Google Strategic Diagnosis - Research Paper Example

? Strategic Diagnosis Project Table of Contents  Strategic Diagnosis Project Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Vision, Mission & Values 4 Mission 4 Vision 5 Values 7 Strategic Segmentation 8 Selection of SBU’s to be Analyzed 10 References 12 Introduction The company Google had a very humble beginning back in 1996 when its developers first visualized it as a small search engine which would mainly work on tracking the link of different websites. This search engine developed called ‘BackRub’ was finally transformed into Google in 1998. Strategically the company works on gaining a large web space through the operation of the search engine which helps the visitor to gain access to large amount of information pertaining to different types of products and services. Moreover the search engine also acts as an encyclopedia which helps the users to gain potential information of a variety of subjects. The Google website also acts as a revenue and market generator for companies which advertise their products and services via the online sphere. Google which had a very humble beginning now operates based on several branches spread along several quarters of the globe. The company thus has a huge portfolio of skilled and efficient human resources operating from the several offices to help the concern achieve its end objectives. Google operating fully on the internet sphere happens to gain a large market worldwide for the best quality of services rendered which fulfills the parameter of customer satisfaction. (Google-b, n.d.). Strategic activities initiated focus on tapping niche market bases by producing different products like scholar, earth and map applications. Research and development team of Google is working to produce these types of products and services which helps in gaining an innovated customer profile. Google’s innovativeness gains hold through the large scale maintenance of potential information which is gained through the operation based on its highly innovative software which helps in gaining faster access to large volumes of data from different sources. (McLoughlin & Aaker, 2010, p.145-146). As part of its strategic initiatives Google focuses on gaining a target market composed of normal viewers and other potential product and service advertisers. This community of commercial people helps the firm in gaining potential revenues through the large scale advertising activities conducted over the online sphere. Further the company has also devised another service branch to cater fully to the needs of the advertisers and other commercial people. The AdSense software devised by Google helps the advertising community to sponsor related links on the web portal. Through such links the web visitors can gain instant access to the profiles of the different companies having advertised their products and services. (Cahill, 2006, p.57). Vision, Mission & Values Google is one of the business firms that has revolutionized three business world as well as the life of the individuals across the globe. Google is now an integral part of every person who uses the internet. Google is perhaps the most popular search engine across the globe with millions of active users in the world. Mission A mission statement is a short statement typically comprised of a single sentence that tries to highlight the general purpose of the organization. The mission statement also reflects the business strategies of a firm with regards to its suppliers, customers as well as the employees of the organization. Mission statements are therefore very important as they not only act as a framework of inspiration and aspiration but also help in generating a formidable brand image and suitable positioning of the firm in the minds of the customers. Mission statements should also be quantifiable and largely measurable so as to provide clear guidance and instructions towards all the major stakeholders as well as customers (Kaplan, Norton & Barrows, 2008, p.3-4). The mission statement of Google is stated below: “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” (Google, n.d.). An in depth analysis of the mission statement of Google reveals the nature of business strategies of Google. It shows how the business portfolio of the organization and the strategies would go about in ensuring profitability of the organization as well as its commitments to the stakeholders as well as employees of the organization. Mission statements are also critical because they reflect the views of the top management of the company and largely serve as a guiding template for the strategists to make corresponding business strategies that are aimed at ensuring profitability and sustainability. The mission statement of Google largely highlights the core product and service portfolio of the organization. As evident from the mission statement Google main products namely the search engine business has virtually transformed the usefulness of internet and its importance in day to day life. Any information for an individual is easily available by using the search engine of Google. The unique aspect in Google’s product offering largely tends to provide simplistic yet relevant service to individuals. Most of the search engine applications are available free of cost. Google’s social networking site Orkut has gained large scale popularity and has brought the people of the world more close to each other. The universal nature of the company’s presence also highlights its mission statement and its application in the business strategies of the organization. Vision The vision statement of Google is based on a ten point framework also named as ‘ten things’. These serve as the main vision behind the firm’s business strategies with regards to its stakeholders as well as prospective customers. The ten point framework encompasses a large number of aspects of which one includes analyzing the needs of people and proving a well knit customized service that uses high end technological innovations to satisfy the needs of the customers. The ten point vision statement also quotes the importance of time management as its tries to provide a product offering that is largely time efficient and uses a small time frame devoid of unnecessary hassles. Every application of Google is simple yet technologically advanced and is largely fast enough to provide better customer satisfaction. Simplistic nature is yet another important element of the strategic vision of Google. Google tries to combine aspects of simplicity with ease of usage and sped of processing. Every application of Google has a very simple nature and design and has only those features that are barely essential for an individual. This is highlighted from the browser of Google named chrome which has a simple design and has few applications but is very fast and reliable as compared to the other browsers. Google also tries to involve both beginners as well as experienced individuals as a part of its team. The work culture of Google is largely considered as a role model for other business organizations. The product offering of Google is such that it attracts and satisfies the needs of both beginners as well as experts who have very specific requirements. For example the search engine contains basic search options for new and individual users as well as advanced search options and Google scholar for advanced users that have very specific requirements. Innovations are another key component of the vision of the organization. The company’s products part from being simple in nature also highly innovative as it largely makes the products easy to use and offers a delightful experience. The company intends to transform innovative ideas into virtual reality. Google’s vision also includes designing a product that is largely compatible with different devices. Google also has a vision of planning for the present and future that includes ensuring team work and team effort as well as ensures ethics in business. Google also has a vision of designing products that have a clutter free design and makes use of innovative aspects like balancing colors and other aspects to ensure a favorable product design. The company in its vision statement also lays considerable stress on over generating trust of people. The company largely uses this element in almost all its applications. Google largely allows individuals to have a right over the data to be managed. It also play considerable role in ensuring online safety and security of passwords as well as ensuring quality advertisements and ensure consistency and reliability of service that ensures trust and confidence among the customers. Finally the company also lays emphasis on having a human touch in the products and applications and allows users to directly interact and share their thoughts and grievances about the company and its products (Google-a, n.d.). Values The values of Google are again based on a ten point framework that largely includes the following aspects. Firstly it tends to generate complete focus on the customer, doing one task at a time and ensuring complete efficiency, ensuring democracy on the internet, use of fair tactics in business, continuous improvements and finally having a global reach and presence (Google-c, n.d.). The company aims to inculcate these values in the entire organization so as to actually incorporate these values in the business process of the organization so as to generate trust and confidence among the stakeholders, employees as well as the customers. Strategic Segmentation Google acting through the web interface strategizes to develop separate programs aiming to tap niche market bases. The company aims to gain access to large amount of potential revenues by inviting the product and service advertisers to advertise their offerings through the online sphere. Thus one of the market segments held by Google stands out to be the product and service producers. This target group helps the firm to gain large amount of revenues. (Cahill, 2006, p.57). Another niche market segment which the company focuses is the scholar or the student population. Google thus transforms itself from a mere search engine to an internet library helping the student community of the world to gain potential access to large amount of information pertaining to a variety of issues. Focusing on this market segment the company has devised the Google scholar program which consists of load of articles and journals to help address the needs of the niche customer profile. The online library services rendered by Google endeavor to gain access to large number of books, journals and articles through a giant collaboration envisaged with big libraries around the globe. (Jobber, 2009, p.337). Similarly Google also focuses on the sophisticated consumer profile through the launch of the Android system. The launch of the Android technology has helped developed a host of other applications which are being enjoyed by the sophisticated consumer groups. Through the use of the Android technology the sophisticated consumer groups enjoy the separate applications like three dimensional gaming and mapping software and similar other multimedia options like generating music and videos through the online sphere. On the other hand the development of gaming and multimedia software has also helped the game and video developers to gain a larger market by posting such games through the Google Android technology. Thus along with the niche consumer base the game and software developers have also turned out to be one of the potential market segments which helps companies like Google to gain large amount of revenues. ( Sullivan, 2011). Google’s market segmentation strategies can be further analyzed through the four segmentation parameters viz. dividing the markets based on demographic factors, based on geographical regions, and different types of behavioral traits of the different consumers. Firstly the internet search machine Google renders access of the consumers to a large plethora of different types of potential information which would suit the needs of the different types and categories of consumer groups spread along the globe. People belonging to different nationalities, gender and income profiles can gain access to large number of information through the use of Google. This carves the truly international face of Google. Again the search engine helps the consumers on a worldwide basis to make use of it to gain potential information. Thus people belonging to different regions can make use of the software without any type of determent to become knowledgeable. Again the search engine also helps to satisfy the psychological needs of the different consumers spread along large geographical areas by designing itself to the separate cultural parameters. The search engine renders potential access to specific books and other leisure activities to help match the cultures of the different geographical areas. This helps build the loyalty base of the potential viewers of Google. Google also aspires to tap potential markets by tuning the products and applications designed to match the behavioral aspects of the consumer groups residing along different regions. (Kotler, Lee & Lee, 2009, p.83). In a bid to effectively target the Indian consumers the search engine has effectively designed a segment known as iGoogle which mainly caters to the need of the geographical groups. Again to compete with the other search engines operating on the internet scale Google has developed its Chrome version which acts in a highly fast manner to help the potential visitors gain large amount of information in much lesser time span. This compatible feature of Google has helped it to counter rivalry of other existing search engines like Apple Safari and Mozilla Firefox. Further the company has also devised separate application gadgets like Android technology and Google TV to help cater to the sophisticate consumer groups always aiming to gain newer technologies. Selection of SBU’s to be Analyzed According to Philip Kotler (1972), a strategic business unit is defined as a single business or a large number of collections of different business divisions and their related businesses that are being managed in a separate manner from the rest of the organization with each unit having a distinct set of competitors for itself in the market (Kotler, 1972, p.44). Google has a wide variety of product portfolio that essentially includes search engines, web browsers, social networking as well as smart phone businesses. The present study would take into account two major strategic business units for Google that would include firstly the search engine business unit and secondly the enterprise solution based Google Apps. Both these units assume large scale significance as the search engine business is among the oldest and most profitable strategic business unit of the company while the mobile phone business is a virtually new business category for Google and has large scale potential and good demand in the market. This business unit largely Google has developed software named Android that essentially provides software support to the mobile handsets. This is one of the most thriving business segments that have a lot of popularity in the business markets. Search engine business unit of the company is perhaps the oldest and most important business segment. The astounding success of this business unit can be analyzed from the fact that Google has become synonymous within the search engine industry and is currently the most popular search engine of the world. Online advertisements and pay per click formats are largely used by this business unit to generate revenues for maintaining profitability and sustainability. Marketers using online channel as a marketing communication tool largely use search engine optimization techniques to get a favorable page rank that largely helps in generating better awareness of the brand image of the company and also provides good reach towards the target market audience. References Cahill, D. (2006). Lifestyle market segmentation. Routledge. Google. (No date). Company. Retrieved May 15, 2011 from http://www.google.com/corporate/. Google-a. (No date). Google User Experience. Retrieved May 15, 2011 from http://www.google.com/intl/en/corporate/ux.html. Google-b. (No date). Google’s mission is to organize the world‘s information and make it universally accessible and useful. Retrieved on May 15, 2011 from: http://www.google.com/corporate/. Google-c. (No date). Our Philosophy. Retrieved May 15, 2011 from http://www.google.com/corporate/tenthings.html. Jobber. (2009). Foundations Of Marketing 2E. Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Kaplan, R.S., Norton, D.P., & Barrows, E.A. (2008). Developing the Strategy: Vision, value Gaps, and Analysis. Retrieved May 15, 2011 from http://www.exed.hbs.edu/assets/Documents/developing-strategy.pdf. Kotler, P. (1972). Marketing – Management. Pearson Education India. Kotler, P., Lee, N. & N. Lee. (2009). Up and out of poverty: the social marketing solution. Wharton School Publishing. McLoughlin, D. & D. Aaker. (2010). Strategic Market Management: Global Perspectives. John Wiley and Sons. Sullivan, L. (2011). Google Demonstrates Honeycomb, Launches Android Market. [Online]. Retrieved on May 15, 2011 from: http://www.googletvforum.org/forum/more-news-your-google-tv-news-team/1121-google-launches-android-market.html. Read More