google

1Running head: Google


Overview

Purpose

The purpose of this case study is to examine the factors for organizing Google’s

innovations and to gain competitive advantage over the markets.

Google was started as a research project by two students of Stanford PhD. named Sergey

Brin and Larry Page. Google has successful established its brand name in the powerful internet

search engine. The company went publicly in 2004, raising about 1.6 billion IPOs. And by the

end of 2004, the company had covered almost 75% of the U.S. market. There are several factors

which led to its success and to gain competitive advantage over the market. The search engine,

applications, web components Google makes are all free and paid for through advertisements on

Google (Saran, 2008). Google had sound competitive advantage in the form of PageRank

algorithm that efficiently delivers highly relevant searches to users (marketing news, 2007).

Google focuses on developing its strategies and licensing its search technologies to other parties.

Furthermore, according to Schmidt innovations are driven by people or in teams having

innovative way of thinking with no control or pressure. Google employees are encouraged to try

out their personal ideas (Saran, 2008). Employee’s work at Google is divided as, their 20%of

time should be spend on innovative projects of their choice, 70% on the core business and the

rest 20% on different projects. Google products and features like Gmail AdSence are the

outcome from the 20% time invested by Google engineers. This is how Google organizes for

innovations. Therefore, staying true to its competitive advantage and focusing on its search

services, Google grew quickly.


Technologies and Innovations

Google’s technology has emerged from a series of continuous improvements. Google’s

technological advantage comes from Google’s incremental innovations and clear adaptation of

research computing concepts. The heart of Google's search technology is PigeonRank, a system

for ranking web pages developed by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Google’s

mission is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accepted”. This led the

company’s core business: “search” and became the leader in internet search. Today, the company

leverage its core search and advertising capabilities into blogging, online payments, social

networks, and information-driven businesses (Schilling, 2010).

Core business, competencies, capabilities

The core business of Google is its powerful ‘search’ engine. Google is the leader in the

internet search (Sinker, 2007). Visiting www.google.com, one can find information in many

different languages, find images, videos, maps, and check stock quotes and many more. Now,

Google Goggles is the new way to search the web without typing and just by using the images.

Android users can also use this application to find information about books, artworks, etc. by

taking pictures (Hernandez, 2009). Google has focused on achieving a leadership on two distinct

services: the search engine and the advertisements services on the web (Sugano, joel; Goncalves,

Jardel; and Figueira, Mariane, 2009).

Google's core competency is based on the technology used in the search service, which is

capable of building and organizing a database that makes it possible for the Internet user to find

practically any piece of information he may be looking for. Secondly, direct advertising and


portable applications core competencies distinguishes Google competitively and making it

distinctive.

Evidence of strategic vision and implementation

Google’s leaders know the measures that are used to gauge some important components of

Google’s performance such as customer satisfaction, technologies change over time, and user

friendliness. Google founder Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded the perfect search engine

which enabled users to find information over the simple user interface. In 2000. Google

introduced new service named, AdWords. AdWords sells targeted keywords to advertisers

(Google pedia, 2007). In 2003, Google launched AdSense, the flip side of AdWords. The

AdSense program puts ads on non-Google website.

Google continues its innovations and technologies in mobile industry also. For many,

mobile is now becoming the foremost means of accessing web. Google’s goal is to build mobile

applications like Google maps, Gmail that will work across multiple devices and locations. Then

in 2008, Google introduced the modern browser named Google Chrome designed to handle to

handle today’s complex dynamic web. Google’s innovations are possible only due to its

strategies of unique culture and policies to promote innovations (Hummer, Jones, Wilde, Ellison,

2006).

Role of technology and innovation in the organization

Google’s success is due to its innovative approach and outstanding technology. Larry Brin and

Sergey Brin developed the perfect search engine which enabled users to quickly find any

information through simple user interface. Google had sound competitive advantage in the form

of PageRank algorithm that can efficiently index web pages and delivers highly relevant searches


to users. When a user enters its query in Google search, it is sent to Google machine which is

then compared with the documents stored in Google’s index to identify the most relevant

matches. The other key elements of Google search are relevancy and comprehensive. According

to Larry, Google use more than 200 signals including PageRank and update these algorithms

weekly. Google offer personalized services based on user’s web history and location. Moreover,

in 2007, Google introduces universal search making their search more comprehensive by

integrating images, videos, books, news etc.

Additionally, in terms of technology, Google has the hardware and software engineering

expertise to build applications rapidly, perform computationally-intensive applications quickly,

and deliver high-reliability services from low-cost, commodity hardware. Google AdWords

allows web advertisers to display their Ads on Google’s search result and on Adsense website

owner can display their ads on their own website and can earn money every time when there is a

click on their Ads. Therefore, Google are innovating technologies and matching its technologies

to the market demonstrating its ability to make value to its customers and investors which is a

key process for successful emerging technologies.

Furthermore, Google innovations continue with the Google phone named Android. The

Android phone users can get benefits from the new services launched recently by Google.

(Hernandez, 2009), Google Google’s is the new for searching the web using images instead of

typing or dictating. Mobile users with an Android version 1.6 or above can use this application to

find out information about books, artwork and landmarks simply by taking a picture. In addition,

it allows users to scan a business card, save the information and later contact the person directly

without having to type a thing. Thus, whether to call Google engineering company, an


information company, or simply a money-making machine, Google prides itself on innovation

and drive.

Google's web search service forms its major factor of success. As of December, 2006,

Google is the most used search engine on the web with a 50.8% market share. Furthermore, most

of Google's revenue comes from selling advertising links (Google pedia, 2007). Google

‘AdWords’ allows Web advertisers to display advertisements in Google's search results and the

Google Content Network, through either a cost-per-click or cost-per-view scheme. ‘Google

AdSense’ website owners can also display adverts on their own site, and earn money every time

ads are clicked. Therefore, Google innovations continue making their customers satisfied by

bringing new innovative products.

Importance of innovation and creativity

Innovation and creation play a powerful role in creating successful products. According

to Eric Schmidt “Innovations always has been driven by a person or a small team that has the

luxury of thinking of a new idea and pursuing it”. For Google innovations and creativity is

always being an important part for its success. All the employees at Google always spend their

twenty percent of time on innovative projects of their own choice no matter how far from the

company’s central mission. This helps to develop new product ideas. Gmail and AdSense are the

results from the 20 percent time spend by the Google employees on new ideas. Therefore,

Google has managed its organizational culture pretty well which helps in producing innovative

and creative ideas.

Conclusion and Recommendation


To conclude, Google has won most of the internet customers with its powerful search by

concentrating on its strategies and technologies. By developing various innovative products

Google has gained and nurtured evolutionary innovation model. The success behind innovating

various products are not only the creativity of Google but also the rigor and discipline behind

their approach.

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