system determines the likelihood of the defendant committing another offense or whether he’s likely to appear to his court date. Based on the output, the court can then make decisions about bail, sentencing, and parole.

 

After reading a few articles to write the present post, I immediately thought that using AI to reduce criminal offenses seemed to be an amazing idea to – reduced criminality, terrorist attacks prevented, less “detective work” for the law enforcement forces, what else could we want? However, after further considerations, I believe that even if AI might be able to prevent some crimes in the ways mentioned previously, it also presents several issues.

First, whoever does the design and coding brings his own beliefs, biases, misunderstandings, and, most crucially, prejudices to the party. As long as this issue is not fixed, should we really trust a man’s freedom with a machine that might contain hidden biases rather than a jury composed of random people from different backgrounds?

Second, it is important not to forget that the law enforcement forces are not the only ones making use of IT, criminals also do. Thus, although AI might prove useful in reducing criminality, it also poses new threats to security, and as long as we don’t find ways to counter these, I wouldn’t trust my life to an auto-driven car or the likes.

 

And you, what do you think about AI as a way to reduce criminality & passing judgements? Let me know in the comments.

 

References:

  • Gibbs, M. (2017, February 25). Pre-crime, algorithms, artificial intelligence, and ethics. Retrieved from https://www.networkworld.com/article/3174331/big-data-business-intelligence/pre-crime-algorithms-artificial-intelligence-and-ethics.html
  • Hamill, K. D. (2017, May 11). British cops test Minority Report-style system to stop crimes before they happen. Retrieved from https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/3536544/british-cops-test-minority-report-style-system-to-stop-crimes-before-they-happen/
  • Markou, C. (2017, May 16). Why using AI to sentence criminals is a dangerous idea. Retrieved from https://phys.org/news/2017-05-ai-sentence-criminals-dangerous-idea.html
  • Yang, Y., Yang, Y., & Ju, S. F. (2017, July 23). China seeks glimpse of citizens’ future with crime-predicting AI. Retrieved from https://www.ft.com/content/5ec7093c-6e06-11e7-b9c7-15af748b60d0

 

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