{"id":12221,"date":"2014-03-12T06:59:06","date_gmt":"2014-03-12T06:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beyondphilosophy.com\/?p=12221"},"modified":"2019-10-03T12:06:47","modified_gmt":"2019-10-03T16:06:47","slug":"microsoft-slipping-fortunes-admired-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beyondphilosophy.com\/microsoft-slipping-fortunes-admired-list\/","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft is Slipping: Fortune\u2019s Most Admired List"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fortune recently released their list of the 50 \u201c World\u2019s Most Admired Companies<\/a>\u201d and on it, Microsoft Slips to 24 from 17th<\/sup> just last year. Honestly I am not surprised by this downward trend.<\/p>\n

I am part of Microsoft\u2019s problem. I don\u2019t admire Microsoft, but I do admire the #1 company on the list: Apple. Their place at the top of the list is no surprise to me at all. Nor are the 2nd<\/sup> and 3rd<\/sup> companies on the list, Amazon<\/a> and Google<\/a>. But since Apple is the most like Microsoft, let\u2019s compare the two companies from a Customer perspective in a little more depth.<\/p>\n

Why I Admire Apple<\/strong><\/p>\n

Apple is just a superior experience. Yes it is more expensive but I don\u2019t mind paying more money for it. I spend my life in their interface.<\/p>\n

When we work with companies. They always say to us that price is the key issue. In most cases it never is. The experience Customers receive is normally higher. Customers will pay more money when they have a good experience with a brand. It\u2019s worth it to them to part with more of their hard-earned money if they are confident that they are going to get a superior product and customer experience<\/a> as a result.<\/p>\n

I admire how Apple considers the user experience rather than the process. Consider the tracker pad I am using right now to write this post. I use hand gestures to switch between programs, or apps as they are called now. I had to learn this device when I switched, but once I did, I felt like it was a far superior way to work on my computer.<\/p>\n

Take the scrolling gesture for an example. On a Mac, you simply take two fingers and push up to scroll down instead of finding the scroll bar on the side and dragging it down with a mouse. The Mac way is natural, simple, and in many ways intuitive. In the training video,<\/a> the narration even says: \u201cOn a mac, it\u2019s like you are actually controlling your content on screen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apple knows how people work. Their software is intuitive, like the tracker pad scroll function that I just described. While using that function is easy, getting the tracker pad to be so intuitive is very, very difficult. It means that when Apple designed the scroll function, they considered the subconscious experience<\/a> of their users.<\/p>\n

In fact, Apple has done such a good job of considering the subconscious experience<\/a> that they have many admirers that seek to copy them. My mother always said, \u201cImitation is the highest form of flattery.\u201d But Apple disagrees. In fact, they have a long running \u201cbattle of the rounded corners<\/a>\u201d with rival tech company Samsung, accusing them of imitating their products. The latest round is regarding the shape of the apps that appear on the screen, but the battle is really about keeping Apple\u2019s brand exclusive.<\/p>\n

That exclusivity is why Apple is a club. I am a part of the club and proud of it. There is so much talk about Customer Loyalty<\/a> in business. But what is loyalty? Consider who you are loyal too in your life. The answer is your family & friends. There is an emotional bond between you. The same applies with Apple for me. I have an emotional bond with them so much so that I just wrote almost a whole post about it. Clearly, I am not alone based on the results of Forbes\u2019 survey.<\/p>\n

Why I Don\u2019t Admire Microsoft<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pundits attribute the slide of the brand to the struggles they have had in mobile technology<\/a> . That could be true, I suppose. But I suspect that the slide is for another reason.<\/p>\n

I have always found it ironic that despite being a \u201cnew-ish\u201d company, that Microsoft is very old-fashioned. They have a hierarchy in their organization that isn\u2019t on trend with the latest and greatest innovative companies, witness Windows 8. They have entrenched product silos. They just haven\u2019t adapted to the changing times and trends the way other tech companies have.<\/p>\n

It could be that they were on top so long that they lost touch with the need to adapt. What they really need is a culture shake-up on a grand scale.<\/p>\n

But I fear that their latest appointment of someone from the inside is not going to change this culture the way it should. Satya Nadella, the new chief of Microsoft is a 22-year veteran from the organization. He is slated to chart a new course. But since he is so entrenched in the current way they do business, how \u201cnew\u201d will his course be?<\/p>\n

Mum said that imitation is the highest form of flattery, but I would add that for Microsoft, imitation might be the quickest way back to the top. In that case, Nadella had better spend some time watching what\u2019s going on at the companies on the top of Forbes\u2019 list. For Microsoft, imitation could be the thing that saves them from a plummet off the list entirely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nColin Shaw<\/a> is founder & CEO of Beyond Philosophy, one of the world\u2019s first organizations devoted to customer experience<\/a>. Colin has been recognized by LinkedIn as one of the top 150 Business Influencers<\/span><\/a> in the world. \u00a0He is an international author of four best-selling books on Customer Experience. Colin\u2019s company,\u00a0Beyond Philosophy<\/a>\u00a0provide consulting, specialised research & training from our Global Headquarters in Tampa, Florida, USA.
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\nFollow Colin Shaw on Twitter: <\/span>@ColinShaw_CX<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fortune recently released their list of the 50 \u201c World\u2019s Most Admired Companies\u201d and on it, Microsoft Slips to 24 from 17th just last year. Honestly I am not surprised by this downward trend. I am part of Microsoft\u2019s problem. I don\u2019t admire Microsoft, but I do admire the #1 company on the list: Apple. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":12225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[83,113],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-customer-experience-1","category-customer-loyalty"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/beyondphilosophy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/beyondphilosophy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/beyondphilosophy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beyondphilosophy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beyondphilosophy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/beyondphilosophy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beyondphilosophy.com\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/beyondphilosophy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beyondphilosophy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/beyondphilosophy.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}