Au Yong Jhee Yen                                     UKTB- 00047/0415 Joseph Benedict Lopez                               UKTB- 00049/0415 Muhammad Haiqal bin Mohd Fadzil         UKTB- 00045/0415 Suganti a/p Gurunathan                              UKTB- 00044/0415 Umiema Elzaki Eissa Elzaki                      UKTB- 00051/0615  Executive Summary The objective of this report is to describe our study of the organization Google Inc. and analyze its results. It concentrates mainly on the web industry. The study incudes a detailed description of the companies mission and vision, the organizational structure, its organizational culture as well as the financial position and probability of the company. The study displays the power Google Inc. has in the market and what makes them successful. Methods of analysis include PEST Analysis (Political Economical Social Technological), SWOT Analysis (Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats), Trend Analysis / Sigma Six, Porters 5 Forces, The Six Goleman’s and leadership styles. Results of data analysis show that most ratios are slightly below compared to the past years data analysis but are still in a good position. Performance is very good in the areas of profit margin, liquidity, credit control and balance sheet. Its major weakness is its competition as they are becoming more powerful. The report finds that the prospects of the company in the current position are positive. The major strength is the web search but it is risky to continue to rely on web search for revenue. The results of this study show Google Inc. to be a strong stable company. It has unique organizational structure and organizational culture. Recommendations discussed include, improving and enhancing customer experience, Investigate concerns in relation to sales of users’ information to third parties and Broadening its driverless technology to reach the rest of the world.  Table of Content Introduction 2.0 Vision and Mission Statement 2.1 Google’s Vision Statement 2.2 Google’s Mission Statement 3.0  Macroenvironmental Factors 3.1 PEST analysis 3.1.1 Political Forces 3.1.2      Economic Forces 3.1.3      Social Forces 3.1.4      Technological Factors 3.2     Google’s Porter’s 5 Forces 3.2.1 Bargaining Power of Supplier 3.2.2 Bargaining Power of Buyer 3.2.3 Competitive Rivalry 3.2.4 Threat of Substitutes 3.2.5 Threat of New Entrant 4.0 Trend analysis 4.1 Comparison to the Industry 4.1.1 Expansion and New Technology 4.1.2 Achievements 4.1.3 Criticism       4.2 Efficiency and Profitability         4.2.1 Analyzing Google’s Balance sheet 5.0 Structure 5.1 Google structure 5.1.1 Function-based definition 5.1.2 Product-based definition 5.1.3 Flatness      5.2 Board of Directors         5.2.1 Larry Page         5.2.2 Sergey Brin         5.2.3 Eric E. Schmidt         5.2.4 Other Directors     5.3 Organizational Culture         5.3.1 Google Organizational Culture 5.3.1.1 Openness                     5.3.1.2 Innovative 5.3.1.3 Smart with emphasis on excellence 5.3.1.4 Hands-on 5.3.1.5 Supports small-company-family Rapport         5.3.2 the 70/20/10 Rule     5.4 Leadership         5.4.1 The Six Goleman’s Leadership Style                     5.4.1.1  Visionary                     5.4.1.2 Coaching                     5.4.1.3 Affiliative                     5.4.1.4 Democratic                     5.4.1.5 Pacesetting                     5.4.1.6 Commanding         5.4.2 Laissez Faire    5.5 Competition         5.5.1 Four Segments of Google                     5.5.1.1 In the Google Website Segment                     5.5.1.2 The Adsense Google Network                     5.5.1.3 In the total Advertising revenue segment                 5.5.1.4 In the other revenues segment 6.0  SWOT analysis 6.1  Google’s SWOT analysis 6.1.1 Strength 6.1.2 Weaknesses 6.1.3 Oppurtunities 6.1.4 Threats         6.2 Problems         6.3 Current Strategies 7.0 Conclusion and Recommendation 8.0 Appendix 9.0 Plagarism Report  1.0 Introduction Google Inc. is known primarily as an Internet search engine. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, CEO and co-founder of Google respectively met during a campus tour at Stanford University in 1995. These PhD computer science candidates started working on ways to obtain relevant information from a massive set of data. This led to the production of BackRub. In 1997, they renamed Backrub into Google. “Google” the name, was inspired by a mathematical term, “googol”- number 1 followed by 100 zeros. The name is a form of modification of the mathematical term, which links to their mission statement. In September 1998, Andy Bechtolsheim, co-founder of Sun Microsystems wrote a cheque worth $100,000 to Larry and Sergey to start up the company and they began their work in a garage. The following year in February, they moved their office out to University Avenue in Palo Alto as the number of queries and employees started to grow. Google relied on users to help with their marketing because they believed that if they built a good product, the company would grow out of word of mouth. That was their primary form of advertising. Investing in R&D tracks Google’s success as they are constantly innovating and venturing into new products and services. Google wasn’t motivated my money but they just wanted to be the best at what they did. They wanted to be on par with Yahoo, Amazon and AOL and wanted to be number one in the market share of search.  2.0 Vision and Mission statements “ It is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life. And it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without work” - Jim Collins.         It has been said that when people have made a difference in the world, their work lives are enhanced greatly. In an organization, when an employee has a sense of meaning in their work, it does not only benefit them but also the organization as it creates a well functioning and a competitive organization. 2.1 Google’s vision statement Google’s vision statement is “to provide access to the world’s information in one click”. It is evident that their vision statement is what their company is all about. For instance, the Google search engine is their most successful product thus making information around the world, easily accessible as visioned by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Three key elements to Google’s vision statement, namely, ‘world’s information’, ‘accessibility’ and ‘one click’. Google fulfils the ‘world’s information’ factor by using web crawlers to discover web pages- Googlebot. Google gathers the required pages during the crawl process and creates an index so that we are aware of what we are looking for which makes the process faster. Next, ‘accessibility’. This is by making its search engine services accessible to everyone around the world. Lastly, ‘one click’. This component describes its easy accessibility to information. 2.2 Google’s mission statement “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” is Google’s mission statement. Google has been constantly growing. Since the beginning, Google’s main focus has been its link based ranking algorithm that produces much more relevant and higher quality search results compared to other search engines. Google’s mission statement also has variables, namely, ‘world’s information’, ‘organization’, ‘universal accessibility’ and ‘usefulness’. How Google fulfills the ‘world’s information’ in the mission statemnet, is by using the web crawlers. The second factor would be ‘organization’. Google organizes its company through its trademarked algorithms. Moving on, ‘universal accessibility’. This is fulfilled by allowing people around the globe to use its services. Finally, ‘usefulness’. This on the other hand is fulfilled by making their search results useful. For an example, each search entry includes a title, a URL, a brief text on that page that helps users to decide if that specific page is exactly what they are looking for.  3.0  Macroenvironmental Factors 3.1 PEST ANALYSIS 3.1.1 Political Forces Political forces has played a big role in the works of Google as a multinational company. In the United States companies like Google hold great political strength and are active donors to the country's Democratic political party. Things are quite different in the international scene where Google does not possess a great relationship with China due to the amount of censorship and restriction to access of information the country has towards her citizens. For this very reason, Chinese Government launched a surveillance system called Golden Shield for monitoring civilian use of Internet. Few Silicon Valley companies have ever embraced a political party as enthusiastic as Google has. Its former CEO, Eric Schmidt, has been touted as a "kind of guru" to President Obama's campaign manager, and Google employees emerged as the No. 2 donor to the Democratic National Committee in the last election.(CNET, 2012) 3.1.2 Economic Forces Despite the 2008 financial crisis that plagued the world and America most notably, Google has not been significantly impacted.This is due to the nature of services that it provides which in turn are advertising funded. The free provision of the internet services have led to an increase in its popularity. GDP increases in developing countries can lead to positive outcomes from google. Stable and continual growth leads to both internal and external investment into companies. Therefore users search more and more advertisements are put on Google's search engines. When interest rates increases gradually and countries have moderately high inflation rates, Google benefits as online advertisement costs will increase. This in turn increases number of clicks per ad and greater profits. 3.1.3 Social Forces The services Google offers is boundaryless. Its geographical strength encompasses as many as 115 countries. Some of the criticism levelled on Google is for its sale of information of its customers to advertising firms. Special interest groups in America are deeply upset with this development which infringes on personal privacy of netizens. There is also criticism that personal private information of customers are shared with government departments such as the National Security Agency (NSA). These actions by google have disillusioned some ardent customers. In fact it was revealed by Julian Assange, co-founder of the website Wikileaks that “Google and other US tech companies received millions of dollars from the NSA for their compliance with the PRISM mass surveillance system” (Assange, 2015) 3.1.4 Technological Factors Technological forces have impacted Google in primarily positive ways. Technology has changed the way people communicate and acquire information.For example, take their primary website www.google.com. They have an assortment of useful features and tools that customers use for free. These are GMail, Google Drive, Google Earth, Google Maps, Picasa , YouTube and many others. Outside its main income generator which is Google browser, google has produces a driverless car which can navigate unmanned. It also has an applications database for its mobile devices. 3.2 Google's Porter's 5 Forces 3.2.1 Bargaining Power of Supplier - Low - Google's strong market dominance means supplier power is low. - Number of suppliers in each respective sectors are great. - Clients of Google are both the advertiser and receiver. - Developers of Android applications want to maintain a good relationship with Google leaving them with somewhat little bargaining power. (Spence, 2015) 3.2.2 Bargaining Power of Buyer - Strong - Bargaining power is high as their nearest competitors still maintain a considerable market share. - Many competitors that offer alternative services to that of Google's. - Buyers could potentially decide prices if they should collectively decide that prices are just too high. - There is little opportunity cost to customers to switch search engines as most search engine offerings are free services. Because of this, the price elasticity is very high for the industry as a whole. 3.2.3 Competitive Rivalry - Moderate - The android operating system is the most widely used mobile phone OS. Its closest competitor is Apple's mobile phone operating system, IOS which is exclusive to apple products. - In the search engine game, google still has a number of competitors, (the two biggest being Yahoo and MSN) However its free-to-use added features like Google Earth, Google Maps, Google Drive and many others virtually leave competitors playing catch up. - Its introduction of the android platform operating system meant that it gained a new set of competition, most noticeably in the form of Apple's iPhone which to date still maintains a grip on the industry at large. 3.2.4 Threat of Substitutes - Low - Few substitutes provide the right results that Google does. This is because of their unique algorithm that provides the right content users are looking for. Google analyses trends, habits and page visits to gauge its performance and customize the search results.(DeMers, 2015) - At this present moment there is no foreseeable worthy substitute to the google search engine, its closest would mean a step backwards. 3.2.5 Threat of New Entrant - Low - Google has low risk of new entry because of very high barriers to entry. The ecommerce industry is highly complex and requires a vast number of skilled labour where creativity and innovation are key. - The Google Marketplace and the Apple Store are the two biggest databases of mobile phone applications - The impact of this barrier can be mitigated if new entrants bases its value proposal.  4.0 Trend Analysis Based on Return on Assets (ROA) comparison, Google had lower returns in 2005 and 2006 but the returns were much higher during 2007, 2008, and 2009 compared to industry returns. Additionally, Return on Equity (ROE) weighed against the industry showed higher percentage return than the industry returns in all five years. Similarly, the industry's overall Operating Margin continued to slide while Google's Operating Margin either remained stable or increased during the past five years. Based on this analysis, Google had better profitability than the overall industry in all of the five years. The industry's Current Ratio declined 12% from 2005 to 2008 but came back higher in 2009 than other years, whereas Google's Current Ratio decreased 30% from 2005 to 2008, and although it increased in 2009, it was still below the 2005 numbers. Despite this fact, Google's Current Ratio was always above the industry's Current Ratio indicating company's greater ability to service its short term debt. Similarly, the industry's Quick ratio slightly declined 20% from years 2005 to 2007 but recovered higher in years 2008 and 2009 whereas Google's Quick ratio decreased 32% from years 2005 to 2008, and even though it increased in the year 2009, it was still below the 2005 number. From the Inventory perspective, Google's Inventory turnover was zero while the industry's inventory turnover decreased on the average of 58% during the five year period. (4-traders.com, 2015) With this information, we concluded that Google's liquidity was higher in all of the five years compared to the liquidity of the industry. Further, Asset Turnover (which is inversely related to the Profit Margin) was comparatively lower for Google than the industry's Asset Turnover and hence Google's profit margin is higher than the industry's profit margin. Google's operations are financed with more equity than debt in all of the five years. The industry's debt to asset ratio shows an increasing trend meaning that the industry is using more and more leverage when financing assets. Google's Debt to Asset ratio averaged 9.75% in past five years compared to Industry which averaged 59% during those years.(4-traders.com, 2015) This indicated that there is little inherent financial risk to Google due to its conservative capital structure and non-reliance on leverage. While Google still shows signs of substantial growth, it is already in the maturity stage as we can perceive from its sole use of equity financing. 4.1 COMPARISON TO THE INDUSTRY How do these services stack up against each other ? 4.1.1 Expansion and New Technology Google Google has outwitted its competitors by delivering solid search results and cool tools such as Street Views. Google is well-known for its web search service. As of August 2007, Google was the most used search engine on the web with a 53.6% market share, ahead of Yahoo! (19.9%) and Live Search (12.9%).(Archive.fortune.com, 2015) Google has also employed the Web Search technology into other search services, including Image Search, Google News, the price comparison site Google Product Search, the interactive Usenet archive Google Groups, Google Maps. (Topics.nytimes.com, 2015) Moreover, Google released various other services, such as email service popularly known as Gmail which was the result of 6 years of extensive research, the social networking site popularly known as Orkut; video sharing service such as Google video and later it also acquired You Tube for the same. (Forbes.com, 2015) From this video sharing a new form of entertainment has emerged, MACHINIMA. Google also have their advertisement program in Gmail, where in if the user is getting a mail from a particular company, he/she can see the related articles or news in the right hand side of the mail window. Google also introduced Google Earth, for which they acquired a Satellite. Through Google Earth, any user can visit any place in earth virtually, and can locate his/her home, office etc. In October 2007, Google SMS service was launched in India allowing users to get business listings, movie times and information by sending an SMS. In the future, Google plans to release a Google phone to compete with Apple’s iPhone, which is known as project Android. Google is also developing various other services, which are in Beta phase, such as Google Scholar; Google Spreadsheet program, through which users can download the word document and view it online. So it doesn’t require any other Office suite preinstalled in users system. Yahoo Yahoo has various other services besides the original search engine and Email; Yahoo News, Yahoo Mobile, Yahoo Messenger; Yahoo Music, Yahoo Finance etc. It also offers social networking services and user-generated content in products such as My Web, Yahoo! Personals, Yahoo! 360°, and Flickr. (Archive.fortune.com, 2015) Next, Yahoo has also signed partnership deals with different broadband providers such as AT&T, Verizon Communications, Rogers Communications and British Telecom, offering a range of free and premium Yahoo content and services to subscribers. (Forbes.com, 2015) Yahoo also introduced its Internet search system, oneSearch, developed for mobile phones on March 20, 2007. OneSearch is different from Web searches, as Yahoo's new service presents a list of actual information, which includes: news headlines, images from Yahoo's Flickr photos site, business listings, local weather and links to other sites. (Topics.nytimes.com, 2015). Yahoo also localises its websites by region. For example, its web address in India is in.yahoo.com, whilst in the UK it is uk.yahoo.com. (Forbes.com, 2015) Through these localized Yahoo websites, the users from different countries can get to know about their local news, weather, entertainment etc. Yahoo's localised websites in countries where English is not the primary language are available in those countries' native languages instead. For example Yahoo Japan, www.yahoo.co.jp, is in Japanese, unlike Yahoo's Indian and British versions which are primarily in English. 4.1.2 Achievements Google ·         Release of Gmail, with 1 GB of free storage, on 1 April 2004. ·         Launch of the social networking site, Orkut.Launch of video sharing site, you tube. ·         For Google, one of the main achievements is its innovation and work culture. Google has been voted by the Fortune magazine as the No. 1(Forbes.com, 2015) ·         Company to work in. The corporate philosophy includes statements such as "Don't be evil" and "Work should be challenging and the challenge should be fun". ·         In 2004, Google.org, a nonprofit philanthropic wing of Google, with a start-up fund of $1 billion was set up. The mission was to create awareness about climate change, global public health, and global poverty. Yahoo ·         Yahoo Mail Plus (this is a premium service) accounts with capacity of 2 GB. Later, in 2007, Yahoo took out the storage meters and made the storage limit unlimited. Yahoo has upgraded its mail service by providing various tools and add-ons, such as creating avatar, changing the color of mail window. (Topics.nytimes.com, 2015) ·         Yahoo is regarded as the most visited websites on the internet by Web traffic analysis companies Comscore, Alexa Internet and Netcraft, with more than 130 million unique users. The global network of Yahoo! websites received 3.4 billion page views per day on average as of October 2007, making it one of the most visited U.S. websites. (Forbes.com, 2015) 4.1.3 Criticism Google has been criticized for many of its new services. For example, Google Book Search's effort to digitize millions of books and make the full text searchable has led to copyright disputes with the Authors Guild. Geographic details provided by Google Earth's satellite imaging have resulted in disputes with governments, who assert that terrorists can get the full details of landmarks and their surrounding areas. Google's persistent cookie and other information collection practices have led to concerns over user privacy. Also laws Google has problems with the Chinese government and their law as filter search results have not been in accordance to their regional laws and regulations. (MacMillan, 2009) Yahoo has received criticism for funding spy and advertisement technologies. In this case, advertising from Yahoo's clients appears on-screen in pop-ups and through these users may sometimes accidentally install ad ware or spyware on their computer. This feature has received stern criticism from the media, and internet users, due to media scrutiny relating to paedophiles utilising the internet as a means to collect child pornography, and a lack of significant ad revenues, and later it was closed down on June 2005.On May 2006, Yahoo's image search received criticism from socially conservative sources regarding sexually explicit images being visible even when SafeSearch was on. Yahoo's website in China, cn.yahoo.com, has, as of 8 November 2013, ceased operations. (MacMillan, 2009) 4.2 Efficiency and Profitability 4.2.1 Analyzing Google's Balance Sheet Balance sheets speak volumes, telling investors about the health of a company and how efficiently management runs the business. Moreover, they provide the necessary inputs used to calculate certain line items on the income statement. For instance, calculating cost of goods sold requires the level of inventory (raw materials, work in progress), which is found under “assets” on the balance sheet. In combination with the income statement, the balance sheet can also provide insights into the returns the company produces. The simplest way to make sense of a balance sheet is to calculate and analyze financial ratios. Efficiency Ratios These ratios indicate how well a company uses its assets and liabilities, such as how long it takes to receive payments from customers, how long it takes the company to pay its bills, and how well it converts its fixed assets into sales revenue. Google’s efficiency ratios are as follows: 2014 2013 Efficiency Ratios Receivable Turnover 6.86 7.09 Fixed Asset Turnover 3.27 4.22 Sales to Net Working Capital 7.73 9.16 AP to Sales 0.03 0.04 Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) 56.73 54.80 Days Payables Outstanding (DPO) 24.37 40.71 Intangibles % of BV 0.04 0.07 (Investor.google.com, 2015) Interpretation: The higher the receivable and fixed asset turnover ratios, the better. Google is turning its receivables into cash. In 2014, the company collected its receivables almost seven times per year, slightly slower than the prior year, but still at a good pace. A higher fixed asset ratio is also preferable. It indicates Google is generating $3.27 in sales for every $1 invested in fixed assets. This ratio has also slightly decreased from 2013. Likewise, sales to net working capital also declined from 2013. In 2014, Google generated $7.73 for every $1 invested in working capital. Conversely, lower accounts payable (AP) to sales, days sales outstanding (DSO), and days payable outstanding (DPO) indicate higher efficiency. While DSO were slightly worse in 2014, DPOs were greatly improved from 2013, which is a higher quality metric indicating that the company is paying its bills. Sometimes companies will increase "cash" by increasing payables, making assets look artificially higher. Intangibles are less than a percent of Google's book value. This calculation excludes goodwill which cannot be sold, but includes Google’s technology patents which are a critical component of its operating business. Overall efficiency is slightly lower than 2013 but still strong. (Investor.google.com, 2015) Strength and Profitability Ratios Solvency or leverage ratios are important measures of the level of assets generated internally (equity) versus provided by others in the form of debt. Also, profitability or management strength is measured by return on equity or asset ratios. Key ratios for Google are: 2014 2013 Strength Ratios Debt-to-Equity 5.0% 6.0% Deb-to-Assets 4.0% 4.7% Profitability Ratios Return on Equity 15% 14% Return on Assets 12% 14% (Investor.google.com, 2015) Interpretation: The lower the debt-to-equity or assets, the better. These ratios indicate Google uses a lower proportion of debt than equity or assets to finance its assets, and the trend here is favorable (better in 2014 than 2013). Profitability ratios are used to measure the management strength or how well the company can generate a profit from the equity or assets employed. The higher the return, the more preferable. Return on equity (ROE) was marginally more favorable in 2014 for Google, while the return on assets (ROA) was slightly less. Overall, balance sheet and management strength improved in 2014. (Investor.google.com, 2015) Balance Sheet-Based Valuation Deciding whether to buy or sell shares of GOOG is also influenced by its valuation. Common valuation multiples include price to earnings (P/E) or enterprise value to EBITDA (EV/EBITDA)-inputs that come from the income statement. (Investor.google.com, 2015) The balance sheet also adds insights into the attractiveness of a stock, particularly based on cash and book value and how it changes over time. 2014 2013 Valuation cash/share 93.72 86.65 BV /share 152.10 128.85 (Investor.google.com, 2015) Interpretation: Cash value per share in essence tells the investor that even without any profits, Google is able to invest in itself at the rate of $93 per share. The book value per share of $152 shows that at the end of 2014, Google was trading about 3.5 times its per share book value. Conclusion : Final analysis reveals that Google appears to have a solid balance sheet. High liquidity, slightly lower efficiency, improved management strength, and higher valuation compared to 2013 show that Google’s balance sheet is strong. Finally, Google is well-positioned compared to industry competitors.  5.0 Structure Google is a technology company providing products and services to organize information. Google, Inc. (GOOG) was founded in 1998 and it’s headquarter is in Mountain View, California. Google Structure Google has organizational structure has three main characteristics: Function-based definition Google uses function as basis for grouping employees. Product-based definition The firm also uses products as basis for grouping employees. For example, the company groups employees for developing Nexus devices. The firm also groups employees for its Fiber business. Flatness The firm’s organizational structure has considerable flatness. A flat organizational structure means that employees, teams or groups can bypass middle management and report directly to CEO Larry Page. Employees can also meet and share information across teams. Figure 11. Corporate Structure (Google, 2008) As Figure 11 shows, within each top-level activity, there is a multidivisional structure where small business units are divided on the basis of geography or product market. 5.2 Board of Directors 5.2.1 Larry Page Founders Products President Chief Executive Officer Chief Financial Officer 5.2.2 Sergey Brin Founders Technology President President Chairman of Google’s board of directors 5.2.3 Eric E. Schmidt Executive Chairman Chief Executive Officer 5.2.4 Other Directors: L. John Doerr Diane B. Greene John L. Hennessy Ann Mather Paul s. Otellini Shirley M. Tilghman Alan R. Mulally  K. Ram Shriram  Organization Culture 5.3.1 Google Organizational Culture Google’s organizational culture is not typical, partly because of the effects of the firm’s organizational structure. Google’s organizational culture is: Openness is achieved through the matrix organizational structure Innovative - Innovation is at the heart of Google Smart with emphasis on excellence Hands-on - The company supports employee involvement in projects and experiments Supports small-company-family Rapport 5.3.3 The 70/20/10 Rule All Google employees follow a rule called the 70/20/10 rule, under which they are expected to devote 70 percent of every work day to whichever projects are assigned by management, 20 percent of each day to new projects or ideas related to their core projects, and 10 percent to any new ideas they want to pursue regardless of what they might be. The company credits this rule with being the driving force behind many of Google's new products and services, because programmers, salespeople and even executives are given enough space to be creative. This rule is so important that Google has people on staff to manage the 70/20/10 rule. The engineering and design staff make use of the “free time” to pursue new products and technologies, but even the top-level managers adhere to the rule. (Eckoff, 2009). Leadership 5.4.1 The Six Golemans Leadership Style In the book “Primal Leadership,” Daniel Goleman, who popularized the notion of “Emotional Intelligence,” describes six different styles of leadership adopting the one that meets the needs of the moment. Visionary Most appropriate when an organization needs a new direction. Its goal is to move people towards a new set of shared dreams. Coaching Focuses on developing individuals, showing them how to improve their performance, and helping to connect their goals to the goals of the organization. Affiliative Emphasizes the importance of team work, and creates harmony in a group by connecting people to each other. 5.4.1.4 Democratic Draws on people’s knowledge and skills, and creates a group commitment to the resulting goals. It works best when the direction the organization should take is unclear, and the leader needs to tap the collective wisdom of the group. Pacesetting The leader sets high standards for performance. He or she is “obsessive about doing things better and faster, and asks the same of everyone.” 5.4.1.6 Commanding This is classic model of “military” style leadership – probably the most often used, but the least often effective. Because it rarely involves praise and frequently employs criticism, it undercuts morale and job satisfaction. 5.4.2 Laissez Faire Google kind of follows the Laissez Faire type of leadership practice wherein all the workers are given freedom to decide their own deadlines for the project. They themselves evaluate the project work and the areas of improvement and make required changes. Laissez-faire leadership can be effective in situations where group members are highly skilled, motivated, and capable of working on their own. Since these group members are experts and have the knowledge and skills to work independently, they are capable of accomplishing tasks with very little guidance. Thus, we say that Google does not follow this type of practice completely but has some of the characteristics of this type. Competition 5.5.1 Four Segments of Google The company reports four broad revenue segments: 5.5.1.1 In the Google website segment The company competes with Yahoo (YHOO), AOL (AOL), and other companies. 5.5.1.2 The Adsense Google Network websites compete with the previously mentioned Yahoo and AOL, among others. 5.5.1.3 In the total advertising revenue segment Google competes with Yahoo and AOL along with employment website operator Monster Worldwide, It also competes with the Gannett Company Inc., Facebook (FB); online travel website operator Priceline; the social media newcomer Twitter; the previously mentioned Microsoft and LinkedIn, among others. 5.5.1.4 In the other revenues segment Google competes with database pioneer and technology services giant Oracle, PTC, Intel, CA Technologies, Compuware, EMC, Red Hat and F5 Networks. Other Google competitors in this segment include IP protocol Cisco Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Symantec, Moody's Investor Services, IBM, Salesforce, and Microsoft.. 5.5.2 Amazon According to Financial Times, Google’s Eric Schmidt: “Our biggest search competitor is Amazon — not Microsoft or Yahoo.” When it comes to competition for search engine traffic, Google isn’t most worried about Microsoft Bing or Yahoo as a threat — actually, it’s Amazon.com. That’s what Google executive Eric Schmidt said today during a speech in Berlin. Schmidt was discussing how some say the tech industry’s giants — namely Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Apple — have created monopolies that have dwarfed competition, which Schmidt said he’s less certain of. There is also some co-operation between the two. For example, Amazon was the biggest spender on Google search ads in the U.S.   SWOT analysis Google’s SWOT analysis shows the company's internal capabilities and the external factors that influence how these capabilities are used. The firm has the number one position in online advertising. Also, the organization is one of the globally most valuable brands. Therefore, to continue succeeding, Google must approach the threats in its business environment and take advantage of the opportunities at the same time. STRENGTH Customer service and quality oriented  The services and products provided are of premium quality. Their aim is to illuminate customer’s problem and satisfy their needs. Financial position  Googles financially is one of the most profitable companies in the world. Access to largest group of online users worldwide Google has access to the largest mobile/desktop search markets. This market can be used to promote and sell google products Strong brand image The solid brand image, licenses and vast hierarchical size empower the organization to battle off      competition and new companies in the industry. Free software products and services  Offers free access to applications and programs."Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” product integration All products are designed in a certain way to encourage consumers to use other products from google as well. These qualities demonstrate that Google is developing and has enhanced overtime. The organization's diversification of items demonstrates that its business is booming. WEAKNESSES  Relies primarily on advertising as income Over 90 percent of googles revenues come from advertising Unsuccessful products Google has come up with many services and products that fail to increase firms profit, resulting in loss. Minimal physical existence  Reliance on the Internet implies that Google sits tight for Internet coverage to enhance in developing countries before it could grow the vast majority of its operations, for example, web promoting, in those countries. The organization is likewise a generally online business, which implies that it is frail in going up against firms with huge physical existence, similar to Apple. Organizational Culture Lack of project management, lack of interest and lack of understanding social media. OPPORTUNITIES  Innovation in developing countries Have access to new markets. Good publicity for helping a poor country. Increased number of smartphone users Google can misuse the present trend of expanding cell phone use mobile-friendly items Innovation in digital gadget industry  the firm can help its aggressiveness in offering digital gadgets, for example, Google's Nexus electronics Google Fiber  the organization can grow its Fiber scope to create more revenue for the business. It is a smart investment that would have no competition. THREATS  Unsuccessful products  Google has come up with many services and products that fail to increase firms profit, resulting in loss. Competition/substitution The organization confronts extreme competition. Competing firms incorporate substantial ones like Yahoo and Apple, and in addition new companies and local/national firms offering items like Google's. Different firms can likewise mirror the organization's items, for example, its Nexus purchaser gadgets. Copying products and services  Lack of originality with several products where google took an idea from other companies and make similar products and services. Rise of social media The rise of social media empowers organizations like Facebook which also offers advertising. PROBLEM One of few problems with the Google Inc. is its organizational culture. As an organization established by high IQ engineers it is also based on the output of high IQ engineers and is made almost completely out of high IQ engineers. Lack of proper project management 56.7% of Google's voting shares are held by cofounders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. (the Guardian, 2013) Lack of understanding social web The main problem is that the engineers in google, are not in contact with the real world. The people who assemble Google products are all hyper-intelligent PC wizards that make products for other hyper-intelligent PC wizards, yet that is precisely why their products come up short so frequently. The rise of social media usage is another threat to Google because it strengthens companies like Facebook, which also offers internet advertising services. Lack of interest a couple of times a year it trumpets to the world that it's terminating products and services that millions of people love and rely on. Google isn't merely up front about these cancellations; it's downright cheerful, as if turning off Google Reader or Google Desktop is an accomplishment to be proud of. CURRENT STRATEGIES One of the current challenges for Google is to expand to new fields outside of their Web search engine business. To promote new thoughts, Google urges all engineers to invest 20% of their time working on new ideas. This would boost their creativity and help determine the market interest. Unfortunately, until now there has been no potential outcome from this "challenge". Lately they targeted potential new employees utilizing billboards including brain teasers guiding potential contender to a Web site where they were subjected to more brain teasers. The increasing diversity of users is an opportunity for Google to enhance its services to match individual preferences. It is most likely to become more of an issue in the upcoming future due to competition from Microsoft taking away most of its customers. Revenue will then decrease and failed projects will affect their overall financial status and market position.  Conclusion Although Google is a juggernaut in the information technology industry, certainly one of the most respected companies in the world, it is important for them to improve and enhance the customer experience. First and foremost, Google should keep its core principles intact. Google must allay concerns regarding its sale of user information to third parties and disclosure of consumer personal information to government agencies in the United States such as the NSA. These reports have tainted Google's reputation, as a company and disillusioned some of its most loyal customers. Google should implement an approach that respects human rights and consumer data protection. Secondly, from a Research and Development standpoint, it still has to work on application approval and testing mechanism of the android OS and application store . Owing to the very widely available Android operating system, certain mobile third party applications experience crashes and requires many bug fixes to operate seamlessly. Google should take heed from the example of Apple in making a simple yet rigorous application approval apparatus. Google should also expand its driverless vehicle technology to reach across the world. Currently, through its Google Maps integration into the Toyota Prius, Google have already been able to provide the driverless car technology in California. Thus, Google should also look to combine this software in existing vehicles on a much bigger scale. Finally, Google should expand their existing tools and software like Picasa, Google Drive, Youtube, Gmail, Google Maps, Google Earth and many others to cater to a bigger audience. More effort has to be undertaken to keep countries with limited access to internet like India, China and countries across Africa connected. We find that restrictions to access of information across countries like China and North Korea, impedes this effort. In conclusion, Google has made a huge difference in how we access information and stay connected in the world today, however the company still needs to address the specific issues related to privacy and surveillance. 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