Impact of Business Idea on a Business - Case of Google - Research Paper Example

INTRODUCTION The Google Company is a popular search engine company that has come a long way in the industry and achieved much. It was founded in 1998and the current CEO was a co-founder whose name is Larry Page. This company has gone global in many areas of the world and taps into all kinds of market. It has a unique management system that branches from the top to bottom and is distributed worldwide. The ownership of this company is mainly by a strong management system and the co-founders. It has employed a vast number of employees and has managed to create a significant brand in the world for a long time now. This company is also unique in its marketing strategies compared to others and the management formulae as well. However, just like every other company, it does not go without facing major challenges from both within and without which require to be fixed so that the company can progress. The company has a unique management structure in each area. They have expanded in different parts of the world and therefore cannot afford to risk making loses due to wrong IT management structure. As a result, each region has its own head manager, team of directors and chain of employees going down. This enables the addressing of the needs of each region in a manner that best suits those living there. There is also a unique factor about the way in which the Google Company advertises itself. This is done in each region uniquely depending n the cultural values and religious beliefs of the region. Dividing this forms of advertisement enables the company first perform a research on what is considered ethical within eh community in order to ensure that he marketing advertisements they do not offensive to the public. Each region has different needs and it is important that the company present their product in a manner that seems to address these needs. As a result, there are different forms of advertisement in each region aimed at capturing the attention of many and winning numbers of users of the Google search engine. PROBLEM Even though the Human Resource department of the Google Company views the employees as an important asset and offers compensation and benefits such as basic salary, medical facility, a bonus, gratuity fund, social security and pick and drop, the company still faces challenges. One of the major challenges facing this organization is that both the employees as well as the management may have lost a clear direction and a common purpose for the company. There was low morale within the company as a result of several attempted reorganizations that had failed in the past. This could be as a result of the Google Company slowly does not widely involve the employees in the IT department in the ownership of the company. It simply has ownership that is mainly centered on the co-founders and a management team. The employees are under and are also unrecognized even though they do most of the work behind the scene. These include uploading information and ensuring that the Company has a strong security system that is not easy to branch. They are the great minds that operate undercover and perhaps to some point they need recognition by the rest of the world and share in the success of what the Google Company has become. Despite all the benefits they may be acquiring perhaps this could be the most significant benefit of all as they would have a huge say in the running of the company. When the employees are happy, then the threat in future of employees branching away n bringing greater competition may be eradicated as they would have no need to leave their post of management. They need to be listened to and shown that they matter to the company in every way. They then may feel motivated to perform even better for the organization. This shows that the Google Company needs to come up with a way to engage the employees in the running of the Company. This way, they will feel that they are working for their own company rather than working for pay. The benefits and compensation plans should involve the employees in a big way and not just through the consultations through questionnaires that are periodically offered to them. NORWEST COMPANY Norwest Labs, founded by Jean Crepin is a company with a history that educates and inspires many other entrepreneurs. The first step Crepin takes towards transforming his organization is applying for a government service program whose purpose is to assist companies in adjusting their workforce. This enables the companies meet future organizational needs the program provide funding and consulting services. He gets accepted and the company engages a consulting firm to complete and operational management review. The review is meant to assess the needs of the workplace which have risen as a result of changes from both within the organization and from the industry as well. The results of the consultant review shows that the greatest strength of Norwest is its employees’ commitment to the organization. However, this workforce had some concerns since they were not sure about the future direction of the company (Roslender 1992). There was also decline morale, the company run on a confused system of administration and among others the employees did not have trust in the administration. As a result of these findings, the consultants offer Crepin recommendations that are aimed at solving these issues. He would first have to hand over his power and control to his employees which is to delegate decision making. He also has to come up with a new reporting structure that has centralized corporate services that need to be put in place. This is what guides him into taking his next step of setting up centralized corporate services. He started with the departments of accounting, marketing information system and quality assurance. He hires some managers for these departments from outside while others come are promoted from within the company to fill these positions (Hardaker 2005). These new corporate services report directly to Crepin. Unfortunately, the employees do not take these changes too well as they feel that their independence is being taken away. The third step is the company to gain sharing. Crepin finds the idea of sharing the success of the company appealing. Although he had dismissed it earlier on after being discouraged from it by more experienced CEOs, he now regarded it in a new light. After seeing the effectiveness of gain sharing the behavior of employees become largely debated by management writers, he reconsiders implementing it in Norwest (Long 2010). Crepin learns that some of the positive effects of the gains sharing method include improved performance of employees, change in employees’ attitudes, better quality and improved productivity environment and better use of materials answer supplies. He realizes that the key element for a successful gain sharing plan is the connection between the employees reward and company’s performance. After consulting with Jack Stack who had improved his company using the gain sharing method, Crepin decides to implement the gain sharing method (Levine 1990). Once more, the idea of gain sharing instead of the bonuses the employees were used to is not openly accepted by the employees. However, this is partly due to their lack of understanding of how it works. The idea of gaining sharing of the successes of the Norwest which was a growing business was a wise proposal. This type of incentive pay linked directly to the important measures that determine performance was a good idea because it also motivates a company to improve on its performance. For more people to accept the products and services of Norwest, they would have had to have developed faith in the company. This would be examined through analysis of their performance. The workers will also be motivated to work harder for the success of the company so that at the end of the day they can reap a higher bonus. It also promotes team work among the employees so that they can increase the productivity of the firm and earn more. In the process, the owner of the business benefits greatly since as the workers put more effort for quality performance and higher output, the business continues to grow as a whole. It was an idea aimed at the development of the business and increase in its output Hardaker (2005). The proposal would also bring about coordination between the different departments within the organization and the hostility would come to an end. Seeing as the failure was as a result of the employees’ ignorance on the process of gain sharing and a new type of evaluation. Perhaps if they had been educated about how this process worked and how it benefited both the employees and the business they would have been more receptive to Crepin’s ideas. He should have first addressed the issue of the old bonus plan and acknowledged its major flows before implementing a new one. Since it is wise for the choice of reward system to involve the employees, Crepin should have gain sharing an option to them. For instance, the bonus plan could have been set in a cafeteria-style benefit plan. This would enable them choose if they preferred to join it or pass in exchange for higher salaries (Kruse 2010). These few things would have made the employees open to new ideas of how the business was operated and made them feel that they were contributing to the rapid changes taking place around them. REOMMENDATIONS Every business idea has different impacts on a business. Without change, a business cannot progress since it is not keeping up with the competition. Crepin was trying to come up with a plan that would ensure the Norwest Company would not be left behind as the competition grew stronger. He wanted to expand the business and improve the employees’ attitudes towards the administration. The only problem was his approach to the matter. He was too focused on implementing his new ideas that he did not pay much attention to the process required to implement them effectively. Crepin’s ideas were with the best of intentions. However, the business still emerged a success as along the way he learned what entailed of proper management. It is important to note that each business encounters its own challenges. This should enable the administrators figure out a reliable method of fixing the problems. They should not be rush in implementing their ideas but should take time to perform a research and find out how best to incorporate the changes without alienating the workers. A business is a risk and it takes other risks to keep it successful. Crepin did not give up on Norwest Labs which shows that it is possible to overcome the challenges that come with change. In the same way, the Google company should take up the success o Norway and use it to learn a few things of the Norwest success. Read More