A Strategic Approach (Coursework Sample)

A Strategic Approach
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A Strategic Approach
Google’s mission is to make information available to users all over the world with ease. Their mission statement clearly reads "To organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful" (Google, 2010). Google’s mission statement gives us an idea of how Google intends to conduct its business. On the other hand, business strategy is the company’s main goals, objectives and the actions intended to be taken in the implementation and achievement of the objectives. The mission statement is related to the business strategy in that Google has created a search engine that enables users to obtain relevant information from the internet. This has been done on Google Maps, Google Images, Google Earth, Google book and other applications. It is through these platforms that the user is equipped with the power to get information that is considered helpful. In addition to offering of information in an organized manner, Google does not charge its customers for usage of the technologies as mentioned earlier. With such a strategy and platforms, Google not only gains popularity in the market but also gets an edge over its competitors.
Another one of its business strategy that has a correlation to the mission statement is the development of two flagship programs, AdSense, and AdWords. AdSense is a program made targeting to push advertisements on publishing partners’ Web sites meant for the specific audience and split ad revenue with the publishing partner. AdWords is meant for businesses that have an interest in advertising on any of the Google platforms where they are charged 25 cents per a thousand nominal impressions. A win-win situation is, therefore, created where Google, advertisers and publishers gain profits. This strategy assisted in making Google the most sought after the company when corporate institutions want to advertise. In making information available to all, Google has also executed their business strategy and made a lot of revenues through its flagship programs especially (Pearlson & Saunder, 2001).
Google’s information systems strategy supports its business strategy through various ways. First, one of the important notes is that the information systems is innovation in a nutshell. Google encourages innovation among its employees by giving them 20% of the time to work on their projects. Other benefits that the employees enjoy apart from freed up time to work on their projects is the availability of facilities such as washing machines, dentist on the site and free meals for the busy bunch. This strategy has produced results because half of new projects launched are attributed to the free time (Pearlson & Saunder, 2001).
The flexibility that Google gives its employees which includes, the ability to choose from several options for computer and operating systems as well as downloading of preferred software, has enhanced the innovation process. The IT department does not have tight control and regulation on the employees’ use of information technology (Underwood, 2006). For instance, the intranet is normally used by the employees to find information on any piece of work at any part of Google. This means that employees can join with colleagues and help each other in the development of similar technologies and features, speeding up the process and in turn improving the business in every sense.
However, the company is cautious to protect data from unauthorized and unauthenticated users in as much as information is openly available to employees (Pearlson & Saunder, 2001). Another way in which Google links up information systems and its business strategy is through encouraging students in coming up with applications and providing them with internship programs such as Summer of Code. New ideas stem from such platforms and also help in balancing between the apps developed by Google and those bought. Engineers work on the clock through the division of labor to different functions and balance the load server. They also secure the systems from viruses and spyware, updating the systems to help accurate and easy retrieval of information and attending to customer feedbacks (Laudon & Laudon, 2004).
In essence, an organizational strategy of a company is the design, setting up, structure and layout of the company to incorporate all the activities and decisions made to control the work processes. Marissa Meyer, who was then Google’s vice president of search products and user experience but is the current CEO at Yahoo, outlined nine notions embedded in the organizational culture and structure of Google. The notions help in motivating employees to share ideas with their colleagues as well as innovate. Also, the emphasis lies on the users and advertisers that are the biggest revenue sources for Google (Google, 2010).
The organizational structure is passed down the generations even when new employees are recruited. This is because the organizational culture or the strategy is essential to the employees’ productivity. For instance, Google does not have recruitment managers; the hiring process is also based on intelligence instead of experience as opposed to other companies. “You’re brilliant? We’re hiring” culture has enabled Google in getting outstanding people who help in propelling the company forward. These organizational strategies help in achieving job satisfaction among employees making Google one of the best companies to work for in the world (Google, 2010).
Of the three proposed generic strategies by Underwood, Google appears to be using Porter's Differentiation Strategy. According to Underwood (2006), differentiation is defined as a strategy that calls for the development of a product or service. Differentiation offers exclusive attributes that make customers trust and value their products and services in comparison to other business competitors. Differentiation strategy has to do with addressing service and performance issues and seeks to bridge the gap created. Differentiation gives a company an edge over its competitors since it refines its products or services to fit the users need and requirements. Once users identify and single out a company because of a product that is differentiated from t...