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Fin370 Week 3

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Submitted By chill8815
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Microsoft Strategic Initiative
The ability to compete and maintain a higher level of success derives from strategy and financial planning. One corporation has distinguished itself among the best as one of the most successful in its industry as well as one of the world’s most profitable empires. Microsoft is the epitome of what strategic and financial planning can do if done properly. Team B has comprised a paper that will discuss one of the initiatives Microsoft has embraced and illustrate the affiliation involving strategic and financial planning as applied to their initiative.
YouthSpark is one of Microsoft’s initiatives to empower the youth of today. They provide mentorship and the necessary skills sets to accomplish their future goals. Many corporations set their goals primarily on profit and do not consider them-selves a corporate citizen. Corporations have a social and ethical reasonability to the communities they reside in and should take initiatives to give back to its community.
Initiative and financial planning
Microsoft believes that social and economic opportunity go hand in hand. Investment in corporate citizenship programs like YouthSpark increases shareholder value (Microsoft, 2013a). Recent research confirms the correlation that incorporating corporate social responsibility into business planning has financial benefits that increase shareholder value and enhances long-term operating performance in areas related to return on assets and net profit margin. Furthermore, support of these initiatives improve productivity through increased employee satisfaction and sales growth is improved through cause related marketing that builds the brand though initiatives the have meaning to socially conscious consumers (Fleischer & Meinberg, 2014).
Quantification of programs like YouthSpark is not clear cut. Programs require ongoing injections of

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