Microsoft faces intense competition in the cloud industry vs Amazon: One of the largest successes of Microsoft since Satya Nadella(current CEO) has joined the company has been their work in the Cloud industry through Microsoft Azure. They are greatly successful in this industry, holding the second largest market share, but face fierce competition from Amazon sitting at the top. Microsoft’s growth in the market has been slowing in recent years, making it ever so harder to catch up to the goliath that is Amazon. This issue is more of a major problem than you would think, because although they are successful with around ~21% market share, they still fall short of Amazon’s ~33% by a large portion (Richter, 2022). And since Satya Nadella joined Microsoft, it has been a goal to work towards improving and focusing on the Azure project, making this loss hurt especially since they have large resources invested into it (Gaus, 2020). For a corporation as large as Microsoft, when you put a high focus and large amount of resources into a market, you expect to either dominate that market or come closer to the top than they currently are. If ignored, this issue will leave Microsoft stuck behind Amazon, never truly able to establish itself as the superior Cloud provider, and potentially if this lack of growth leads to complacency, they could even be overtaken by Google in the coming years.
Core problem statement: Microsoft faces intense competition in the cloud industry vs Amazon
Strategy priority
Clearly state the core problem statements is the most important problem.
Clearly explain why this is the strategic priority for the company
Strategic Priority
Now look over your problem statement. Clearly state which of the core problem statements from the above list is the single most important problem/issue/challenge/opportunity for the company to address or resolve? Clearly explain why this is the strategic priority for the company.
By the way, if you are convinced that your company is very well run and faces no major problems (this has to be justified), focus on any future problems/issues indicated by your situation analysis. Your problem statements should discuss any future problems/issues/opportunities/challenges the company will have to deal with to maintain its competitive advantage. Remember, no company—no matter how successful—can keep doing the same thing and remain competitive. Stated differently, “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it” is not a valid conclusion for the strategic plan.