Google Strategic Analysis

Strategic inspect of Google Google Abstract Google was open uped by deuce Stanford PhD students, Larry sc scooplyywag and Sergey Brin, in 1998. The both recognized a need within the cyberspace att give the sacks attention for a see railway locomotive that would deliver consummate results. The dickens loose Google, Inc. as an online political party that provided a superior attempt railway locomotive, a platform for organicly targeted advertisements, and intranet solutions to earnings drug users a indulge the world. The fri curioly club dominateed the majority of its taxations by selling advertize space within the front results.Google employed an in advance(p) system for selling this space to companies companies would entirely throw away to pay Google for the advertizement space if a client thumbed on their advertisement. As Google became the approximately-use essay locomotive in the world collectible to its greater accuracy of producing germane( predicate) results, de n one(a) revenues ext dyingd at a phenomenal rate. Google faced competition from clean(prenominal)s in the net income try work sedulousness specifically AOL, MSN, and chawbacon.Each competitor recognized the importance of a quality chase engine to customers as well as the opportunity to gain advertisement revenues and was attempting to acquire an innovative look to engine that would top Googles. Competition from Microsoft was also a possibility. Microsoft indicated that they might attempt to add a seek engine to their invigorated operate system that was set for write out in 2006. While Microsoft was not an schematic player in the internet reckon table services industry, they had the skillful expertise and massive re fountains to reach a major competitive threat.The importance of the front engine to Googles competitors as a stand-al cardinal service was great still the addition of a face engine rivaling or bettering Googles would also realise customers to their separate services. Googles competitors offered many another(prenominal) services, in addition to their search services, such(prenominal) as e charge, online dating, and delusion sports mesh topologys and were successful in doing so. Googles success as a company hinged around masterlyly on the success of their search engine. Google, Inc. egan to diversify into other segments of the internet services industry in line of battle to fall the risk of having only whiz truly successful g hagglingth and to build up twain their customer base and customer loyalty. Google began to offer internet users the capability to search within a managing directory of 425,000 still images. Their gathering of images tied with hayseeds as internet users send-off choice for image-searches. Google also began offering a directory of 500 jillion discussion topics that dated back to 1981 called Google concourses.Customers, in addition to macrocosm able to hit the books discussion topics within Google Groups, could add postings to a novel-fashioned group. Also, in 2004, Google began offering its users entranceway to a compiling of 4,500 freshs sources depositd all every butt the world. Google then authentic a service that would capture prison cell phone and handheld device customers to use Googles search and other services on their piano tuner devices. In addition to these services and others, Google developed Google Catalog, a service that would allow users to search print mail order catalogs, and offered netmail accounts to select clients.In order to remain ahead of the competition and an industry attracter in providing internet services, Google had to now study some strategic decisions. To assure the future of the company, Googles concern team knew that they would prep ar to differentiate Googles growths from those offered by competing companies, such as hick, MSN, and AOL. Google could either come about to run the t ouchstones of services it offered (i. e. hold text messaging services, monolithic email accounts, and others), it could work to improve the services it offered across the mesa, or it could focus on improving its most successful foundation the Google search engine.Each cream had its merits and the company had plenty of resources to use in pursuing any of these trine (or other) strategies. The difficult issue was choosing the most appropriate scheme for the company. I. Current Situation A. Performance ? Most-used website in the world ? Possesses global brand half of internet users outside the coupled States ? High stratum of user loyalty and brand identity element ? Employs port for everywhere 88 languages ? Generally considered to possess the most accurate internet search engine ?Google ne bothrk is utilized by 80% of internet users used by 165 million plurality in the United States and United Kingdom per calendar month ? Googles 2008 revenues were $21,795,550,000, a 31. 34% enlarge since last course of study1 ? Googles 2007 revenues were $16,592,986,000, a 56. 47% increase all over 2006s revenues2 ? Googles cash transpose magnitude 42. 34% from $6,081,593,000 in 2007 to $8,656,672,0003 ? Googles debt to justness ratio was 10. 44% in 2007 and 11. 1% in 2008. chawbacons debt to honor ratio was 22. 05% in 2007 and 17. 81% in 2008. Microsofts debt to beauteousness ratio 50. 15% in 2007 and was 50. 7% in 20084 ? Googles current ratio was 8. 49 in 2007 and 8. 77 in 2008. Yahoos current ratio was 2. 41 in 2007 and 2. 78 in 2008. Microsofts current ratio was 1. 44 in 2007 and 1. 69 in 20085 ? Googles income from trading operations was 30. 64% of gross revenue revenues in 2007 and was 30. 43% of sales revenues in 2008. Yahoos operating income was 9. 98% of sales revenues in 2007 and 0. 18% of revenues in 2008. Microsofts operating income was 36. 23% of revenues in 2007 and 37. 19% of sales revenues in 20086 ? rescue on Assets (ROA) = 16. 6% in 2 007 and 13. 3% in 2008.Yahoos ROA = 5. 4% for 2007 and 3. 1% in 2008. Microsofts ROA = 19. 3% in 2007 and 19. 9% in 2008. 7 ? Return On Equity (ROE) = 18. 5% in 2007 and 15. 0% in 2008. Yahoos ROE was 7. 2% in 2007 and 4. 5% in 2008. Microsofts ROE was 38. 8% in 2007 and 57. 4% in 20088. B. Strategic Posture ? Mission Statement To organize the worlds discipline and touch it universally accessible and profitable. 9 ? Objectives ? Remain the industry-leading website in terms of internet traffic commercialise calculate sh atomic descend 18 ? Remain the industry leader in providing the most accurate search engines ?Capture market sh atomic number 18 in the online advertising market and become the industry leader in providing directed, online advertising services ? Reduce risk by increasing market sh ar in non-search internet services Google catalog, Google argument Solutions, Google parvenus, etc ? Begin licensing patented radiocommunication technology and intellectual shoes to other companies ? Further diversify company from competitors C. Corporate- take aim strategies ? Pursue a dodge of homocentric diversification by entering into other argonas of the internet services marketD. Business-level strategies ? Differentiate Googles mathematical products from those offered by competitors ? Competitive rather than cooperative E. Functional-level strategies ? Googles R dodging is to be a scientific leader ? Googles marketing strategy is to simultaneously pursue a market development strategy to gain market carry on for its search engine and pursue a product development strategy to increase the diversity of its product portfolio. In both sheaths, Google primarily uses a pull strategy to lure consumers to utilize its products.For example, Google uses Google Business Solutions to advertise the ways Google drop help various overseas telegrames finished the use of their products. This advertising results in stemmaes pulling Googles products through t he channels. ? Googles financial strategy includes maintaining a low debt to equity ratio. Their debt to equity ratio was only 11% in 2008, which is much lower than that of the competition ? Googles operations strategy includes increasing and maintaining global operations. They find offices and thousands of services in many different countries on some(prenominal)(prenominal) continents.This is more(prenominal) fully discussed in a later section. ? Human resources Googles HR strategy entails maintaining and move on developing an extremely diverse work force. Its strategy is also think on attracting employees with advanced technical skills and paying them well both monetarily and with many fringe benefits. This is more fully discussed in a later section. II. Corporate Governance A. Board of Directors10 ? Eric Schmidt has served as our Chief administrator military officer since July 2001 and as a component of our get on of directors since March 2001, where he served as pre sident of the Board from March 2001 to April 2004.In April 2004, Eric was named Chairman of the Executive Committee of our board of directors. forward to joining us, from April 1997 to November 2001, Eric served as Chairman of the board of directors of Novell, Inc. , a quick reckoner net on the job(p) company, and, from April 1997 to July 2001, as the Chief Executive Officer of Novell. Eric was a director of Siebel Systems until January 2006. Eric holds a Bachelor of knowledge point in galvanizing engineering from Princeton University and a Masters degree and Ph. D. in computing device science from the University of California at Berkeley. Sergey Brin, one of our founders, has served as a phallus of our board of directors since our inception in kinfolk 1998 and as our chairman of engineering since July 2001. From September 1998 to July 2001, Sergey served as our President and Chairman of the Board. Sergey holds a Masters degree in computer science from Stanford University a nd a Bachelor of Science degree with naughty honors in mathematics and computer science from the University of Maryland at College Park and is currently on leave from the Ph. D. course in computer science at Stanford University. Larry Page, one of our founders, has served as a segment of our board of directors since our inception in September 1998 and as our President of Products since July 2001. From September 1998 to July 2001, Larry served as our Chief Executive Officer and from September 1998 to July 2002 as our Chief Financial Officer. Larry holds a Masters degree in computer science from Stanford University and a Bachelor of Science degree with high honors in engineering, with a concentration in computer engineering, from the University of Michigan and is currently on leave from the Ph. D. program in computer science at Stanford University. ? L.John Doerr has served as a member of our board of directors since whitethorn 1999. John has been a General Partner of Kleiner Perk ins Caufield & Byers, a venture uppercase firm, since expansive 1980. John is also a director of Amazon. com, Inc. , an net income sell company, Homestore, Inc. , a provider of real estate media and technology solutions, Intuit, Inc. , a provider of business and financial management softw argon, and Sun Microsystems, Inc. , a supplier of net workings computing solutions. John holds a Masters of Business administration degree from Harvard Business School and a Masters of Science degree in galvanizing engineering and computer science nd a Bachelor of Science degree in electric caral engineering from Rice University. ? John L. Hennessy has served as a member of our board of directors since April 2004. Since September 2000, John has served as the President of Stanford University. From 1994 to August 2000, John held various postal services at Stanford, including Dean of the Stanford University School of Engineering and Chair of the Stanford University subdivision of Computer Sci ence. John has been a member of the board of directors of Cisco Systems, Inc. , a ne devilrking equipment company, since January 2002 and chairman of the board of directors of Atheros Communications, Inc. a wireless semiconductor company, since whitethorn 1998. John holds a Masters degree and Doctoral degree in computer science from the State University of New York, Stony Brook and a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Villanova University. ? Arthur D. Levinson has served as a member of our board of directors since April 2004. Since July 1995, Art has served as a member of the board of directors of Genentech, Inc. , a biotechnology company, and has served as its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer since September 1999. Prior to 1999, Art held various executive positions at Genentech, including of age(p) Vice President of R.Art has been a member of the board of directors of apple Computer, Inc. , a computer computer hardw atomic number 18 and softw be company , since 2000. Art was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Microbiology at the University of California, San Francisco. Art holds a Ph. D. in biochemistry from Princeton University and a Bachelor of Science degree in molecular biology from the University of Washington. ? Ann Mather has served as a member of our board of directors since November 2005. Since April 2004, Ann has been a director of Central European Media Enterprises Group and serves on its Audit and Compensation Committees.She served as a director of Shopping. com from May 2004 until it was acquired by eBay in 2005 and was Chair of the Audit Committee and a member of the Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee. From 1999 to 2004, Ann was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Pixar. Prior to Pixar she was Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Village Roadshow Pictures. From 1993 to 1999 she held various executive positions at The Walt Disney Company, including Senior Vice P resident of Finance and Administration for its Buena Vista International Theatrical Division.Ann holds a Masters degree from Cambridge University. ? capital of Minnesota S. Otellini has served as a member of our board of directors since April 2004. Paul became the Chief Executive Officer and President of Intel Corporation, a semiconductor manufacturing company, in May 2005. Paul has been a member of the board of directors of Intel since 2002. He also served as Intels Chief Operating Officer from 2002 to May 2005. From 1974 to 2002, Paul held various positions at Intel, including Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Intel Architecture Group and Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Sales and Marketing Group.Paul holds a Masters degree from the University of California at Berkeley and a Bachelors degree in economics from the University of San Francisco. ? K. storm Shriram has served as a member of our board of directors since September 1998. Since January 2000, Ram has served as managing partner of Sherpalo, an angel venture investment company. Prior to that, from August 1998 to September 1999, Ram served as Vice President of Business failment at Amazon. com, Inc. , an Internet retail company. Prior to that, Ram served as President at Junglee Corporation, a provider of database technology, acquired by Amazon. om in 1998. Ram was an early member of the executive team at clear upscape Communications Corporation. Ram holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Madras, India. ? Shirley M. Tilghman has served as a member of our board of directors since October 2005. Since June 2001, Shirley has served as the President of Princeton University. From August 1986 to June 2001, she served as a Professor at Princeton University and from August 1988 to June 2001 as an Investigator at Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Shirley holds a Ph. D. n biochemistry from temple University and an Honorary Bachelor of Science degree in chemis try from Queens University. ? Three members are inside board members and seven are outside board members 2 are female ? Committees include audit, leadership development and compensation, nominating and unified governance, executive, acquisition, and real estate11 B. Top caution ? Eric Schmidt , Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer ? Larry Page , Co-Founder & President, Products ? Sergey Brin , Co-Founder & President, Technology Nikesh Arora , President, Global Sales operations and Business Development ? Laszlo Bock , Vice President, People Operations ? Shona Brown , Senior Vice President, Business Operations ? W. M. Coughran, Jr. , Senior Vice President, Engineering ? David C. Drummond , Senior Vice President, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer ? Alan Eustace , Senior Vice President, Engineering & look into ? Urs Holzle , Senior Vice President, Operations & Google Fellow ? Jeff Huber , Senior Vice President, Engineering Omid Kordestani , Senior Advisor, O ffice of the chief operating officer and Founders ? Patrick Pichette , Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer ? Jonathan Rosenberg , Senior Vice President, Product Management ? Rachel Whetstone , Vice President, Public Policy and Communications ? Susan Wojcicki , Vice President, Product Management III. External surround abbreviation (EFAS, see Exhibit 1) A. General environs12 1. Natural Environment ? Solar or geomagnetic storms in space could repose or damage Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites as well as guinea pig electric power outages on earth.In 1989, a geomagnetic storm caused a nine-hour power outage in Eastern Canada that abnormal millions of plurality13. The GPS satellites are used by Google to provide their Google Earth service. The power outages could affect internet traffic which would sicken Googles advertising revenues. The power outages whitethorn also prevent Google from offering services due to a lack of power to run their equipment. Another possibility is that Google whitethorn fox to use back-up power such as generators or purchase it temporarily at a higher rate from another source thereby increasing their operating costs (T) ?Climate change is expected to result in an increase in the intensity and the frequency of severe storms. Weather issues that are expected to increase in both intensity and frequency are windstorms such as tornados and hurri abidees, heat waves and droughts, storms with extreme rains or snow, and dust storms. Floods and landslides are expected to increase as well14. This could affect Google by ca development damage to the communications infra twist i. e. cable cuts which would cause the internet connections to become intermittent or nonexistent until the cable cut or colligate issue is repaired.In the case of wireless connections, wireless nodes analogous cell phone towers whitethorn be knocked over. Other communications items such as switching net ready life may be damaged by extreme weather as well15. The extreme weather could prevent Google from delivering services to customers and could damage other businesses and industries as well resulting in reduced revenues for Google and a slump in the overall economy (T) ? As mentioned above, storms with extreme winds are expected to increase which exit in all likelihood increase the tumultuousness of the ocean. 5% of cable cuts in subsurface cables are caused by ships fishing nets and 18% are caused by ships anchors. Extreme weather may increase the frequency of undersea cable cuts from ships resulting in internet disruptions16 (T) 2. Sociocultural Forces ? An estimated 577 million people worldwide access the internet using runny devices. The number of people accessing the internet via nimble phones is expected to increase to 1. 7 billion by 2013. By 2014, mobile internet users are expected to find up near 50% of all internet users (O)17 ?The pace of life is increasing for the fair(a) consumer. Due to advances in technology like the cell phone, wireless laptop computer and email each person with access to these technologies is pressured to complete more tasks. This increases reliance on the newest technologies to meet the demands of increasing expectations put upon consumers18 (O) ? Consumers are worried about identity theft and privacy especially how their information idler be accessed and used by other companies and individuals online. 19 (O) ?The average American respondent spend 19 hours per week surfing the internet20 (O) ? Email remains the most public online activity. This is even more true with users 64 familys and aged. 73% of teenage users reported using email more than anything else on the internet and 74% of internet users aged 64 and honest-to-god reported using email more than anything else on the internet21 (O) ? The largest increase in internet usage can be found within the 70-75 social class-old age group. Previously, 26% reported using the internet this number h as increased to 45%22 (O) ?Internet users aged 18-34 are the largest group of internet users who use the internet for entertainment purposes. For this group, entertainment includes watching videos, compete online games, engaging in virtual worlds, and downloading medical specialty23 (O) ? Internet users aged 12-34 are the largest group of users to read and write blogs and are also the largest group of users to shoot in social ne iirking via the computer24(O) 3. Technological ? Internet speed is increasing25 (O) ? Storage efficiency on the internet is increasing (O) ? Internet software capabilities are increasing (O) ?Consumers are expecting a greater level of personalization in their web searches, frequently-visited websites, and internet services than in prior courses26 (O) ? Emergence of a new technology called The Internet of Things. This technology is designed to run hardware appliances such as a refrigerator as optimally as possible. Also, it runs sensors within applianc es that can report back to the user via the internet. For example, in the case of a refrigerator, this technology would report what foods you are running low on and which foods may no longstanding be safe to eat27. e. g. , Google may wishing to examine providing an internet service designed to connect users with the hardware and software in use especially via mobile device. )(O) ? 66% of internet users report using search engines when making complex decisions. (O) ? Respondents in the survey listed in the bullet above report only 25% of searches produce needed results the premiere time. Of these same respondents, 30% report giving up on the search afterward failing to pay back the desired result28 (T) 4. Economic ? Period of American and global economic recession29 (T) ?Fed. Chairman has declared that Americas recession is likely over and expects moderate increment for the succeeding(prenominal) ii courses. 30 Around half of Googles users are in the United States (see abov e). (O) ? An end to the recession in the European Union is expected during the third quarter of this family31. Around half of Googles users are outside the United States (O) ? Federal lodge in rates are between 0-0. 25%, making capital more cheap for advertising customers and for Google32 (O) ? Real GDP is expected to be -2. 6 this year but is expected to increase to 2. in the end of next year33 (O) ? Consumer spending is expected to increase from -0. 9 this year to 1. 1 next year34 (O) 5. Political Legal ? Internet crimes (a component of these is copyright infringement), in one year, are estimated to have resulted in losses of $240 million dollars as opposed to an estimated loss of $198 million dollars as a result of these crimes in the previous year. The increased amount of these crimes is likely to result in increasingly stringent regulations regarding crimes including intellectual property- think crimes perpetrated over the internet.The impact to Google is this Google stor es images and written works in their directory exposing them to potential future legal liability for intellectual property cogitate to violations. Google has already been sued for this Google was forced to remove 100,000 clips of copyrighted material from YouTube and p concern out $90 million dollars to one party for a related issue35 (T) ? Character defamation by anonymous bloggers has resulted in taps forcing companies like Google to reveal the identity of the anonymous blogger to the courts36 (T). India is issuing subpoenas (or their equivalent) to platform companies like Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft for content displayed on their platforms. The companies have court cases pending against them for content displayed on their sites including copyright infringement, character defamation, hate messages, and gender selection advertisements37 (T) B. Task Environment 1. Threat of New Entrants ? Threat of new entrants is medium ? Switching costs are virtually non-existent customers c an use search engines for lighten and can use them apart from other services offered by the company furnishing the search engine.Customers get out likely try another search engine if the results they require cannot be obtained quickly and easily from the engine they are using. Googles advertising customers are not required to sign a long-term contract nor do they have to make a sizable investment up-front in order to place an ad with Google. Advertisers pay Google for space on their search engine results pageboys only when customers click on their ads and can therefore switch to another company without large sunk costs. ? Barriers to entry do exist, however, due to the amount of computer equipment necessary to be competitive with the likes of Google and Yahoo.Also, the large competitors within this arena have legions strategically position all over the world. This may be difficult for a new company to this industry to replicate in a fashion that would make them competitive. Al so, the large companies in this industry have capacious amounts of information about their customers and online advertisers that would be difficult for a new entrant to amass. 38 2. Rivalry Among Competitors ? Rivalry among competitors is high ? Googles competitors (at this time) are all larger companies with large amounts of resources ?Googles competitors offer other internet services as well as search services. The search engine attracts customers to their other services (for example, dating services, email, and fantasy sports league platforms) which raises the importance of possessing a superior search engine past its importance of a complete service for Googles competition ? Competition with Microsoft is expected to increase. Microsoft is attempting to integrate a search engine into its operating system and other products 39 ? Google considers Microsoft and Yahoo their greatest competition.These companies have greater cash resources and ability to make acquisitions, a longer operating history, and more established customer and end user relationships. They also operate internet portals and offer more products and services than Google does. In the case of Microsoft, they also have more employees 40 ? Googles market share in the U. S. internet search market is 31% Yahoos market share is 26% and MSNs is 20%. This is very close. ? The industry is attractive and margins are high. Googles success has increased the intensity of competition since these other companies want to share in the financial success ?Microsoft is working to develop a search engine to rival Googles. This may be in lieu of the MSN search engine mentioned above41. This will definitely increase competition dramatically (in the short run at to the lowest degree(prenominal)) as Microsoft throws its resources in promoting their new product and attempting to steal market share from Google. Microsoft has a longer history of marketing than Google does, which may increase rivalry. 3. Bargaining p ower of Suppliers ? Bargaining power among suppliers is low ? Google, as an internet- ground service firm, requires few in the raw materials from outside sources.The supplies required, with the exception of electricity, are available from multiple sources ? Potential employees have some power over Google due to the short supply of qualified applicants. According to Googles CEO, Google was having problems finding applicants that were either not technically proficient enough to complete the task at hand or of insufficient quality. 4. Bargaining Power of Buyers ? Bargaining power among buyers is medium ? Google has 31% of the internet search traffic market share, compared to 26% for Yahoo and 20% for MSN.This strengthens Googles position with buyers since Google is the industry leader and is therefore more attractive than competitors to advertisers who would like to place ads on search engine results pages ? No buyer of Googles services is responsible for larger than 3% of Googles re venues. Because Googles buyers are fragmented and none are responsible for a large amount of revenues, Googles buyers do not have much power over Google42 5. Threat of Substitutes ? Threat of backups is high ? Although there arent any true utility(a)s for a search engine, there are different ways to organize information.In this case, a different method of searching might produce a substitute to the current method that may produce better results ? Yahoo, MSN, AOL, and Microsoft are working to develop search engines that will either equal or exceed the functionality of Googles search engine and have the resources to allocate to a massive research and development effort. Time will tell whether they are, in fact, viewed as a substitute by search users. ? Googles search-engine customers value accuracy of search results. Googles competitors already offer search engines. Googles competitors may be able to create a comparable search engine over time . Bargaining Power of Other Stakeh seni or(a)s ? Bargaining power of other stakeh olders is medium ? Special interest groups, like the American Association of Publishers and the Authors Guild, have sued Google and won for copyright infringement for content used by Google on their Google Print and Google Books applications. These groups and other groups are constantly monitoring Googles actions for incidents of actual or sensed copyright infringement on their applications. 43 ? Google has been forced, as a result of a lawsuit, to reveal the identity of a blogger who wrote offensive comments about a Canadian influence.Google may be required to release the identity of other users upon request in the future because of this precedent which may reduce their customer base. 44This example is meant to illustrate that individuals, as well as organized groups, may have the power to influence Googles business operations ? Googles employees have little power to exert when negotiating with Google. Labor within Google is not organized 45 IV. Internal Environment Analysis (IFAS, see Exhibit 2) A. Corporate Structure (See Exhibit 3 for organization chart) ? Googles corporate structure is primarily functional. 46 ? Google is at sea down into v functions Engineering, Sales, Products, Marketing, Legal, and Finance ? Underneath the overarching functional structure, Google is further broken down into product markets or geographical areas, which technically makes Googles structure a hybrid of functional, geographic, and product structures. ? Each product market or geographical area element under the functional areas is hard-boiled as a small business unit. The small business unit element of Googles structure provides flexibility. B. Corporate Culture ? Corporate glossiness values launching and ambidexterity.Employees (including corporate level managers) are further to devote 70% of their time on marrow squash business activities, 20% of their time to core-business related projects, and 10% of their time to unrelat ed new business activities. According to Marissa Mayer (see top management section for job title), virtually half of Googles new products are a direct result of actions taken by employees during their free time (S)47 ? Culture seems to have high degree of intensity and integration ? Culture values include an obsessive commitment to creating search perfection and having a great time doing it (S)48 ?Other priorities for Google members are innovation and keeping costs low ? Google values ability over welcome and encourages everyone to share ideas. Also, Google created an informal aureole where anyone can ask the CEO or top management a question and be answered. 49 (S) ? Googles corporate culture puts violence on not exploiting the user of their products. 50 ? Being quirky and having fun are also empha size of itd. Googles work area has foosball tables, ping pong tables, volleyball nets, and several other games present (S)51 C.Corporate Resources 1. Marketing ? Google promotes adver tising packages through Google Business Solutions. Information is available to prospective clients on how Google can improve clients profitability through their advertising packages (S) ? Services Googles advertising customers often see Googles service team as arrogant and find it time consuming and difficult to do business with Google because Google often switches the team assigned to handling the clients business before the clients advertising submission is complete (W) ?Google is indorse to Yahoo in being able to final examinationize agreements with advertisers (W) ? Television advertising is currently not being utilized by Google. In comparison, Microsoft is showing Television advertisements for their products. TV advertisements may reach a skilful portion of the older audience and inform non-tech-savvy about their products and services52 (W) ? Google doesnt advertise on their home page which is attractive to search customers (S) ? Extremely unattackable brand. Google has b een added to the Oxford dictionary as a verb (S) ?Average sales per click per month were a little under 54. 5. However, Yahoos average sales per click were only 53 during the same month. Yahoo is currently Googles biggest competitor53 (S) ? Adwords system employed by Google to deliver advertisements is easy for advertisers. Googles system is also easy for advertising customers to use for changing the advertisement shown on Googles results pages. (S) ? Product Googles search engine is most accurate in the world (O) 2. Finance ? Googles revenues in 2004 were $3,189,223,000.This is 117. 56% greater than their revenues in 2003, which are $1,465,934,000 (S) ? Googles cash dimension in 2004 was $426,873,000 186. 5% greater than their cash balance of $148,995,000 in 2003 (S) ? Googles profit margin was 12. 52% in 2004. Yahoos, in 2004 was 23. 49. 54Microsofts profit margin was 22. 1755(W) ? Googles quick ratio (acid test) was 7. 1856 in 2004. Yahoos quick ratio in 2004 was 3. 38. Micros ofts quick ratio in 2004 was 4. 44(S) ? Googles Return on Assets (ROA)57 was 21. 05% in 2004.Yahoos ROA in 2004 was 11. 83% and Microsofts ROA in 2004 was 9. 38%(S) ? Googles Return on Equity (ROE)58 was 25. 97% in 2004, as compared to Yahoos ROE in 2004 of 14. 65% and Microsofts ROE in 2004 of 11. 69%(S) ? Googles debt to equity ratio was 13. 12% in 2004. Yahoos was 29. 24% in 2004 and Microsofts was 23. 47% in 200459(S) ? Net income was positive in 2002-2004. Net income was $399,119,000 in 2004 an increase of 277. 79% over 2003s net income of $105,648 (S) 3. Research and Development ? In 2004, Google spent 7. 7% of sales revenues on R&D. This is very low for a tech firm (W) ? R&D is one of Googles strengths. They have more market share in the search engine market because of the creation of their innovative search engine (S) ? Research and Development efforts have led to the creation of the most-used search engine in the world. Another notable innovation that relates to this is the ir creation of a learning search engine. The more a customer uses their search engine, the more it learns and responds to the users individual preferences.Due to Google having the largest market share, their engine can learn faster than those offered by the competition which reduces its imitability60. (S) ? Google owns 13 registered trademarks and 7 unregistered trademarks as a result of R and D efforts61(S) 4. Operations and Logistics ? One of Googles biggest strengths is getting a large volume of users to their websites which makes them very attractive to advertisers (S)62 ? Google has servers and locations all over the world to improve distribution of services63 (S) ?Google has the ability to generate their information into over 88 different languages. This improves operations and logistics control when activities are taking place in a non-English- speaking country (S) ? Googles Adwords system is self-managing meaning that an advertising customer can change their campaign as the ir budget changes. This results in quick, efficient adjustments (S) 5. Human Resources Management ? Google employed 2,700 employees in 2005 900 were techies ? Employees receive many fringe benefits in an effort to make them feel they are a priority.This strengthens corporate culture to a degree. Google has been listed as the top company to work for for two years in a row by Fortune Magazine. Employees have access to free high-end on-site dining facilities, snack stations, gyms, laundry rooms, barbers, corrade rooms, dry cleaning, and several other employee fringe benefits64 (S) ? Googles CEO, Eric Schmidt, stated that the company was having problems recruiting employees who were both of acceptable lineament and technically proficient (W) ? Google maintains a diverse workforce and hires locals to work in its geographically dispersed locations (S) ?Google has a long hiring process that takes several months to complete. This would be a strength, except the company reported having prob lems finding people that were both quality employees and technically proficient (W) ? Employees are skilled at multitasking. For example, the individual who created Googles pass logo also was responsible for translating Googles website into Hangul (Korean language) (S) ? Googles technical employees work 70% of the time on regular business, 20% of the time on new but related business, and 10% of their time on completely new and unrelated projects.This makes Google more adaptable and builds ambidexterity into the organization (S) 6. Information System (IS) ? Google utilizes a system called Live Out Loud to promote communication between employees, to create a searchable database of related projects employees are working on to promote economies of scope and transfer of knowledge, and as a control system. How it works Google employees weekly send an email to a central source concerning the specifics of the project they are working on and their progress.Google has used the same search en gine it employs on its website Google. com to search through the emails to find the relevant ones. Managers exactly have to search, using the Google search engine, for the employees progress they wish to evaluate. The system is user-friendly for both the employees and managers and it is simple. An employee working on a project can search the system for other relevant projects and obtain useful information they can incorporate when completing their specific task65. S) ? Google uses a triple redundancy system to jibe errors dont disrupt the flow of timely information. If one computer doesnt respond to an employees request for information within a few milliseconds, two others provide the information to the employee. All information is stored in three places. This makes their system very reliable and efficient in delivering timely information (S)66 ? Google uses a database system called BigTable as part of their management information system.Due to the volume of information Google mol diness manage, Google has developed this software to break apart large files that are too big for any one server into smaller pieces so they can be stored on multiple servers. This ensures that capacity is available for their information67 (S) ? Many of Googles basic activities are automated (S) V. Strategic Alternatives and Selected Strategy A. Growth Strategies 1. Enter market providing legal practice of medicine and video downloading services (S&O) a. Pros ? Google has the intellectual capital to successfully develop the software to provide this service.Google has already turn up that they can provide the search capabilities to link users with their desired airs or videos their search engine is the most accurate in the world and the touristedity of their product YouTube suggests they possess the capabilities to develop a desirable music/video downloading service ? With a large cash balance and the capabilities to obtain financing due to an extremely low debt to equity ratio, Google definitely possesses the financial resources to develop these services and bring them to market ?By providing different but related services, Google will be cut their diversifiable risk, if you will, by increasing their product portfolio from one successful revenue generating product to several ? There is a large market for these services already in place this market is likely to grow as digital media becomes more prevalent in society and antiquated technologies such as tapes, CDs, and records further decline ? Googles brand strength would be beneficial in this market since the music and movie downloading industry is related to Googles area of expertise (i. . it is equivalent to an industry leader in the manufacture of small power tools diversifying into producing concrete mixers and pumps, rather than the power tool company diversifying into diapers and other baby products. A DeWalt brand logo on a pair of diapers likely wont transmit the same message of quality and expert ise that it would on another lawsuit of tool) b. Cons ? Apple iTunes owns 82% of legal music downloading market. 68 Competing with a company that owns this much of the market share and has more experience in this industry will be very difficult ?Increases the probability of copyright infringement lawsuits ? Shifts emphasis away from Googles core product the search engine. If the search engine is imitated or surpassed by a better product before Google establishes a dominant position and greater profits and revenues from its new endeavor, Google may lose a large part of its almost sole source of revenues ? Regulation and trends concerning royalties paid to operatives and music production companies may reduce the profitability of this industry ?Illegal downloading may increase thereby reducing the size of the legal downloading market ? Requires maintaining existing advertising business model and creating and maintaining a new switchboard model (connecting multiple buying downloaders with multiple selling digital music and video suppliers 2. Develop new search engine designed for seniors markets Google opulent Life. New search engine has an option for adjusting the size of the font used on the search pages based on the capabilities of the users vision and allows seniors to type in a question instead of just recognise words.In addition, it will contain a function that completes words for the typist if he or she so chooses (like an internet browser address box does) concentric diversification (S&O) a. Pros ? First mover advantage could be gained by focusing on this market segment. Seniors have been ignored for the most part in the development of online products and services. No company currently caters to the needs of older internet users ? Seniors represent the largest growing demographic of internet users and represent a large segment of all societies ?The baby boomers are aging and will want/demand products focused on their needs presently ? Google poss esses the financial resources to make this happen ? Google also possesses the brand strength and awareness to appeal to older users older individuals tend to like larger, stable, established, well-known companies as opposed to small, new, relatively unknown startups ? Creating products geared toward older users may increase their interest in Googles existing products ?Utilizes existing advertising business model to obtain revenues from pay-as-you-click advertisements b. Cons ? Todays older internet users wants and needs are poorly understand by the online industry this makes developing products/services focused at them a risky undertaking in the short-term. Younger baby boomers are familiar with current computer software but current seniors are less familiar and use computers more infrequently and for less activities (i. e. they may email but not shop extensively online) ?Once Google enters this market and proves the market is attractive, competition will increase and profits will likely go down as the market matures ? The idea of marketing online products and services geared toward older users is a newer one but an imitable one other companies may have a greater perceptiveness of the older consumer than Google since it has focused on products/services for a primarily younger audience with different needs. This pith that other companies may prove to be more successful with this market segment than Google because of a greater knowledge of the older consumer ?Older users may only be interested in emailing and may have little interest in clicking on advertisements thereby lowering the desirability of placing advertisements on Googles new products ? May be hard to reach market segment to inform them of new product 3. Develop Social Networking System Google Linkage concentric diversification (S&O) a. Pros ? Facebook and MySpace are both very popular. Today, internet users 12-34 are largest demographic to engage in social networking.As this age group ages, they will likely continue to use social networking sites and younger individuals entering this age group will likely also engage in social networking via the computer growth in the social networking industry is virtually assured. Why the growth in this industry is important for Google advertising revenues will likely increase as ads are placed on social networking pages ? attains the potential for another profitable advertising platform reduces the reliance on advertising revenues created from one product the search engine ?May increase interest in Googles other products (i. e. a social networker uses Google Images to send a picture of a desert rose to another nurseryman via Googles networking service) ? Could compliment Googles existing mission of organizing the worlds information with a new addition to the mission Organizing the worlds information and people to make it and them universally accessible. ? Googles strong brand and reputation will likely spark interest from social ne tworkers in Googles new networking platform ?Google has the financial resources to create and advertise a social networking site either alone or through a joint venture ? Utilizes existing advertising business model to obtain revenues from advertisers through Googles AdWords and AdSense ? Likely inexpensive to maintain once it is rolled out b. Cons ? Social networking market may be saturated. Customers may have all their needs met through Facebook and Myspace. These companies already dominate the industry and have more knowledge and experience in this market ? Google may not be able to provide any new innovations in social networking ?Doesnt utilize their distinctive search cleverness ? May not prove profitable after a cost/benefit analysis is conducted since advertisements will be less focused on self-identified market segments. For example, if one conducts an internet search for Echeveria Subrigida seeds a succulent plant advertisements related to plants may be of interest to t he searcher beetle. However, an ad related to purchasing succulent plants online may not be of much interest to the random individual attempting to contact another individual whose interests and needs are also unknown ?Requires a different set of competencies than Google already possesses. Email is the most basic social networking method and Google did not perform well in creating a popular email system 4. Create open source network for the development of applications for mobile devices Google Architects concentric diversification (S & O) a. Pros ? Market is supposed to almost triple in size in the next five years ? Google already has knowledge of how to make internet applications compatible with mobile devices i. e. connecting Google search engine to mobile devices ?It is forecasted that half of internet users will be mobile internet users ? Google has the financial resources to undertake both the product development and advertising ? Google has experience and ability when it c omes to developing internet apps. ? Could be set up to accommodate Googles existing business model obtain advertising revenues through offering free products ? Takes advantage of innovative technical staff b. Cons ? unbendable competition Apple already has a large market share for mobile applications that are used on the iPhone and others.Microsoft, as operating systems become more commoditized, will likely enter the mobile internet applications market ? May not generate much revenue if customers have a finite number of minutes on their mobile plan. Customers in this situation are not likely to engage in gratuitous searching for curiositys sake. ? While Google has proven adept at creating applications, their distinctive competency resides in search engine excellence. Developing apps for mobile users requires a different skill set and core competency.Google may not be able to gain competitive advantage in this market since generating applications may not be one their distinctive c ompetencies 5. Create a search service designed to locate music in a superior manner Google Music. The search system would allow a user to enter in any part of a song, a band name, a song name, or a CD name and the search will provide results that include not only what the searcher is specifically spirit for, but also links to the bands website, links to listening to or downloading a finicky song or multiple songs from the artist, and links to other related sites (i. . sites that offer guitar tablature for the artist or song mentioned in the search) a. Pros ? Will attract more users to the Google search engine, which increases the desirability of advertising on Googles web pages ? Google music will increase brand loyalty and strength as it meets more of Googles customers needs ? Will strengthen the desirability of the search engine for existing customers ? Will capitalise on Googles distinctive competency of creating a search engine that produces more accurate results than othe r search engines offered by competitors ?Will address the needs of the large segment of internet users that use the internet for obtaining and enjoying music ? May provide an additional source of revenues from bands that would like to advertise their products on Google Musics results pages b. Cons ? Users can already find all of these items using the traditional Google search engine ? Will likely add little to Googles revenue stream ? Doesnt address the problem of Google only possessing one profitable product ? Doesnt truly meet the needs of internet music users since it doesnt allow users to download music directly from Google ?Most of the results will likely be advertisements. Users may not want to search through advertisements B. Stability Strategies 1. Pause/Proceed with Caution Use resources to improve existing search engine until threat from Microsofts new search engine can be jibed and countered. whence grow (S & T) a. Pros ? 99% of revenues are generated from ads placed o n search engine pages Google already dominates market for search services this essential be protected in the short term to protect the sustainability of Google as a company ?Google is currently doing well and doesnt need to grow to stay in business in the short term ? Financial resources may be needed to counter Microsofts efforts to gain position in the search market ? Reinforces Googles distinctive competencies ? Also allows for the economy to improve before expanding advertisers may need to rest as well before further investing in ads in non-search related areas b. Cons ? Market dominance in the mobile applications market is being determined now. The opportunity to be the first to focus products toward seniors is open right now.The other opportunities presented above also are available now but may not be in the future ? Doesnt address the problem and risk of having only one major income-producing product ? Google has the financial resources and ability to obtain further resour ces if necessary there are no critical evidences not to grow ? Is only a short-term fix and may cause growth to be put off too long C. Retrenchment Strategies Google, at this time, has no reason to retrench and should therefore stay away from adopting a retrenchment strategy.It is in good financial condition, its products are still desirable, and it has little to no chance of failing in the short term. D. Adopted strategy Concentric diversification into mobile applications (Google Architect), music search services (Google Music), and products focused on older internet users (Google Golden Life), combined with investment in maintaining the superiority of the search engine. ? Rationale both diversifying into mobile applications and products focused on older users deals with seizing opportunities by using organisational strengths (R&D, financial resources ,etc).Both areas represent growing markets and several opportunities to fill emerging or existing needs. Older users are the lar gest growing segment of internet users and mobile users are expected almost triple in the next five years to finally make up almost half of all internet users. Both allow focused advertising based on known customer needs and interests (the type of application utilized points out the interest i. e. a customer uses an app to learn a new guitar chord obviously the user has an interest in the guitar. Also, advertising can be focused on the users of the open forum.Both hardware and software tech companies can advertise on the forum. Elderly people have several universal needs and likely popular interests) and the use of the existing business model. By developing Google Music, Google will further strengthen their best product the search engine as well as utilize their distinctive competencies in search engine creation. This strategy diversifies the risk of having one profitable product, which eliminates a major organizational weakness, and is financially feasible attached existing res ources.The strategy doesnt face a major threat of being derailed due to organizational weaknesses and outside threats dont directly threaten the diversification efforts. Google would face virtually no competition by entering the market to deliver online products and services to older users and has the rare opportunity to obtain first mover advantage on a large scale (there are numerous elderly people in the world). Diversifying into these areas has a higher probability of success and is less risky than entering the social networking and downloading markets. incomplete of these two areas of diversification would require major shifts in technological knowledge and would utilize the intellectual capital present in Googles existing staff. This strategy does require an allocation of financial resources toward maintaining the superiority of the search engine because Google essential rely on it for success in the short term and will aid in Googles success over the long term. It represents their distinctive competencies and mustiness(prenominal) be protected at all costs.Adding capital and effort to improving the search engine would not be mutually exclusive with the diversification strategy since Google possesses a large cash balance and a low debt ratio. Given Googles situation, both parts the concentric diversification and the concentration on the search engine should be focused on simultaneously. ? This corporate strategy requires a business level strategy of differentiation and functional level strategies of technology pioneer/leader in R&D and a product development strategy within Marketing E.Implementation 1. Product One (Google Golden Life -search engine designed for seniors markets. New search engine has an option for adjusting the size of the font used on the search pages based on the capabilities of the users vision and allows seniors to type in a question instead of just key words. In addition, it will contain a function that completes words for the ty pist if he or she so chooses (like an internet browser address box does) ? Product R&D should be allocated 2% of 2004 sales revenues for two years ($63,784,460/year) ?organisational members must be chosen to head the new program and participate on R&D teams ? necessitate new activities must be evaluated for conflict with existing operating activities. ? At least two deadlines must be given to the teams the first, a working of import version of the product must be created by the end of the projects first year of existence. Second, a final product that is ready for use on the internet must be in place at the end of a year and a half. After the beta version is released, a team should be given a $1 million budget to obtain and forward on suggestions provided by older users on how to fit the program to their needs. Duration of team 1 year. ? ROI after year two must be 6% or more and must be at least 10% by the end of year 5 ? Market share (of the existing older internet users) must be 5% at the end of year two and 20% or over after year 5 ? An updated version must be made available by the end of year two ? A flexible budget must be created for year one and year two.Pro forma income statements and balance sheets should be created for at least year two and five ? New product must make up at least 2% of follow revenues by year two and at least 5% by the end of year five. ? gravel to intranet databases must be given to staff working on both diversification products so that a. The wheel isnt reinvented and, b. Learning can be transferred passim the organization if relevant pieces of information are discovered during the creation of the new products ?Product must be available in at least three languages by the end of year 2 and 15 languages by the end of year 5 ? Economic value added should be positive at the end of year three 2. Product 2 (Google Architect open source network for the development of applications for mobile devices) ? Product R&D should be allocated 1% of 2004 sales revenues for 2 years ($31,892,230/yr) ? Organizational members must be chosen to head the new program and participate on R&D teams ? Required new activities must be evaluated for conflict with existing operating activities. At least two deadlines must be given to the teams the first, a working beta version of the product must be created by the end of the projects first year of existence. Second, a complete product must be in place at the end of a year and a half ? ROI after year two must be 7% or more and must be at least 10% by the end of year 5 ? A flexible budget must be created for year one and year two. Pro forma income statements and balance sheets should be created for at least year two and five ? New product must make up at least 3% of total revenues by year two and at least 6% by the end of year five. Access to intranet databases must be given to staff working on both diversification products so that cross pollination of ideas between projects can occur ? Product must be available in at least five languages by the end of year 2 and 20 languages by the end of year 5 ? After the beta version is released, a team should be given a $1 million budget to obtain and forward on suggestions provided by older users on how to fit the program to their needs. Duration of team 1 year. ? Economic value added should be positive after year three 3.Product 3 (Google Music The search system would allow a user to enter in any part of a song, a band name, a song name, or a CD name and the search will provide results that include not only what the searcher is specifically looking for, but also links to the bands website, links to listening to or downloading a particular song or multiple songs from the artist, and links to other related sites (i. e. sites that offer guitar tablature for the artist or song mentioned in the search) ? Product R&D should be allocated 1% of 2004 sales revenues for 2 years ($31,892,230/yr) ?Organizational members must be chosen to head the new program and participate on R&D teams ? Required new activities must be evaluated for conflict with existing operating activities. ? At least two deadlines must be given to the teams the first, a working beta version of the product must be created by the end of the projects first year of existence. Second, a complete product must be in place at the end of a year and a half ? ROI after year two must be 7% or more and must be at least 10% by the end of year 5 ?A flexible budget must be created for year one and year two. Pro forma income statements and balance sheets should be created for at least year two and five ? New product must make up at least 1% of total revenues by year two and at least 2% by the end of year five. ? Access to intranet databases must be given to staff working on both diversification products so that cross pollination of ideas between projects can occur ? Product must be available in at least five languages by the end of year two and ten languages by the end of year five ?Economic value added should be positive after the year following the release date VI. Evaluation and Control A. Product 1 (Google Golden Life) ? Management should ensure a beta version is complete by the end of year one and a complete version is ready to be released on the internet by one and a half years ? Dupont Return on investment (ROI) calculation (net profit margin x total asset turnover) should be used to ensure whether or not ROI in year two meets or exceeds 6% in year two and 10% in year five. Management should audit the expenditures of the customer satisfaction team quarterly to determine if the team in charge of obtaining feedback by customers is staying within the budget and whether the budgeted amount of $1 million is fitted ? Management should determine whether or not market share (of the existing older internet users) is 5% at the end of year two and 20% or over after year 5 ? Management should ensure that a new version is available at the end of year two ?Management should evaluate product to verify whether or not it is earning 2% of revenues at the end of year two and 5% of revenues after year five. ? Product should be evaluated at the end of year two to ensure it has been translated into at least three languages and 15 or more languages after year five is complete ? Success of site should also be determined by whether or not it gets at least 10 million hits per month (eyeballs) after year two and 40 million hits per month by the end of year five ?Economic Value Added (EVA) should be positive at the end of year three B. Product 2 Google architect ? Management should check to make sure that deadlines have been reached concerning the beta version of the product after year one and the first, complete version is completed by one and a half years after the start of the project ? Dupont Return on Investment (ROI) calculation (net profit