Crisis Communications for Microsoft

When researching Microsoft's crisis response I was actually able to find some pretty detailed information.  I found a powerpoint. A quick break down of the basics. Microsoft uses five different teams to manage all different crisis' that might pop up. The breakdown is: global security, governance committee, US IMT (United States Incident Management Team), Planning Committee, and Core Stockholder group.

Then I figured out how they label each crisis that pop up in label of importance. They use a 3 tier rating system.  Level 1 is on the local level, these are irregular events with minor risk to the organization.  Examples of these are local fires, normal procedure complaints, and limited power outage.   Level 2 is for the regional aspect of the company. It usually involves moderate risk; examples being large fire or bomb threat. The highest level is Level 3 or Corporate. This is for something that would affect the company as a whole. Examples of what would be a level 3 are things like a national disaster, workplace violence, or anything that is a threat to Microsoft public image.

As in what can be considered the latest crisis when it comes to Microsoft would be the Paul Allen tell all book. While Microsoft hasn't come out to say anything specially. Bill Gates, though, did respond. "While my recollection of many of these events may differ from Paul’s, I value his friendship and the important contributions he made to the world of technology and at Microsoft.”  

Global Communications

Microsoft global communications was a little bit hard to find. I decided to do a different approach. The first thing I did with the Microsoft global communications was to look up their most recent global campaign. The called is the "Start Something" campaign. It launched for 15 months in April 2005. The campaign was designed as a "global awareness campaign designed to showcase to people how to explore, enhance, and pursue their passions." They encouraged people to explore their talents and passions by using the Windows XP software as well as other Microsoft technologies. This campaign ran in the following 11 different countries: United States (first ones to launch it) Australia, Canada, India, Korea, Italy, France, Germany, Japan, The Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. They showcased 13 different passions such as: art, music, sports, productivity, entrepreneurship, photography, education, and science.  In order to get the the campaign out there Microsoft had: 51 Television ads, 39 Print Ads, and 250 online ads. All of these we re featured globally.

I found this campaign somewhat off setting. I guess the thing that threw me was the fact that they did a competition to see who would use the products the the best while they were "starting something". But all the winners were American. I don't know if this is because is because each country did their own competition or if it was just in America; but nothing else came up in the search.

The second thing I did to explore Microsoft Worldwide was do a visual comparison of 3 different countries compared the United States. I picked the webpage for  Microsoft Italy, Microsoft Australia, and Microsoft Japan. I figured this would give me a wide range of how it's different around the world. The interesting thing to me was that the 3 websites were behind on appearance - I would say their website looked as what we were used to seeing back in to 2007.  Also on the Italian website they advertised two different products that weren't found on the other three. They advertised for a Zune (which living in Italy for four months I know is more popular than the iPod) as well as the services for Cloud was advertised right on the website. Lastly, both Australia and Japan had links to donate money for disaster relief unlike America and Italy. 

Investor Relations

This weeks blog is all about Microsoft's investor relations. They website they have set up is very intense.  I feel like any question one might have about the company and handling investors will be found here. They first thing I wanted to see was the upcoming events that are taking place. They actually have to different ones - and the unexpected thing is that they are both webcasted so those who can't attend can participate in their own home.  


Another aspect of Microsoft that I wasn't planning on finding on the investor relations website was a link to an outside website referred to corporate citizenship. After searching trying to figure out what I stumbled upon I came across this quotes "Our Citizenship approach focuses on activities that create value for both our business and society. Our commitments include the way we operate our company, our efforts to create opportunities through our technology offerings, the application of our research and development investments, and the power of our partnerships." I thought this website was very conniving in the way of stockholders who couldn't attend the conferences would come across this and see how management is using the company internationally.


The lsat aspect of investor relations I looked at was the proxy documents posted online. It went into detail about what every stockholder will be able to vote on, when and where it was going to be, as well as including all the different proposals. I thought it was interesting in the sense that they encourage people to vote ahead time. "Whether or not you expect to attend the Annual Meeting in person, we urge you to vote your shares at your earliest convenience. This will ensure the presence of a quorum at the meeting. Promptly voting your shares via the Internet, by telephone, or by signing, dating, and returning the enclosed proxy card will save us the expenses and extra work of additional solicitation" This makes me wonder if this is just another tactic used by senior management and the board to get people not come and hear the other arguments.