Overview
1. Introduction about Microsoft Corp.
Microsoft Corp. is a multinational technology company, which was founded in 1975
by Bill Gates the famous billionaire and Paul Allen – an American genius investor. The
corporation does everything including developing, manufacturing, licensing, supporting and
selling computer softwares, consumer electronics, personal computers and related services.
Its products are well-known and wordwide used, namely: Microsoft Office (thing that
no one can live without), Internet Explorer (thing that people used not to live without),
Skype, Xbox (video game consoles), Outlook (the software that our school asked us to use),
…
2. Summary the case
The case is divided into 4 main sections
 Tammy Savage joined one of Microsoft branch’s sale office at quite young age, 22.
Due to her profound knowledge about the NetGen (the under-30 Internet users), she
was promoted to be the manager of the business development group at the
headquarter in NYC.
 Also because she understands deeply about the NetGen, Savage, at her new position,
attempted to earn back the loyalty of the NetGen for Microsoft by coming up with a
must-have production. Despite others’ doubt, she got the approval of the VP.
 She was made the leader of the project team. At that time, she used the participative
and achievement-oriented approach, which is the traditional way in Microsoft, for her
team. Then they came up 3-degrees application.
 Their efforts were well paid. The game was highly preferred when it was post on
internal website and became very helpful for the company. Savage was successful.
Case analysis
We choose to analyze the case by answering 2 questions:
 How would you describe Tammy Savage’s approach to leadership?
 What kind of skills do you think Savage possesses that have made her an effective
leader?
1. Question 1
Question 1 will be answered through the Path-goal leadership theory.
a) Terminology about Path-goal leadership
In the Path-goal theory of leadership, there are four types of leader approach:
directive, supportive, participative and achievement oriented.
 Directive leadership: give specific guidance as how to accomplish tasks, schedules
work to be done
 Supportive leadership: friendly and show concern for subordinates’ status, well-being
and needs
 Participative leadership: consult with subordinates about issues and take their
suggestions into account
 Achievement-oriented leadership: set challenging goals, expect subordinates to
perform their highest level, show strong confidence about subordinates
b) Tammy Savage’s approach to leadership
Tammy used achievement-oriented and participative approach to guide the team:
 Achievement-oriented approach includes setting challenging goals, providing employees
with autonomy and freedom to decide how to perform their job, expecting subordinates to
perform at highest level and showing confidence in employees.
In this case, Tammy expressed achievement-oriented approach through these
activities:
 Setting challenging goal: developing the ideal NetGen web software. Tammy Savage
used her experience as an expert in understanding the need of under-30 Internet user
to re-evaluate the whole of Microsoft’s business development efforts for the NetGen.
 Expecting highest level of performance: recruited people who were competent and
showed a drive for achievement. Competent people have sufficient skill, knowledge
and experience to do their job well.
 Showing her belief in their work by making it clear to her team members that if they
all work hard and cooperate with one another to push the development of the product,
they would see the results right away. Besides, she also gave her subordinates the
freedom to decide how to perform their job.
 Participative approach stated that before making decisions, the leader will consult with
subordinates and collect their suggestions.
This approach is presented from the way Tammy leading her team, as she consulted
with subordinates and collect their suggestions: Tammy set her subordinates’ ideas and
performance as project’s core value
 Tammy chose new college software graduates and “NetGener” because “NetGener” is
an indispensable part of this project. As stated in the beginning, the goal of project
was bringing a product that the NetGen would “have to have”. Therefore, the
members recruited for this project would understand clearly “what is the NetGener’s
need” and “how to satisfy them”. Thus, their ideas play an important role in the
success or failure of the project. Therefore, they can acknowledge how important their
participation is, boosting their involvement and dedication to the project.
 Tammy emphasizes cooperation in working: From the beginning, Tammy made it
clear to the members that “if they worked together to push the development of the
product quickly, they would see the results of their effort right away.” Her sentence
helped the members understand the importance of their performance as a group, that
can lead to the project’s success or failure.
2. Question 2
Savage possesses 3 kind of skills of critical managerial skills: interpersonal skill,
conceptual skill and diagnostic skill.
a) Interpersonal skill
 Definition
Interpersonal skills are the ability to communicate with, understand, and motivate
individuals and groups.
 Situation
Tammy performed her interpersonal skills in two cases:
 Firstly, with her communication and persuasion skill, she succeeded in putting
across her idea of developing a new generation of Microsoft Internet software to
Jim Allchin, VP of Microsoft Group.
 Secondly, this skill expressed through her motivation to employees. She used a
participate and achievement-oriented approach, which emphasizes the cooperation
among team members. She encouraged her team to work together so as to achieve
the best performance. She made it clear to them that their efforts would be
recognized right away by this way, which strongly motivated the team members to
push their cooperation.
b) Conceptual skill
 Definition
Conceptual skills are the ability to think in the abstract. A leader with strong
conceptual skills is able to see the “big picture”, in which opportunities are discovered
instead of problems.
 Situation
In this case, Tammy reevaluated the whole of Microsoft’s business and found out that
Microsoft was missing the boat and risked losing the NetGens to its competitors, which
hardly anyone could recognize. This was the “big picture” that the manager and leader
needed to be aware of. Then, she used her conceptual skills to identify the principle need - the
need for online companionship and socialization. She knew that if they want to overcome the
rivals, Microsoft needed to satisfy that need.
c) Diagnostic skill
 Definition
Diagnostic skills are skills that allow managers to better understand cause-and-effect
relationships and to recognize the optimal solutions to problems.
 Situation
Tammy expressed high diagnostic skill in this situation:
 First of all, she saw the cause-and-effect relationships in Microsoft’s problem. Her
job was to seek for what NetGens need and develop software to meet those needs,
so she went to figure out why Microsoft failed and how to solve it. She found out
that Microsoft is at the risk of losing NetGen customers because Microsoft did not
satisfy their “needs for online companionship and socialization”. That is the
perfect answer for the situation and her diagnostic skill to find out that cause is
considered brilliant.
 She thought of the networking software for young people as the optimal solution.
After getting approval from her bosses, she went on finding a team with whom
she worked and developed that software. Later on, her team’s result was the 3degrees Window peer-to-peer networking application that allowed users to listen
to a shared playlist, send digital photos, and initiate group chat with MSN
messenger. The outcome was dynamic, as “it is proved to be highly popular”.
Many people got into the game and Microsoft even incorporated the software onto
its online offerings. It showed that Tammy’s optimal decision was right, and once
again proved Tammy’s incredible diagnostic skill.