Google Performance in China - Essay Example

Case Study Analysis Template1 Analyst’s ¶ ¶ Case Study I. The Pre-Analysis: A. Perspective Describe the perspective2 of the author(s) of the case study and the possible biases that might result from that perspective: ¶The author, Kirsten E. Martin has put up a short history of the Google Company through picturing how it has evolved since its foundation by Larry Page and Sergey Brin to the time it has been incorporated in China. The author finds that the beginning of Google was striking in a great manner compared to other companies. Over the years Martin points out that Google has seen enormous financial and market improvement, however it has been faced with many difficult choices in terms of its growth and expansion indifferent areas like in China. The author also finds Google to be a company of great value led by a developed code of conduct and corporate ethics. The company is viewed as focused in offering a better service to the user, compared to other companies which put their shareholders first before anything else but they cannot sacrifice small issues to increase shareholder value. Martin views Change brought in China is a great reform in terms of its economy. This is clearly seen as the author explains how China moved from communist model of socialism and committed itself to economic reforms by joining the world Trade Origination in December 2001, agreeing to lower tariffs. The author finds it a good thing to start the company in China. This has been seen to raise the living standards of many Chinese in terms of their social mobility and personal freedom. The author sees China’s system of brutality and totalitarian regime of forced laws as being acts that portray a bad image of the nation. To view the bias depicted in the case, the author makes the reader to believe that it is very hard for Google to penetrate and start its operations in China even though other companies like Microsoft and Yahoo! Have managed to start their companies in China. 2. My perspective3 as the analyst: ¶In the long run Google will succeed to start its business in China because of the intelligent and hard working staff that has been employed, like MacLean who is a thoughtful and methodical project manager having a computer science degree who worked hard to develop a good plan for Google in China. I also do perceive that Google had strict rules and regulations that do protect the private interest of their shareholders and users not like other companies that’s why it was difficult for them to get easy entry into China. China wanted to control the flow of information which was not according to the ethics of Google. B. State what you are bracketing:4 ¶ It is within my own opinion that China wanted to control information flow. This is as a result of the author not clearly distinguishing whether China wanted to gain from the exchange of censoring or not. II. The Situation5: A. List the facts6relevant to the issue(s) identified: ¶ Google had big market and financial achievements. The company’s 5,680 Employees were all in different places on the planet. In 2005, Google managed to obtain a relatively positive net cash flow of approximately $3.45 billion. From the year 2006, the internet company was managing to generate revenues amounting to over $1 billion ever quarter. Google made revenues amounting to$6.14 billion combined with an average net profit margin that was seen to be approximately 25.18%.10 while growing locally. Google had started to focus more on its global strategy. The majority of searches Were international, yet revenue was just 34% of $3.2 billion in 2004.11 B. List the facts that comprise the historical context relevant to the issue(s) identified: ¶ Persons residing in China were unable to access the Google search engine for a period of about two weeks in September 2002. When the government finally allowed people to access Google, the search engine was found to be extremely slow and at the same time, all the various universities as well as colleges were unable to access it. In order to stem the loss of its market shares to other companies such as Microsoft and Baido, Google managed to develop a website referred to as Google.cn. This website was designed to be utterly subject to all the various Chinese government filters and restrictions. C. Provide quotations by the author(s) of the case study that may indicate bias and could possibly influence the reader apart from the simple statement of facts. State why the quotations seem to indicate bias. ¶Human rights abuse cases are quite rampant in China, they are found to be in defiance of all the current norms that are recognized internationally. These abuse cases range in severity from intolerance of critics and dissidents who are perceived to be against the government to the more severe cases of torture and the restriction of freedom. The country also has strict birth limitation policies. This quotation by the author may make the reader to picture China as a state that is not stable in its operations. Its gives a bad image and a negative picture to the reader. III. The Analysis: A. Situational Analysis 1. Who are the key principal parties involved in the case study? Briefly identify them. ¶The key principal parties identified in the case study are: Google Inc., and China as a nation. a. Google Inc. is a search technology that uses a certain algorithm to find possible web pages with certain search instruction provided by the user. It was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. b. China is a country in the Asia with a population of 1.6 billion people(2006 estimate) 2. What are the processes used by the key principal parties to resolve the conflict(s) described in the case study? Describe the processes used by each of the key parties.7 ¶ China solved the conflict by making the system to be specific in that there was no blockage of entire web pages but only filtering specific URLs .Several other websites were made accessible in the years that Google was started in China than the previous years. Google resolved the conflict by creating a chin ease-language version of its home page. In this way, the technology was not subject to laws as the facilities were not within China and Google operated without permits. Google also created Google.cn, located in China and subject to chin ease filtering. 3. What are the constraints8 upon the decision-makers regarding the issue(s) and how do the constraints impact the decisions made? Describe the constraints for the primary corporation discussed in the case study. ¶ The constraints imposed is the chin ease censorship, the chin ease internet was controlled through both personal and government areas. All the traffic was monitored. This constrained made the entry of Google to chin ease market to be hard. This is due to its principles and code of ethics that govern the company. The constraints have been explained to have greatly influenced the livelihood of the chin ease. Some of the citizens have created anomizer programs that allow them to avoid surveillance by stripping markers that can be detected in the internet. 4. What role, if any,didchance events beyond the firm’s control (in the sense of fortune or fate) playing the decisions made by the primary corporation discussed in the case study and in the outcomes of those decisions as a result? ¶The role played by chance was that all the factors helped in bringing the two conflicting sides into one view point whereby they all agreed and compromised some of their principles. Google inc. agreed to be monitored by the Chinese government after setting up the google.cn. 5. Contrast thedifferingvalues9 among the key principal parties as they affect the decision-making process. ¶ The two parties have different principles pertaining to their level of knowledge and relationship with other companies. Google only agreed to chin ease censorship demands only after they had refused to grant Google.com permission to do its business in China. China is making its decision based on the kind of environment that it is in. harmful content including sources contain materials of democracy, religious cults or antigovernment protests should be analyzed. 6. What biases or cognitive errors10may have influenced the decision-making by the leadership of the principal corporation? Use primarily those biases and cognitive errors based upon research and discussed in class. ¶These biases or cognitive errors are: a. Decisions made in view to make more profit than the other party. Google.com wanted to make better profit in China than other companies that were already there. b. All decisions made by the chin ease were to filter information that the government wanted to use in its own manner to gain power over the people. 7. What were the impacts of the decisions being made on building a sustainable organization (as this term is defined in the course)? In your response, discuss whether the decisions being made increased or decreased the achievement of long-term objectives and why and how that relates to building a sustainable organization? ¶ The impact of the decision being made in building a better sustainable organization increased the achievement of the long-term objective due to both parties being able to gain the place in which they wanted. China was able to control the flow of information from Google and Google was able to start their company in China. These two parties are now collaborating and working together to gain a better profit and advertise ther market in every aspect that they deem profitable to achieve their goals and visions. 8. Identify any unexamined presuppositions11regarding the decisions made by the key firm and, if you wish, other key parties. State how the unexamined presuppositions may have compromised the company’s or other key parties’ welfare. ¶ An unexamined presupposition for Google firm is that it did not consider the influence brought about by the other companies like Baido, Yahoo! and Microsoft. These companies will be creating very high competition in terms of the market and also in their technology. B. Organizational Analysis: The questions in this section are about the effects of the decisions made upon the primary business organization discussed in the case study.12 1. Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Efficacy13: a. Were the actions under analysis necessary to the effectiveness, efficiency, and/or efficacy of the primary corporation discussed? If the answer is “yes,” Why? If “no,” why not? ¶ The actions under analysis were not necessary. This is because the two parties both wanted to gain profit from the project. China did this only to protect its interest of government information not putting into consideration the amount of profit they could have gained from the establishing of the Google Company in their country. But in the end China is gaining the profits from the company. On the other hand Google had to change its way of approach and compromise some of its vital codes and move to designing a better strategy of convincing China to allow them to set their company I their country. b. Did the actions taken increase or decrease the effectiveness, efficiency, and/or the efficacy of the primary business organization discussed? Was the result achieved the one intended? Explain. ¶ Yes the action taken did increase the effectiveness, efficiency and the efficacy of the primary business organization by creating google.cn which was based in China and was under chin ease censorship. This result was achieved because the Chinese government did not want the setting up of a company that did not in anyway allow the government to carefully monitor the information flow out of as well as into the country. 2. Risk14: a. Was risk at an optimal level for the primary business organization discussed at the time of the actions under analysis? ¶ Yes it was at a desirerable level, because in 2004, Google had noticed that its way of dealing with China was unsustainable. It was losing great market to Baido, and others, including Yahoo! and Microsoft were making great profit through their local presence. This was the right period to take the opportunity and form a good strategy how to gain local ground in China and start making profit from that. b. Was risk at an optimal level for the primary business organization discussed following the actions under analysis? ¶Yes it was at a favorable level. The company could lose its stakeholders due to the policies that were being imposed on them by the Chinese government, if the policies could be interfering with the agreed upon rules with the Google Inc, but this was not the case. Google.com made the decision of ensuring that they maintain Blogger as well as gmail outside China. These two services use personal information from users and if it is hosted on servers in China they would be subject to censorship. This was a wise step to keep Google’s email and blogging services outside China and protect its users’ privacy and confidentiality. They decided to design Google.cn, based in China and subject to Chinese filtering. This was a better decision because at this moment now the product was reliable and fast by offering better results. 3. Operations-Quality Leadership, Stakeholder Management, Moral Leadership, and Environmental Leadership:15 a. At the time of the event(s) related in the case study, was the primary business discussed effectively practicing operations-quality leadership, stakeholder management, moral leadership, and/or environmental leadership? As part of your response, characterize the extent to which the primary business organization had implemented these approaches to management. The primary business which is Google Inc., in China has been discussed effectively when dealing with its operations and management being analyzed in every aspect. As it has been put by the two founders Brin and Page, “don’t be evil” the company believes in performing good deeds to the world even if they forgo temporarily, some of the gains. The company keeps the highest standard of ethical business conduct, and employs hard working staff to make good products. The user’s faith and trust in the company is warranted by their good reputation. The company’s’ mission is to universally avail information to the world. b. What is the evidence for your judgment? ¶ The company has a listing of a code of conduct, the 10 things, this provides clear picture of how all its activities are carried out and based on what principles. Googol.com created Google.cn which was subject to Chinese filtering but kept its personal information outside China through Gmail and Blogger. Due to the filtering that the Chinese government had set on google.cn, Google.com decided not to include inaccessible links to the web sites in order not to frustrate the users who would be aware that some of the sites have been blocked by the government. C. Societal Analysis. What were the effects upon differing parts of society (or societies) of the decisions made?16 ¶ The internet has different meaning to different people. It may be an empowering source, a place to be enlightened by offering new information that has never been accessed before. Others are skeptical about its functions and importance to the society. Another group may be fearful by the empowerment it creates against legitimate state authority. Since the Chinese government imposed these rules and regulations on the censoring of information, Chinese citizens have relied on proxy servers and anonymizer programs, located China’s locality to go around the Chinese surveillance. IV. What are the questions expressing thekeyissues17 in this case study that are relevant to this class in Business Environment? ¶ The questions are;- a. What are the good corporate ethos to adapt within a company? b. Is government censorship and self censorship of information something good to the companies that want to invest in another country? c. What are the best ways of setting up a company in another country? V. The Analyst’s Position: As the analyst, state and argue for your own viewpoint regarding the issue(s) identified. Include within your argument, the evidence18 that supports the viewpoint you have taken. ¶ The good corporate ethos to be adapted within a company is by coming up with ethical codes that shall set a standard for the company. All the decisions made and activities that will be conducted in the company will always be in line with the good manner that it was suggested by the company’s’ shareholders. For example the Googlers strive toward the best level of ethical conduct which warrants their user’s faith and trust. The people that are hired are those that are industrious. Government and self censorship of information is not a good way of monitoring those that exchange harmful content material, this is because it robes the citizens of their privacy. Works Cited Elinor Millis.Google to Censor China Web Searches,” CNET News.com, January 25, 2006, . Zhao Huanxin, “Regulation of Internet in Line with World Norms,” China Daily, February 15, 2006. Print Read More