On March 29 2018, Microsoft announced a restructuring of the organization. Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, explains how microsoft wants to focus on AI and cloud computing. A striking thing about this reorganization is that there won’t be a dedicated ‘windows OS’ department anymore. Whereas Windows OS used to be the core of the company, the focus now starts to shift.

Nadella repeatedly talks about helping users to seamlessly use their different devices during the day. Microsoft wants to play a leading role in making the connection between users’s devices more integrated. What is the reason for this shift of focus for Microsoft?

Microsoft windows OS and services like Microsoft office are still the number one software products for PC’s and laptops, with 600 million devices using Windows 10 and 900 million using another version,  classical laptops and desktops sales are on a decline. On the other hand, sales of smartphones and tablets are steadily rising, with Apple and Google as major players as platforms for these devices. Apple now has 1 billion active devices, and Google’s android has the most widely used OS with 2 billion users. Microsoft has already tried to compete in the smartphone market once, in cooperation with Nokia, which wasn’t a very succesful endeavor in the end.

I think that their renewed focus will allow them to become a major player in the integration between devices, allowing users to easily switch between PC, smartphone and tablet. The popularity of the surface devices, which offer a hybrid experience as both a laptop and a tablet device give opportunity to grow market share for tablets. Also, the microsoft launcher for android devices was received relatively well (especially compared to the windows phone OS from years ago). I think that Microsoft’s new focus on the integration of devices and their success with the Surface products, builds a strong base to become a major ‘platform player’ for a wide variety of products. Perhaps this could even open up the smartphone market again for Microsoft.

Sources:

https://news.microsoft.com/2018/03/29/satya-nadella-email-to-employees-embracing-our-future-intelligent-cloud-and-intelligent-edge/

https://www.techradar.com/news/is-windows-dying

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3270959/windows/what-still-isnt-clear-about-the-future-of-windows-after-build-2018.html

https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/30/17179328/microsoft-windows-reorganization-future-2018

The supermarket business is pretty tough. Margins are slim, and the market has to bear with severe price competition, which we can see in the success of discount stores like Lidl and Aldi. At the same time, we see a rise in online shopping, including online groceries. In the Netherlands, Picnic is growing in market share, with an online-only shop and an efficient delivery strategy. It seems like competition is mostly based on price and convenience. If that’s the case, then we should expect to exclusively have cheap and online supermarkets within a matter of years.

We don’t know yet which direction the market for groceries is going to take. Perhaps supermarkets will change, and become more customer centered, instead of product oriented. We clearly see the ‘long tail’ phenomenon occuring in the market for groceries, like many other products. When offered a larger variety of products, people’s preferences tend to vary a lot. This can create possibilities for exploiting niche markets, since online shopping creates the possibility for a greater diversity of products.

My expectation is that supermarkets will have to deliver a unique customer experience in order to be competitive in the market. in the long run, offering or delivering certain products within a time span won’t give a competitive advantage. It will be a minimum standard. This means that being a supermarket will be more than selling your products. (Online) supermarkets have to become personalized, so that customers will experience doing groceries as a positive, engaging activity. This can be achieved by using datamining and data-analysis. Hence I think that supermarkets will have to become omnichannels, with a lot of knowledge about their customer.

next to the personal customer experience, I think supermarkets will have to create (or participate in) an ecosystem, creating a variety of channels and ways in which value can be offered to customers. Therefore, becoming an omnichannel might not even be enough. My expectations is that in the future most supermarkets will operate as ecosystem drivers.

Customers will not blindly switch to online groceries, but will look for the best customer experience. This experience can be offered when knowledge about the customer and the ecosystem are integrated and fully utilized.

references:

https://www.supermarketnews.com/online-retail/future-grocery-shopping-click-or-mortar

https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/the-future-of-grocery-in-store-and-online