Change at Facebook Company Limited - Case Study Example

Running header: Organizational change: A case study of change at Face Book Company Limited Student’s name: Instructor’s name: Subject code: Date of submission Organizational change: A case study of change at Face Book Company Limited Introduction Over the recent past, companies have embarked on changing the set ups of their administrative procedures. This has been in a bid to see to it that they derive the best out of the changes that will take place. The changes in this case have been in such things as the approach into the market. The change is also in the product lines of the organization. Others have changes their marketing approaches and the reach of the market. This is in order to get such benefits as of large-scale customers and to have global presence (BarCharts Inc2013). Through the changes, the companies believe that they will be able to get even more returns from their operations. This has been the case with some companies. The changes that they have made have made an impact to their continued growth and existence. The change is normally a gradual process. It involves the analysis of the market and checking for the efficiency and the effectiveness of the change to the company. This is where estimates of the expected revenues and expenditures are compared with the current results that are being made by the company. This also involves the checking of the impact that the change will have on the presence of the company in the global arena. This first involves consultation. This is where people and concerned parties discuss deeply how they perceive the change to influence to the company (Brown, 2014). This is where a decision is made as to whether to put in place the change or not. If they deem it to be favorable for the company, then it is put in place and the company implements it. If it’s not beneficial foe the company, then it is done away with. A good example of a company that implemented such change into their system is the Facebook Company. Company History Facebook is an online social networking platform. It has its headquarters in Menlo Park in California. The company was launched back on 4 February 2004. The founder of the company was a college student named Mark Zuckerberg. He founded the company with the aid of his roommates at Harvard University (Dwyer, 2014). During the founding of the company, it was limited to only the Harvard University students. This however changed and it expanded to the colleges that were in the Boston Area. These were the Stanford University and the Ivy League. This change in the reach helped in the increase of the customer numbers and the users. With time, it later advanced to other students and other colleges. This made it increase the number of users that used the platform. Change That Happened Since the year 2005, Facebook expanded and was used by many high school students. It was in this year that the founder of the company amid much protest and uproar from the users decided to open it to the high school students. This removed the usual trend where it was comprised of only the college students. The people who protested the change thought that it would become unpopular among the people (Harvell, 2012). This made them feel that it would stop being unique and become ordinary like the other social media networks that existed then. The main reason for the change that occurred to the company is the need for expansion. The founder saw it wise to employ the change in order to see to it that their presence is felt in the whole world. With this, he felt that the company would be able to get massive returns from the operations. The company with this would have massive resources and personnel under its service. Through this, it would attract many investors and many people who seek to use the services of the company. This is the reason underlying his implementing the changes even amid the conflicts and the resistance that was eminent from the early users (Kirkpatrick, 2010). The restrictions that earlier existed in the entry into the network were removed and others placed. This made it possible for all the people aged over 13 years to be able to open Facebook accounts. The only requirement is that they have valid email addresses. This lead to an increase in the number of Facebook users. With this, the company became popular not only to the world at large. Mark felt that there was potential for expansion and growth in the change. With this, he was more motivated than ever to go ahead with the change and reap the benefits in the end. With this, he was the man championing the change. He explained the benefits that would accrue to the company by putting in place the changes and the expansion process. With this, he was sure that this was what would place the company in the line for the success of the company. He felt that the popularity that the company had acquired in the college since its launching would be translated into the universe (Lee, 2014). This was because the company had 450 members registered with it in the first 4 hours since its introduction to the college. This motivated the implementation of the change. He saw potential in the global market if the company was introduced to it. Such an increase in the popularity would translate to great returns and value to the company. Through becoming a globally renowned social media platform, it would become highly profitable to the investors. He supported it fully and believed that the proceeds that would come from this would be great. During the year 2014, the annual revenue that was made by the company exceeded $12.46 billion. This is the first indicator of the effectiveness of the change that was made by the company in its reach. The high revenue that is being made comes mostly from advertisements that are made in the social media sites. During the same year 2014, the operating profit that is made by the Facebook Company amounted to $4.982 billion. This indicates the continued success that it has made (Mezrich, 2009). This figure cannot be compared to those that were made in the first years before the implementation of the change. It denotes the increase in the level of profitability that the company has continually made in its reign. By the year 2014, the company had total assets that amounted that exceeded $40 billion. These assets are used by the company in the materializing of its goals to results. These assets are used also in the transformation of the company into a global force to reckon with in the social media market. They have made the process of goal attainment to be a task that is achievable by the company. With the assets at the disposal of the company, it has been able to counter all the competition that exists in the market. This has made the company to be able to facilitate the process of growth and development (Sutherland, 2011). As by the same year, the equity of the company amounted to above $36 billion. These are some of the indicators of the success made by the company. This is after the implementation of the change to expand. As by the month of March 2015, the company had an employee number of more than 10,000 employees. They are the people who foster the operations of he company. This is in the attaining of the set goals and in reaching the milestones that the company intends to reach. They are the motivated group that makes it possible for the company to meet the demand that exists in the market and to best cope with the technological changes that are in the market. With this, the company has been on an ever-rising pattern and trend. The company by the year 2015, it had over 1.44 billion users. This makes it the most sought after social media platform in the world. With this, it is able to attain the benefits that accrue from the high number of users (BarCharts Inc., 2013). By setting the record for the highest ever number of users on a social media platform, it has been the most sought after advertising site in the world. This is where global companies seek to use the Facebook platform to advertise themselves to the world at large. This is because the presence is global. This is one of the highest revenue earning area of the company. This denotes the effectiveness of the change that was made to making the company to be an all user platform. The company still has many things that it needs to do in order to see to it that it attains maximum effectiveness and efficiency in its operations. The first thing is that it needs to have reached into the four corners of the world. This can be attained through merging with the patterns and the trends of the world,. The best way to do this is through having a platform that has all the languages of the world (Brown, 2014). This is different from the usual 70 languages, which it uses in its undertaking of tasks. This will make the company to meet the desires of the people who use languages other than the 70 that are used by the company. This will increase greatly the number of users to even greater and record high levels. The company has also been subject to much criticism about the privacy of the users. It needs to address the issues in order to get the best out of the change. It needs to create an assurance to the users of the maintenance of high privacy levels. This is in order to attract the high number of people who have declined to use the platform due to privacy issues. Privacy issues have been in the disclosure of personal information of people (Dwyer, 2014). A case like this was reported in 2011 where the accounts of several people in India were hacked. This was a high number as about 20000 accounts were affected (Kirkpatrick, 2010). Cases like this discourage the people from getting much confidence from the company. Addressing this would mean that the company will be able to regain the confidence from the people and from the users. According to a study in 2013, 48% of the people who were quitting Facebook out cried privacy concerns. By addressing the privacy issues, it will be able to stop the high number of people who quit. Conclusion In conclusion, changes that occur to businesses have effects to the operations. Some affect the operations positively while others affect them negatively. The case of Facebook indicates the positive effects of change of the operations of a company. The company changed from being a college platform to become a globally leading social media site. It has emerged as the most sought after social media marketing site in the world. It is also the site with the highest number of users amounting to over 1.44 billion users (Lee, 2014). This is also reflected in the levels of returns and profits that are made by the company. It has been transformed from a small player with no impact to the world to become a world leading force. This has been good for the success of the company. By rectifying on the faults that exist, the company will be able to have more profits and returns from the operations. References BarCharts Inc2013, Facebook, Quick study. Brown, T2014, Facebook safety and privacy, New York, Rosen Central. Dwyer, J2014, More awesome than money: Four boys and their quest to save your privacy from Facebook, New York, Viking. Harvell, B2012, Facebook, Hoboken, John Wiley & Sons Inc. Kirkpatrick, D2010, The Facebook effect: The inside story of the company that is connecting the world, New York: Simon & Schuster. Lee, N2014, Facebook nation, Total information awareness, New York, Springer. Mezrich, B2009, The accidental billionaires: The founding of Facebook, a tale of sex, money, genius and betrayal. New York, Doubleday. Sutherland, A2011,Facebook, London, Wayland. Read More