International Business of Google - Assignment Example

? Google Executive Summary: The Google Company has been significantly successful over the years leading the industry and generating huge profits. Thedifferent business analytical tools determine the different factors that might affect the company and hence allow the management of the company to decide on appropriate measures. The report focuses on the internal and external factors of the Google Company and makes a detailed analysis to come to a general conclusion and recommended suggestions to facilitate the company in its further improvements. Introduction: The Google Company was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in the year 1998 after they had sanctified their previous work on the search engine BackRub that was created by them to realize the significance of different sites and pages over the internet. Since its formation, the primary goal of the company has been to put information across the globe in an order and make them available to the population of the world at large. With its mission, the company has been highly successfully providing the world with several products and services including web products (Google, n.d.). The current research focuses on the growth and development of the Google Company and the various changes, challenges and opportunities encountered by the company over the years. The impact of such changes would also be learnt in the process and using the business analytics tools like the SWOT analysis, BCG growth matrix, Porter’s five forces model, Nine forces model, customer segmentation, and win/loss analysis, a detailed analysis of the company in regard to the industry has been conducted followed by suggested recommendations for further improvement of the company’s prospects. Analysis: Industry: The analysis of Google Company with respect to the industry in which it is playing can be analyzed with the use of Porter’s Five Forces Model, the five forces being the rivalry, the threat of substitutes, buyer power, supplier power, and barriers to entry. When the Google Company was founded, the company had its rivals in the industry that included companies like the Yahoo, Excite or Altavista. However the company in spite of competitions can be observed to move successfully in its path of business and outperformed all other companies maturely to maintain its position at the top. The company obtains huge income from their ad systems and the bargaining power of the suppliers can be expected to be low if the company can sustain it dominance over the market with respect to its products and services. Google has supremacy on around 60 percent of the information searches conducted over the internet. This provides the company with a competitive advantage over its competitors like the Yahoo and the Microsoft. The buyers of the company too do not have a controlling power over the company since the different accounts of the company depending on the earnings of the company do not have a contribution to the total revenue of the company. Also, not more than 5 percent of the revenue is generated from the networking sites of the company. Since Google provides its customers with informed as well as sorted data in the present business world when large population are dependent on the internet exploration, other companies have not been found to be as effective as Google in providing such facilities, thus lessening the threats of substitutes (Morrow, 2008). The Google Company can thus be observed to maintain its position its position in the industry efficiently in regard to all the five forces that Porter had mentioned to be focused for the success of the company. Organization: The Organization of the company may be analyzed through a SWOT analysis and the use of BCG Matrix. The strengths of the company lie in its effective team of management that guides the company through all the decision making of the company’s actions. Moreover the company tries different measures that are followed across the world to determine its planning and procedure. The company is dominant in providing its customers with excellent products thus attracting more customers (Aswathappa, 2010, p.294). The company also has certain weaknesses that include its dependence on search based advertising, less integration of its products and services, and the data centre costs being rising significantly impacting the company among other weaknesses (Google SWOT Analysis, 2009). The opportunities for the company can be seen in the context of the rising computer literacy in all countries. Telecommunication and home businesses are also increasing. The growing demand for technology has increased with declining cots of technology. The potential for their global market can be an added advantage for the company (Business & Company Resource Center Curriculum Support Demonstration, 2006). One of the internal threats that the company faces is the threat of the organization itself getting distracted (Lashinsky, 2008). Some other threats that the company encounters are the competition and rivalry from other companies in the industry, dependence of portals whose contracts if terminated would hamper the company’s operations, absence of ling term barriers to entry, and several other threats (Google Inc.: SWOT analysis, 2008). Based on the market growth rate and the relative market share of the company that helps to determine the position of a company in the BCG matrix model, it can be analyzed that the Google company reflecting increasing market growth rate (Quinn, 2008) and declining relative market share in the industry (Womack, 2011), the company can be positioned in the problem child division of the matrix (Berkowitz, 2010, p. 63). The lowering of market share has been found in the recent years owing to the increasing competitions among different countries. Customer Geographically the customer segmentation for the country is primarily based on the widely spread users of the internet. Demographically the services of Google are made available across the globe where 55 percent of the users are male, rest being females and these users are highly educated and computer oriented as well. Also the psychological aspect of segmentation is considered by the company and hence people who are intelligent and educated, and are in search for huge amount of information are targeted. The young population, the students as well as working individuals are in need for the products and services offered by the company (Customer Profile for Google Inc., 2010, pp.1-4). Also, the company focuses on providing its customers with the needs support such that they may be satisfies and hence more attracted to the company’s services (Krazit, 2009). Competitors Some of the important competitors of the Google Company include Yahoo Inc, MSN, AOL Inc, Disney Online among others. Yahoo Inc is known to be one of the most popular service providers and has an advantage in its providing solutions for end-to-end internet marketing benefitting both sellers and buyers (Yahoo Inc., 2005, p.3). MSN having an awful interface to be used makes use of it in the enhancement of their trafficking system that proves to be an advantage for the company (Using the horrible MSN interface to your advantage, 2008). AOL Inc is distinct in its dedication towards diversity and inclusion that provides the company with an advantage and increasing profits (Our diverse backgrounds, experiences, perspectives and thought processes make AOL unique, 2011). Thus it can be realized that competitor companies are prevalent in the market with their individual competitive advantages, hence showing a path of awareness for the Google Company for future prospective. More and more companies are entering the market and the company not having a proper barrier for the entry of other companies might face the greater levels of competition from such companies. Recommendation: From the findings and the study as mentioned in the above sections, it can be understood that the Google Company has efficiently positioned its products and services in the minds of the customers. However, with the rise in the global competition, and with different companies in the same industry taking measures to improve and attract more customers, certain recommendations may be suggested to the company such that the company is able to sustain its position in the industry. The most important factor that the company needs to focus on is the continuous improvement and development of its functions that would to higher revenue generations for the company. The company’s current research and development policies can be decided to be enhanced. The market competitions need to be realized and accordingly the company would be required to bring out more innovative products and services that satisfy the demands of the customers. The position of the company needs to be well revised and the lowering of market share in the industry in the light of other companies need to be focused. The position needs to be upgraded to the higher level where the BCG matrix might be able to place the company in the star category. The changes in the competitive business world and the challenges there from have to be realized by the company’s management to settle on the technology, innovation, and further measures of improvement that would help the company to lead at the top. The entire team should work together in achieving their goals. The customer segment needs to be selected and targeted based on the customers’ need and dependency on the use of the web technology. The business analytical tools need to be regularly analyzed by the company to learn about the changes occurring in their internal and external surroundings and hence take measures accordingly towards their improved performance. The opportunities present for the company should be utilized keeping in mind the ethical concerns as well. To recommend on an overall basis, the company needs to completely focus on its internal and external factors that may change with changes occurring in the industry and should be prepared with means to perform in different situations accordingly intending to lead the company within the industry. Conclusion: The Google Company has proved its excellence over the years and significantly positioned itself in the minds of its users. The business analytical tools used in the study have clearly reflected the fact that the company with respect to its internal and external factors has been successfully able to satisfy the requirements of both the company as well as the buyers and suppliers of the company and hence increased the strengths of the company. Although certain weaknesses and threats are encountered by the company, yet the strengths and the opportunities of the company portray a fine picture of the company in terms of its performances and generation of revenues satisfying the customers. However, one factor of concern for the company remains in the light of other companies entering the market and trying to take up the top positions in the industry. Google should thus need to determine the factors that might affect the company’s growth and development and hence the management of the company should enhance taking up measures that would guide the company and facilitate it to sustain it successful implementation of different management measures that might positively contribute in the company’s success and hence attract more customers and leading the industry with high profits. References 1) Aswathappa, K. (2010), International Business 4E, India: Tata McGraw-Hill Education 2) Berkowitz, E.N. (2010), Essentials of Health Care Marketing, Massachusetts: Jones & Bartlett Learning 3) Business & Company Resource Center Curriculum Support Demonstration (2006). Gale, available at: http://www.gale.cengage.com/BusinessRC/strategy331-google.pdf (accessed on October 17, 2011) 4) Customer Profile for Google Inc. (2010), Slideshare, available at: http://www.slideshare.net/abail019/customer-profile-for-google-inc (accessed on October 17, 2011) 5) Google (n.d.). Google, available at: http://www.google.com/about/corporate/company/ (accessed on October 17, 2011) 6) Google Inc.: SWOT analysis (2008), Sooper Tutorials, available at: http://www.soopertutorials.com/business/strategic-management/1369-google-swot-analysis.html (accessed on October 17, 2011) 7) Google SWOT Analysis (2009), MBA-Tutorials, available at: http://www.mba-tutorials.com/marketing/292-google-swot-analysis.html (accessed on October, 17, 2011) 8) Krazit, T. (2009), Google tries its own take on customer service, CNN Tech, available at: http://articles.cnn.com/2009-11-05/tech/cnet.google.customer.service_1_google-checkout-google-ceo-eric-schmidt-google-representative?_s=PM:TECH (accessed on October 17, 2011) 9) Lashinsky, Adam. (2008), Google’s biggest threat? Itself, CNN Money, available at: http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/13/technology/lashinsky_schmidt.fortune/index.htm (accessed on October 17, 2011) 10) Morrow, B. (2008). External Analysis of Google Inc., Ben Morrow, available at: http://www.benmorrow.info/research/external-analysis-of-google-inc/ (accessed on October 17, 2011) 11) Our diverse backgrounds, experiences, perspectives and thought processes make AOL unique (2011), AOL, available at: http://corp.aol.com/our-values/diversity-inclusion (accessed on October 17, 2011) 12) Quinn, J. (2008), Google beats market expectations with soaring growth rate, Telegraph, available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/2788461/Google-beats-market-expectations-with-soaring-growth-rate.html (accessed on October 17, 2011) 13) Using the horrible MSN interface to your advantage (2008), cdfneetworks, available at: http://www.cdfnetworks.com/using-the-horrible-msn-interface-to-your-advantage/ (accessed on October 17, 2011) 14) Womack, B. (2011), Google Market Share Slips as Yahoo, Microsoft Make Gains, ComScore Reports, Bloonberg, available at: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-12/google-market-share-slips-as-yahoo-microsoft-make-gains-comscore-reports.html (accessed on October 17, 2011) 15) Yahoo Inc. (2005), Annual reports, available at: http://www.annualreports.com/HostedData/AnnualReports/PDFArchive/yhoo2004.pdf (accessed on October 17, 2011) Read More