Describing of Google Success - Literature review Example

Google Success Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Name Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Course Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Lecture Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Date Introduction Google is among the most successful corporations in the world. Earlier this year, Google announced a huge jump in revenue although its profitability ratios went up slightly. According to the Rushe (2013) Google collected 50 billion in revenue continuing a trend of good performance since the firm started a decade ago. Google started on a foundation of search engine innovation, excelling in becoming the world’s no.1 search engine. However, most Google’s revenue come from auctioning of advertising space which show up when certain search terms are used. The way people search for information on the internet changes rapidly with the passage of time. Many companies have been unable to keep up with this shift in technology in their sectors leading to their decline. The key to success in the modern marketplace depends on a company’s ability to adapt to the fast changing environment. In contrast, to firms whose death was precipitated by technological change, Google seems to thrive on change in the nature of the internet. In this paper the factors that make Google one of the most successful companies in the world are discussed. Secondly, the secretive nature of Google’s internal operation is discussed with the aim of finding out why Google is considered one of the world’s most secretive organizations. Company Profile Google is one of the World’s largest technological organizations. The organization employs over 26,000 employees strewn across the globe. Google operations include search, operating system programming and other services. Google obtains most of its revenue through adword advertisng which it sells to companies (Gondora 2013). Recently, Google has embarked on buying a number of technological firms which provide it with access to patented technology. By keeping up with changes in the fast paced internet world Google has been able achieve phenomenal success. Focus on Customers According to Gondora (2013) Google is one of the best example of a company that is user focused. He Google philosophy is founded on provision of the “best possible user experience possible. Gondora (n.d) notes that Google has stuck on user focus as envisioned by its founders. According to Google (n.d), the company is constantly making changes to its services with a view of making sure its customers are well served. User focus in Google is shown by the simplicity of the search engines user interface. Google is actively seeking information on the usage patterns of their search services to make sure they deliver greater accuracy and suitability in its search engine results. The Google official website only has a search box, a logo and an option asking a person if they are feeling lucky. This simplicity shows the focus is what the customer wants to search the internet. Google never places advertisements in the actual search results but divides the page clearly into advertising space and search results sections. Google pages are also easy to use and load very fast but Google has refused to divulge how they are able to have such an efficient website. Google deflects questions about the technical side of the website by saying consumers need concern themselves how their pages would work if they were designed differently (Google n.d). To make sure their customer remains satisfied Google gives its worker 20 per cent of their work time to come up with continuous improvement of its services (Google n.d). Google customer focus is shown by the number of tweaks it makes to its services each year; it estimated its search engine formula is tweaked more than 500 times every year. This amount of changes shows the continuous flux that is found in the internet business. Apart from continuously improving its current services, Google also comes with a stream of innovative new services. Concentrating on one core Competency According to Berry et al (2006), companies that focus on developing a service to near perfection are more successful than those which divide their focus on many services. Google has mastered delivery of internet search services. Google claims it has the largest dedicated research team focused on solving internet search problems. Google also was extensive experience with search engine problems as they have worked on these problems for over ten years. Google staff iterate over a problem over and over again until they are able to solve it. In recent years Google have introduced new services that leverage on its core competency. These include Google map which allows people to search for locations across the world and information related to particular location. Other are Google scholar an a search engine for academic articles. Fast delivery of content Google (n.d) claims that there are the only website on the internet that is designed for people to spend as little of their time as possible. Google makes sure their results do not have excess bits and bytes and thus they load faster. All of Google search results are retuned within a fraction of a second of querying their search engines. Despite this knowledge about how Google is able to make their searches so fast is not available in the public domain. According to Smyth et al (2009) Google is very secretive about the technology it uses to enhance its users web experience. Google Think globally and acts locally Google has adopted its services to fit every country it operates in. In most countries Google is available with a local country domain and in most instances in local languages. On the search pages there are options available for people to change their options to their preferred language. Google has also set up 20 operation stations across the world that work night and day to make sure Google services appear as local as possible. Search suggestions on Google search engines reflect a business that is locally focused as they offer search suggestions that result in locally relevant results. Where a company pursue a think globally, act locally business strategy they have to analyze the local environment to look for opportunities and threats to the success of their business. Global Corporation are increasingly becoming aware that reacting to the needs of the local community is a critical factor for their success. Google does not regard itself as a Silicon Valley company, but rather like a Japanese Company when operating in Japan and or a Singaporean company while operating in Singapore (Google n.d). Google provides superior search services on mobile devices in Indonesia, China, Phillippines and Vietnam where people mostly connect to the internet using mobile phones. In India when Google was launched in Bangla its Logo was stylized to promote Mozart birthday showing its ability to morph into a local product. Technology application and Innovation Google is one of the companies that have excelled in using innovating and applying new technology in its operations. Beginning in 2000, Google started building the servers that are the platform for its services. There are also claims that Google designs its own networking equipment (Metz, 2012). This way Google does not rely on hardware vendors who might supply faulty or low capability devices. For many years nobody outside Google knew about Google developing its own hardware again showing the secretive nature of Google. It is widely agreed that Google manufactures its own hardware but the operation are mysterious and some sources claims the hardware is developed in mysterious locations (The Daily Mail Reporter 2012). An employee of Google who is in charge of Google’s network infrastructure say Google can only divulge limited information about its internal infrastructure as it considered it as a source of competitive advantage. Another one of Google’s most successful technology innovation is the page ranking technology. The page rank process determines where results are returned ones a search is completed. Google tracks the frequency of page or site updates to rank pages in its searches. The freshness or Staleness of a web page is determined through a measurement of content change. The way the Google page rank works has remained a mystery to most people and it’s only recently that Google revealed some details of how the page ranking process works. The official algorithm used to rank pages on Google is one of the companies most jealously protected secrets (Strickland n.d). Humans Resource management Practice Google philosophy of providing the best possible customer experience can only be realized with the cooperation of their employee. Effective management of employees in modern and fast paced business environment is very crucial. The original objective of Google HRM as envisioned by Larry Page and Sergey Brin was to make a company that is “run by geeks” (Google n.d). The HR department is concerned with recruiting highly talented individuals to join the Google workforce. Google have been accused of raiding other technology companies in a bid to recruit some of the best minds in the industry. According to Google prefers young employees and the median age of its employees is 27 years; the youngest workforce in the Internet industry. The Google recruitment process is entailing and rigorous to ensure they recruit only “great employees” (Google n.d). However, recruitment of top talent does not ensure a technology company like Google of success it also has to keep its employees satisfied and loyal to its company mission. Google has a unique organizational culture that emphasizes generation of new ideas and a comfortable work environment. According to Ambrose and Schminke (2003) organizational culture is one of the most important determinant of motivational levels in organizations. Google has systematically invested in its employees and are thus able to get consistent high performance from these employees (Kramar, Bartram and De Cieri 2013). The Google office environment is considered the most colorful and fun to work with. Google allows its employee to bring their own snacks to office or even come with their pet to work. Google also provides its workers with a gym and salon services within the office environment. Google also believes in flexing working hours and allows it employees 20 per cent of their work time to work on innovative ideas. Google has also flattened its organizational hierarchy and managerial and management structures are absent at Google. Ambrose and Schminke (2003) characterizes Google’s structure as an organic structure. Google culture is flexible, empowering and task completion is through teamwork. Google structure is also cross-functional meaning googlers can co-operate freely across departments. Employees can also present their problems and concern to top management who practice an open door policy. Google employees participate in social activities like table tennis and roller hockey in their highly relaxed environment. Google seems not to spare any effort in ensuring employees are highly motivated and supportive of the company’s vision. Conclusion A number of factors make Google one of the most successful and secretive technological organizations on the globe. Google has managed to strike a notch with search engine users by staying focused on their diverse needs. Google believes that by providing the best possible user experience without consideration for internal bottom lines they can be able to achieve competitive advantage. To ensure its customers are satisfied Google makes over 500 improvements to its search algorithm each year. Google also ensures their interface returns results as soon as possible to ensure they do not waste a user’s time. Secondly, Google has focused and excelled in providing search services on the internet. Focus on search enables Google to stay ahead of competitors who have more diversified strategies. Google is also able to build on its search competency to introduce other services that rely on searching. By adopting a glocalization strategy Google makes sure its appeals to local tastes while operating in multiple companies. Google finds a way of identifying with local culture wherever its services can be accessed. Innovative technologies and application of existing technology is widely quoted as one of the factors that ensure Google’s success. It is well known that an innovation cannot result in competitive advantage if it is imitated by competitors. Therefore, Google keeps most of the technology its uses in its operations secret. These include the page rank technology and its hardware manufacturing operations. All the factors discussed above cannot be in place unless the company obtains the cooperation of its employees. Google has excelled in effectively managing and motivating its workforce towards supporting the organizations goals. By creating a relaxing and flexible work environment Google ensures its employees are strategic partners. This factor profoundly influences the success of Google in the highly competitive internet industry. References Ambrose, M. L., & Schminke, M. (2003). Organization structure as a moderator of the relationship between procedural justice, interactional justice, perceived organizational support, and supervisory trust. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(2), 295. Berry, L. L., Shankar, V., Parish, J. T., Cadwallader, S., & Dotzel, T 2006, Creating new markets through service innovation, MIT Sloan Review, Winter 2006 Vol. 47, no. 2 Gondora, T 2013, Why Google is so successful, acessed on 25 May 2012 http://www.talksuccess.co.uk/why-google-is-so-successful/ Google n.d, Ten things we know to be true, acessed on 25 May 2012,http://www.google.com/about/company/philosophy/ Jones, G. R. (2010). Organizational theory, design, and change. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Kramar, R., Bartram, T., & De Cieri, H 2013, Human resource management: Strategy, people, performance, McGraw-Hill Education. Metz, C 2012, Where in the World Is Google Building Servers? Accessed on 25 May 2012, http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/07/google-server-manufacturing/ Rushe, D 2013, Google's $50bn year: search giant reports record revenues, the Gurdian january 23, http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/jan/22/google-record-revenues Smyth, B., Briggs, P., Coyle, M., & O’Mahony, M. (2009). Google shared. a case-study in social search. In User Modeling, Adaptation, and Personalization (pp. 283-294). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Strickland, J n.d, Why is the Google algorithm so important? , acessed on 25 May 2012, http://www.howstuffworks.com/google-algorithm1.htm The Dail Mail Reporter 2012, Bartender 'threatened with arrest by Google heavies' after tech employee accidentally left top-secret phone at his bar, Daily mail Online, May 25, acessed on 25 May 2012, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2224589/Google-threatened-bartender-employee-accidentally-left-secret-phone-bar.html Read More