PESTLE Analysis Google - Case Study Example

 PESTLE Analysis Google Table of Contents Introduction 2 The Methods 2 PESTLE Analysis 4 Current Position of Google 7 Future prospects 7 Reference List 8 Introduction Google Inc. Is a company dealing in global technology and focusing on enhancing the ways in which people are connected to information. The mission of the company is to organized the information available all around the world and make it useful and accessible universally. The company was founded by Sergey Brin and Larry Page in the year 1998. They created a search engine called BackRub that used links in order to determine the importance of the webpage. The organization is full of young life and has been serving thousands of customers and user since its incorporation (Google, 2013a). The primary source of revenue is the online advertisements. As on 2011, the core areas on which the business focused was enterprise, operating system and platform, advertising and search. The business used its AdWords programs to promote their services and products with targeted advertising. Apart from this, the third party that included Google Network used its AdSense that delivered relevant advertisements and generated revenue (The New York Times, 2013). The study focuses on Google Inc., understands the methods followed by the company, conducts a PESTLE analysis and decides on the future performance of the organization. The Methods Google is known for its search engine. Larry Page describes a perfect search engine is one which exactly understands what the user wants and gives him back exactly that particular thing. Google has not kept itself restricted to search engine only but has started offering products beyond that. They have shown whole lot of technological advancement staring from search to Gmail and Chrome. The goal of the organization remains the same; to assist their users easily access the things they require. Thus, the company follows a faster and smarter approach while developing its product (Google, 2013b). The huge success of the organization is based on the set of methods and beliefs that the company follows. Since the beginning of the organization they focus on providing the best experience to the users. Whatever new innovation they do, they always look towards the expectation of the users and try to fit into their requirements. At the same time when they are designing some new applications or tools they make them work so well that the user do not have to bother about the changes or think about how differently they have been designed. Google has a large pool of researchers who are extensively engaged in solving the search problems. The company is well aware of what it does and also knows how to make it better. The company continues to make several attempts in order to solve difficult problems and has solved many complex issues. This leads to the improvement of the services that they provide and make the experience and search of the user better. The organization is fully dedicated towards developing innovative products (Google, 2013c). Google believes that time is valuable and this makes the company design their product in such ways that it takes minimum time for the customers to find what they are searching. This is the only company who aims towards making the user leave their website as soon as possible after accomplishing their objectives. This same belief is kept in mind every time the company launches their product whether it is a mobile phone application or a new browser. They understand the demand of the present moment and increasing use of mobile. Today people are seen to use mobile phones for accessing information, which has driven the company to implement new technologies and offer new products and solutions for mobile services that may help the users, present at various corners of the globe to accomplish their task. Google generates their revenue by offering search technologies to various companies and displaying advertisements on their own website and on other sites across the web. Several advertisers take advantage of AdWords to promote their products and publishers take advantage of AdSense program to deliver advertisements relevant to site contents. But while conducting their business they do not support any ill-practices. They do not accept any pop-up advertisements or display ads that are irrelevant to the content of the page. They always look for running their business legally. Apart from all these the culture of the organization also plays a strong role in taking the company to such a height. They emphasize on achievement of the whole team and takes pride in individual success that leads to the overall accomplishment of the organization. The company set their goals as such they are difficult to reach. By doing this they aim to accomplish more than what they have expected (Google, 2013d). PESTLE Analysis Political The ICT Strategy and Strategic Implementation Plan framed by the government of United Kingdom (UK) are meant for delivering better service to the public at lower costs. The four strategies that have been framed includes Greening Government, ICT capability, End User Devices and G-Cloud. These strategies help in transforming the approach and environment of the ICT landscape towards creating more flexible and productive work force that delivers services in a digitalised and cost effective ways (Gov.UK, n.d.; National Audit Office, 2011). This shows that the government is a huge supporter of technological advancement. The technological innovations done by the government of UK in delivering the public services only speaks about that. Economic United Kingdom is the leading financial and power centre and the second largest economy after Germany. Since the last few years the government is seen to reduce the public ownership and take initiative towards the programs related to social welfare. The GDP per capita as on 2012 is $37,000 and is at the position 34 when compared to other countries of the world. Information Economy Strategy is developed by the government of UK in partnership with the industry. This new strategy is expected to provide growth opportunities to the innovative technology businesses operating in UK (Department for Business, Innovation & Skills, 2013). Apart from this initiative the GDP per capita also indicates that the country is at a favourable economic state. However, there are threats of slow economic growth and affect of euro-zone debt crisis that may affect the economy (CIA, 2013). Department of international development is working together with the businesses, investors and governments to develop country by strengthening the business environment, improving the infrastructure, increasing the access to the international markets and providing financial services to more people. Social The society of UK generally consists of British people. The total population is 63,395,574 as on 2013. The population pyramid (Shown below) shows that the density of the population is highest between the ages of 45 to 49 years. The population is seen to growth at a rate of 55% annually as on 2013. 99% of the total population is literate, which signifies that the rate of literacy is quite high in UK (CIA, 2013). The official data reveals that the rate of unemployment has decreased by 57,000 in the last year and has reached 2.51 million (Rankin, 2013). Source: (CIA, 2013) Technology The steps taken by the government of UK clearly reveals that they support technological development to a large extend. Apart from this, the science and manufacturing firms have got a boost of £1.1 billion in research and development (Neate, 2013). Moreover, some of the research has shown that the country needs to do a continuous technological development that will help the society from getting into a major technological slowdown. In this context the country has also increased its spending towards research and development (Flanagan, 2013) Legal The Information Commissioner’s Office of UK has framed new privacy policies to which the organization dealing in information technology must cater. The Cameron government has raised the value added tax to 20% from 17.5% in the year 2011. The same government has pledge to reduce the corporation tax to 21% by 2014 (CIA, 2013). Environmental The coalition government of UK has framed new environmental policies which includes scrapping the new runway at Heathrow (Ecologist, 2010). Such initiative shows that UK has taken the environmental issues seriously and is working on them. Current Position of Google Currently the business of Google is in a stable state and has gained huge popularity and reputation. However, presently Google in UK is facing some tax related issues. Google is headquartered at Mount View in California, which does not signify British presence. During the period of 2006 to 2011, Google has generated revenue of $18 billion and paid tax of only $16 million (Bergin, 2013). Apart from this the privacy policies of Google has been also asked to change by the privacy watchdogs in Italy, Germany and UK. This is due to the reason that the company is seen to handle huge amount of personal data, which has initiated this requirement (Arthur, 2013). These are the two issues that are creating problems for the company. Future prospects The current political, economic and technological condition suggests that innovation and technological up gradation is hugely supported by UK government. The current economic condition is also in a stable state though there is threat of crisis. Since the government is taking adequate steps to save the country from crisis, so this makes the country lucrative from business point of view. The literacy rate is quite high so the company can get qualified and skilled employees. Apart from this the reduction in the corporate tax will be an added benefit for the organization, which will reduce its tax burden. Therefore, it is expected that the company will perform well in the market of UK. Reference List Arthur, C., 2013. European watchdogs order Google to rewrite privacy policy or face legal action. The Guardian [online] Available at [Accessed 17 July 2013]. Bergin, T., 2013. Special Report: How Google UK clouds its tax liabilities. Reuter [online] Available at [Accessed 17 July 2013]. CIA, 2013. The World Factbook [online] Available at < https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/uk.html> [Accessed 17 July 2013]. Department for Business, Innovation & Skills, 2013. Information economy strategy will boost growth opportunities for digital industries [online] Available at < https://www.gov.uk/government/news/information-economy-strategy-will-boost-growth-opportunities-for-digital-industries> [Accessed 17 July 2013]. Ecologist, 2010. UK coalition Government announces environmental policies [online] Available at < http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/483419/uk_coalition_government_announces_environmental_policies.html> [Accessed 17 July 2012]. Google, 2013a. Company Overview [online] Available at < http://www.google.co.in/about/company/> [Accessed 17 July 2013]. Google, 2013b. Our Products and Services [online] Available at < http://www.google.co.in/about/company/products/> [Accessed 17 July 2013]. Google, 2013c. Ten Things We Know to be True [online] Available at < http://www.google.co.in/about/company/philosophy/> [Accessed 17 July 2013]. Google, 2013d. Our Culture [online] Available at < http://www.google.co.in/about/company/facts/culture/> [Accessed 17 July 2013]. Gov.UK, n.d. ICT Strategy Resources [online] Available at < https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/cabinet-office/series/ict-strategy-resources> [Accessed 17 July 2013]. National Audit Office, 2011. Information and Communications Technology in government. Landscape Review [online] Available at < http://www.nao.org.uk/report/information-and-communications-technology-in-government-landscape-review/> [Accessed 17 July 2013]. Neate, R., 2013. Manufacturers and science firms get £1.1bn research and development boost. The guardian [online] Available at [Accessed 17 July 2013]. Rankin, J., 2013. UK unemployment falls 57,000 to 2.51m, official data shows. The guardian [online] Available at < http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/jul/17/uk-unemployment-falls-claimant-count-data> [Accessed 17 July 2013]. Flanagan, K., 2013. Does the UK need to spend more on basic research? The guardian [online] Available at < http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/political-science/2013/feb/27/uk-spend-basic-research> [Accessed 17 July 2013]. The New York Times, 2013. Google Inc. [online] Available at [Accessed 17 July 2013]. Read More