ONLY DO Individual Portfolio Contribution Team Milestone Assignment PESTEL Ana

ONLY DO Individual Portfolio Contribution
Team Milestone Assignment
PESTEL Analysis (political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal)
A trend is a general pattern of conditions moving in the business landscape over time. It is common for businesses to monitor trends and to react to sudden, significant shifts to avoid a potential collapse or capitalize on an opportunity. A trend analysis is another way to analyze the business environment in order to strategically (re)position a company for (greater) success or sustainability. In this activity, you will research global trends that would be significant to your company and its industry. Please give a brief response to each of these questions (<400 words total, not counting citations and references). You can often find current trends through a simple web search or by perusing trade journals or the business sections of periodicals, such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Guardian, Businessweek, IndustryWeek, Fortune, Harvard Business Review, etc. Please remember to properly cite each reference used in this section and to use at least three different sources. What is one current political trend that is important for this company to notice in its strategic management decisions in order to become more sustainable? Based on the macro-environment characteristics, an external study of Microsoft Corporation identifies the most critical external concerns. Microsoft may develop strategies that address such challenges and their related external forces in the software and hardware markets. In this response, I will shed light on some current political trends that Microsoft corporation should incorporate in its strategic management plans and decisions in order to enhance its sustainability. Political stability in most of the world's markets enables Microsoft to increase its investments and, hence, its performance. For example, the company may increase its sales and marketing efforts in Europe to improve revenues since Europe has the most politically stable markets (Shaw & Shaw, 2021). Also, growing government encouragement for automation allows Microsoft to boost computer technology sales through government clients. Additionally, increasing international trade accords create a worldwide or macro-environment favorable to Microsoft's global sales growth. The company benefits from effective business arrangements in international markets as a consequence of this external influence. However, increasing international trade accords represent a threat to Microsoft. Through these agreements, foreign businesses can enhance their competitiveness in industrialized nations such as the United States (Kah Chon, 2019). Also, some have negative notions toward Microsoft corporation. For example, China dislikes Microsoft's distribution and sales system. Several of Microsoft's processing and manufacturing operations are located in China (Kreiss & McGregor, 2018). Therefore, the political friction between the United States and the Chinese government disrupts most of the company's activities. In conclusion, Political considerations are important in evaluating the elements that might affect Microsoft Company's long-term prosperity in a specific nation or market. Microsoft Company is operating in more than a dozen countries in the Commercial Software and Services sector, exposing itself to various sorts of different types of political environment threats. The main current political trends that Microsoft should keep an eye on include, political stability which most countries have hence provided an opportunity, government help for automation is growing, which also provide opportunity, and expanding international trade treaties, which provide opportunity and threat for this company. References Kah Chon, O. (2019). Impacts Of Firm-Specific Factors And Macroeconomic Factors Against Microsoft’s Performance. Kreiss, D., & McGregor, S. C. (2018). Technology firms shape political communication: The work of Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, and Google with campaigns during the 2016 US presidential cycle. Political Communication, 35(2), 155-177. Shaw, A., & Shaw, A. (2021). PESTLE Analysis of Microsoft | SWOT & PESTLE Analysis. What is one current economic trend that is important for this company to notice in its strategic management decisions in order to become more sustainable? One current economic trend that is important for Microsoft to notice in its strategic management decisions in order to become more sustainable is automation. With investing in technology, it has caused power in businesses. According to microsoft.com, "Digital transformation helped businesses in every industry improve efficiency and change how customers engaged with them. Hypergrowth led to unicorns — companies that “moved fast and broke things (Colon and Kikimova, 2021)”. Colon, G. and Kikimova, A., 2021. 2020 Vision: Trends to Define the Next Decade. [online] Microsoft Advertising. Available at: [Accessed 12 October 2021]. What is one current societal trend that is important for this company to notice in its strategic management decisions in order to become more sustainable? Cultural diversity is increasing with said diversity being amplified and hastened by the internet and social media. This is simultaneously a massive opportunity as well as a huge potential threat. A second trend that ties into this is the increasing demand for high-quality customer service and to have high-quality products that meet customers’ leisure needs. One of the greatest frustrations for many people is calling the customer service line only to get someone who barely speaks their language or has an accent so thick that what they’re saying is incomprehensible. Then there’s the dilemma that different cultures have a wide variety of tastes and preferences, all of which must be met. However, for the sake of efficiency, we may run the risk of only focusing on the most common preferences. Not fixing these problems will result in the alienation of certain demographics and markets to some degree and will spur them to go to the competition. As such, the more culturally diverse we become can result in stagnation where there used to only be consistent growth simply because we’re not offering what we should be to the majority of people. To remain sustainable and to become more sustainable, we should ensure we are living up to the goals of diversity within the organization and having a large team of managers with different backgrounds, experiences, and cultures. The increasing cultural diversity does bring a lot more opportunity to make revenue, but it also poses a significant risk should we not evolve to properly suit the spectrum of needs and priorities that will inevitably shift in some fashion with a more diverse market. What is one current technological trend that is important for this company to notice in its strategic management decisions in order to become more sustainable? One technological trend that also includes the environment, is the development of energy storage. The quality of development in energy storage could be critically important to the sustainability of Microsoft. If whomever we go to for our electricity develops this technology further, we would have a system that supplies a certain amount of energy that is determined by the demand. This has been an issue with renewable power and why it is not used as much as it should be. The electricity supply that is being produced could not be controlled, meaning that we couldn’t adjust output according to the demand. This improves sustainability of our company because that reduces the constant pressure of having to restrict our decision-making ability according to the environmental implications that may surround the decision. Many companies already invest in the development of this technology, we should invest more time and resources. What is one current environmental trend that is important for this company to notice in its strategic management decisions in order to become more sustainable? Climate change and pollution is posing to exclusively be a threat that your average person is becoming increasingly aware of. This is spurring the demand for devices that are recyclable and green along with the urging to do away with planned obsolescence. The more the company utilizes green products in its business operations and produces products that are environmentally friendly, the more we will improve our sustainability. With recyclable materials becoming increasingly common, this provides another opportunity as we can utilize those materials to produce computer hardware. Joppa, L. (2021, July 14). Made to measure: Sustainability commitment progress and updates [web log]. Retrieved October 10, 2021, from https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2021/07/14/made-to-measure-sustainability-commitment-progress-and-updates/.  What is one current legal trend that is important for this company to notice in its strategic management decisions in order to become more sustainable? One current legal trend that is important for this company to notice is President Biden's sustainability agenda. Biden has already executive orders to "put the environment squarely at the heart of U.S. federal policy". These being signed means that there are now laws and regulations put in to place to reduce pollution and encourage the use of renewable products/services. The European Union has already passed similar laws. It was already a trend before this, but the orders set in stone that sustainability is the most profitable strategy for businesses, and investors are backing it all the way. The orders also make publicly traded companies measure and report their emissions so further action can be taken. Yes we have to notice this trend because it's becoming much more profitable as the technology develops furthers, but we LEGALLY have to notice. Until the time comes that we reach zero-emissions, we have to notice and follow these orders to stay in business because the government would start to intervene in some form, or investors would send our company off the cliff anyways. Mendiluce, M. (2021, March 3). What Biden's sustainability agenda means for business. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved October 10, 2021, from https://hbr.org/2021/03/what-bidens-sustainability-agenda-means-for-business.  Format: Copy qthe topic heading only: Political, Economic, Societal, etc.. Individual Portfolio Contribution Please include your PESTEL in your final Strategic Analysis Portfolio. Remember to edit your contribution based on instructor feedback. This section needs to be in your own words now!