Page 1 of 21

Executive summary:
A discussion about Google Company was presented in details with the study of their
strategies. This report was categorize into three parts: In the first part, general information
about the company was given, starting with introduction about the Google and their
background. Moving on to the organizational structure and culture to give better insight on
the company. This part ends with comparison between Google and their compotators.
Chapter two was devoted to answer the first question in the assignment and that regarding to
the Google consideration when developing new products. Further explanation was to the
current practise for developing new product by Google, what are the reasons for the failure of
new products. The main consideration for developing new products were explained
including: Multi-dimensional Concept, Ongoing Market Planning, MANAGEMENT
Ongoing technology management, Business Opportunity and market penetration. Chapter
three was the answer for the second question in the assignments and that is by explaining the
Innovation management that run by Google. Moving on to the ways that Google are solving
the DILEMMA AND MANAGING UNCERTAINTY, followed by Pearson uncertainty map
regarding Google. Some tables were provided to support the explanation such as : SWOT
analysis and Ansoffs matrix. Finally the chapter finished with recommendation for Google
strategies the Google can consider in the future.

Page 2 of 21

Table of Contents
Executive summary:................................................................................................................... 1
List of Figures ............................................................................................................................ 3
List of Tables ............................................................................................................................. 3
1.0. Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 4
2.0. Background of the Company .......................................................................................... 5
3.0. Product Portfolio of Google Inc. ..................................................................................... 6
4.0. Google organizational structure: ..................................................................................... 8
5.0. Culture of Google ........................................................................................................... 9
6.0. Competitors of Google:................................................................................................. 11
7.0. Google current Considerations in the New Product Development: .............................. 12
8.0. Reasons for Failures of New Products: ......................................................................... 12
9.0. Consideration when developing new product: .............................................................. 13
9.1. Multi-dimensional Concept ....................................................................................... 13
9.2. Ongoing Market Planning ......................................................................................... 14
9.3. ONGOING TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT ...................................................... 14
9.4. Business Opportunity and market penetration .......................................................... 15
10.0. Management Innovation in Google ........................................................................... 16
11.0. INNOVATION DILEMMA AND MANAGING UNCERTAINTY ....................... 17
11.1. Pearson uncertainty map ........................................................................................ 18
12.0. Google SWOT Analysis: ........................................................................................... 19
13.0. ANSOFFS MATRIX ............................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
14.0. Recommendation for Google Strategies ................................................................... 19
15.0. Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 20
16.0. Reference:.................................................................................................................. 20


Page 3 of 21




List of Figures
Figure 1: Google search engine ................................................................................................. 4
Figure 2: Founder of Google Larry Page and Sergey Brin ........................................................ 5
Figure 3: Organizational Structure of Google ........................................................................... 8
Figure 4: Welcome lounge of Google in Australia .................................................................... 9
Figure 5: Googles park, tech shop and pub style lounge ........................................................ 10
Figure 6: Googles park, tech shop and pub style lounge ....................................................... 10
Figure 7: Google ranking ......................................................................................................... 11
Figure 8: shows in a simple way how a product can be considered multi-dimensional ......... 13
Figure 9: Google Ventures for start-up projects ...................................................................... 14
Figure 10: Google Glass .......................................................................................................... 15
Figure 11: Google Vs Apple .................................................................................................... 17
Figure 12: Uncertainty Map ..................................................................................................... 18
List of Tables

Table 1: Table 1: Portfolio of Google Products ......................................................................... 7
Table 2: SWOT analysis .......................................................................................................... 19
Table 3: Googles Ansoff's Matrix .......................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.


Page 4 of 21

INTRODUCTION
1.0. Introduction
Google Company is an American search engine founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in
1998. Google search engine started as BackRub search engine in 1996 as part of
collaboration between the two, later on Sergey and Larry decided to change the name to
Google derived from the name Googol which means the number one followed by 100
zeros, the founder choose this name specifically to reflect their goal to organize the a
superficially infinite amount of information on the world wide web. Google is one of the five
most popular websites in the world. Google is a web search engine that gives the ability to the
user to find other sites on the web based on keyword searches. Google also provides
specialized searches through blogs, catalogues, videos, news items and more. Google
provides Internet services that allow the user to create blogs, send email, and publish web
pages. Google has social networking tools, organization tools, and chat tools, services for
mobile devices, and even Google branded merchandise. More than seventy percent of search
enquires around the world are handled by Google engine. Google become the no 1 most top
visited site according to Alexa for several years until 2011 then become the 2ed site after
Facebook site, placing Google at the heart of most internet users experience.
Although, Google Inc. have more than fifty services and products in the market, Google
search engine still the core of it is success with 97 percent of its revenue comes from the
advertise through its search engine.

Figure 1: Google search engine (Google 2011)
Page 5 of 21

2.0. Company Background
Google started in January 1996 as collaboration research project between Larry Page and
Sergey Brin when they were both students in Stanford University at California City. Both
Larry and Sergey come up with new search engine idea that used the number of pages and the
important of these pages that linked to the original website to determine the important of the
website. They name that technology PageRank. Brin and Page originally called their search
engine BackRub since the system check backlinks to evaluate the rank of the site.
Later on, they change the name from BackRub" to Google to support their mission and
that is to to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful",
they derived that name from Googol which mean the number one followed by one hundred
zeros. This name was picked to signify that this search engine wants organize large number
of information and provide it to the end user. The domain name of Google was register on
September 1997 and the company was incorporated on 1998 September.

Figure 2: Founder of Google Larry Page and Sergey Brin (Google 2011)

Page 6 of 21

2.1. Google Vision & Mission



3.0. Product Portfolio of Google Inc.
Google begin as an online search firm, but with massive success of its search engine,
it starts expending their market to include more than fifty service and products currently in
the market. Their product varies from online editing documentation to email services,
softwares for mobiles and tables. Moreover, the acquisition of Motorola Mobility Company
extend their service from online service to hardware physical deceives which put Google in
the position for selling hardware products. Google portfolio of products makes Google one of
the most top influential companies in the high tech market. The table below summarize some
of the most important products of Google
Page 7 of 21


Table 1: Table 1: Portfolio of Google Products
Page 8 of 21

4.0. Google organizational structure:
Google was chosen as the Top Company to work for the year 2007, 2008 and 2009
and also as the most desirable company to work for according to Fortune and All Business
Magazine (Studymode 2013). The reason for that high employee admiration is the company
cross-functional organizational structure which maintain through innovation and staller
leadership management techniques. The organizational structure is shown in the figure below

Figure 3: Organizational Structure of Google (Dan 2005)

Page 9 of 21

5.0. Culture of Google
Culture of Google is reflected through the environment that is provide to the workers in
which is aim to provide open culture often associated with startups, in which everyone is a
hands-on contributor and feels comfortable sharing ideas and opinions (Google). In addition
Google provide the employees with many facilities including several caf stations where
employees can gather to eat free food and meet Brin and Page to have open conversation.
Snack rooms stocked with goodies ranging from candy to healthy foods, Exercise rooms fill
with swimming pool & GYM,Game rooms with video games, foosball, pool tables and Ping-
Pong. All of that is given to the employee to ensure the best environment for innovation and
creativity ideas to resolve.

Figure 4: Welcome lounge of Google in Australia (Google 2011)
Page 10 of 21


Figure 5: Googles park, tech shop and pub style lounge(Google 2011)

Fig
Figure 6: Googles park, tech shop and pub style lounge(Google 2011)






Page 11 of 21

6.0. Competitors of Google:
Google announced in November 2012 that 65% of the search market inquires is been
answered by Google search engine, and Yahoo search engine by 20.9%. Which leaves the
rest of the search engine such as Ask and AOL at the minority with less than 15% of the
internet search market.

Figure 7: Google ranking (Google report, 2010)


Page 12 of 21

Consideration in developing new
products
7.0. Google current Considerations in the New Product
Development:
The outsiders of Google when they look to the type of products of the Google, it appear
random and confusing. For example, in the past years Google release a lot of different
products from a blog search engine and a finance site to an instant messaging
program. However, Google follow specific approach mentioned by Marissa Mayer
(businessweek.com 2006), "The philosophy is, try a bunch of ideas, refine them, and see what
survives.", so the strategy of Google is to develop as many as possible of ideas in different
applications, then filter these ideas to choose the suitable one and release it in the market to
test and choose the best.
From the case study, Google seems not defining any limit for the kind of application that
can be developed by the developers of Google, in which it helps to increase the innovation
from one side by not giving any barrier to the developer creativity in which he/she can
develop and be creative in any field. On the other hand, the current New-Product
Development process approach leads to great losses of time, effort and valuable resources
such as money. Since, the developers will keep search in verity of fields which waste their
focus, effort, and time. For instance, as Mayer say Google are developing five products and
out of five if two get success it will consider a good process. So if Google developer focus
only on two and make it more appealing to the user, it will increase their chances of getting
the product successful in the market.
8.0. Reasons for Failures of New Products:
Effective New product development increase the chance of getting a good product lunch,
sell and revenue, and without a proper planning and strategies for New Product process it
cause west of time , money effort and loses of the product. The good product Development
for new product improve organization planning and reach customers expectations, and
carefully plan the resources of the company to get the most of them. Otherwise the new
product development can end up as failure due to:
Page 13 of 21

Not proper Market research regarding the customer
Price of the product is not within the range of the customers or its more expensive
than the market price
Product are not satisfying the customers needs
The product is not competitive enough with other products
9.0. Consideration when developing new product:
9.1. Ongoing Corporate Planning


Multi-dimensional Concept
A multi-dimension concept is great tool to start developing new Product regarding different
aspect to insure the product covers all the angles of the market need. This approach see the
product through different dimensions such as Packaging, Brand name, features, quality
specification, price and technology.

Figure 8: shows in a simple way how a product can be considered multi-dimensional (Afuah, A, 2003)

When it comes to Google product, most of them are satisfy most of the concept dimensional
concept needs expect the market needs. Since most of Googles products are computing with
other product in the market and not providing any new idea in that product for example,
Google Chrome, Gmail and Gtalk all of these services are not new services however they
provide better services then most of the services that exist in the market. In addition, Google
products have advantages such as Brand name and Service Quality in addition are most of
them are free or at low charge.
Page 14 of 21

9.2. Ongoing Market Planning
Marketing for new Products are essential for a successful lunch for the new product. Ongoing
market planning ensure the success of the product at the short and medium range time which
is enough for the company to gain their profits and start getting the revenue from the product.
Google products have the advantages in the marketing section thanks to the Brand name
which plays great role in the creditability of the products.
Google strategy for marketing aligned in releasing beta version of the service or the product
that they want to release and in the same time make it available to the public (Open source)
which gives the chance to the customers to add their contributions and opinion to the
products. On the other hand, Google are not doing much of publicity when it comes to the
minor services or products releases. For instances, Google has more than fifty services and
products but most of the user are unaware of these services or products one of the service is
Google Venturesfor start-up projects.
Fig [11] Figure 9: Google Ventures for start-up projects (Google, 2011)
9.3. TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT
Technology is the special feature that allows Google to be in advance than its competitors.
For IT market, technology is the major factor that drives the new product success and Google
Inc. one of best in this field. Ongoing Technology management ensure the that the staff are
Page 15 of 21

having high awareness of the latest Technology in the market so the company can be still
ahead in the competitive market.
A recent product of Google that is was high in technology is Google Glass, Google glass has
combined the latest technology including smart screen that works as small computer screen
on the top right eye of the user, this screen will display to the user information including
direction of the roads, message, pictures and video calling. The glass can be controlled with
Siri-like voice commend that works with sound commend of the user, the glass has an
embedded with a 720 camera that allow the user to capture images and stream video also.
9.4. Business Opportunity Analysis
Opportunities of the business must be always considered and calculated when developing for
new products to increase the opportunity of the product success in the market. Chaos can
sometime play a good source for serendipity opportunity for product as 3m- vice president
said 3Ms competitors never know what is coming next. Neither do we
Google has always seized the opportunities whenever they find one for example when Apple
has released the iPad for the high end user with high price and the rest of the companies start
following apple by releasing an expansive tablet PCs, Google has make contract with other
company (Asus) and release a cheap with good specification tablet device (Nexus 7) for the
mid-users which help the company to stable their existence in the hardware side.



Figure 10: Google Glass (Google, 2011)
Page 16 of 21

Innovation Management
10.0. Management Innovation in Google
Innovation in this century the dominant focus organizations adopted to improve business
results. But a commitment to innovation and successful innovation can be miles apart. But
how Google are managing their innovation process, Google is usually associated with a fairly
loose innovation model. According to Marissa Mayer, senior leader of Googles search
business and one of the companys longest tenured employees at (Plantescompany.com
2010), the formula for successful innovation in Google is that:
Keep an intense focus on users. As Sam Walton founder of Stores in Wal-Mart said,
If you dont listen to them, someone else will.
Give high quality, excited employees license to be creative. Google give their
employees one day in the week to use it to search any idea they wish to explore, a
high-return investment. In one 6-month measurement period, Mayer reported, the
20% work generated the majority of Googles product innovations and improvements.
Launch early and often, employing user feedback to migrate development efforts
towards the final product. Mayer admits this approach produces less attractive factor
than Apples Build the castle and the customer will come new product development
approach. But Google use this way to reduces risk.
Tackle hard problems. Interesting point since hard problems demand fresh and
creative thinking. Otherwise these hard problems would already have been solved.
Twenty percent of Googles projects, and thinking about where technology is headed
provide plenty of hard problems for Google to solve. Such as with increase in using
cell phone, some entrepreneurs realized that there would be a proliferation of videos.
How could a company catalogue them and make them accessible with a search
engine? Their answer the fabulously successful YouTube now owned by Google.
Focus on speed as a source of innovation. Googles value promise is built on speed
as the fastest route to information that user desired.
Delight that customer in ways that generate emotional reactions, and offer the
unexpected. Such as the changing look of Googles home page trademark (on
holidays, artists birthdays and other special days) reveals the companys fun and
creative culture. The unexpected keeps the brand energized and the customer exited
for what is next.
Page 17 of 21

Trust the users. Google relies on crowd sourcing as an advantage, e.g., over one
million people helped it move from 14 languages to 140 according to Mayer.

11.0. INNOVATION DILEMMA AND MANAGING UNCERTAINTY
Uncertainties and Dilemma are part of the innovation process for the big campiness.
Uncertainty makes the company on the edge of computation to produce creative products and
services to ensure that they can stay on the top of the computation. Google has its owns way
for managing the uncertainties and that by realising a lot of products (3-5 products) to a
particular segment of customer (most of the time will be the developers) in the beta realises,
then employing user feedback to migrate development efforts towards the final product and
release as full product to the customers and to the market. Google will make sure out of the
five products; two at least will get success and hit the market.
This method has a lot of advantages specially to avoid losing a lot of resources, such as
money, time, efforts, etc. Moreover, this method increases the chance of innovation as each
idea is evaluated and tested without neglecting small ideas. This method also increase the
value of each employee as each idea is counted, when the employees of the company know
that their ideas will be evaluated, the employee will increase their effort to get a good idea
and submitted them.
On the other hand, by following this approach,
Google is losing some of its resources since
Google are not given any specifics approaches
for their products, which leaves the employee of
the company unsalted for their focus. For
example Apple Inc., Apple are focusing in one
of the product a one time and ensure all the
energy of the employee of the company are
focusing on this product. Therefore Apple will
ensure that the product that will hit the market has best opportunities and reduce the
uncertainty part by giving all their tension in one of the product.
All in all, both companies have their own method of innovation with their cons and pones,
and both consider on the tops most innovative companies.
Figure 11: Google Vs Apple (Interactive Advertising
Bureau, 2011)
Page 18 of 21

11.1. Pearson uncertainty map

Figure 12: Uncertainty Map

Page 19 of 21

12.0. Google SWOT Analysis:

Table 2: SWOT analysis




13.0. Recommendation for Google Strategies
Google has a great strategy in managing innovation and new product development as
mention in chapter 2 and chapter 3, however in order to improve their strategies Google can
Page 20 of 21

consider to change a bit their strategy by giving specific tasks and targets for their employee
to work on their special day that given by Google to work on their own projects. Employee
can concentrate more when a specifics targets are sets instead of keep exploring all the round
to find specifics targets which it will waste time and effort.
Moreover, Google can consider entering game industry, as its the one of the industries that
Google did not explore all the recourses for that industry, although Google have. Currently
game industry considers one of the best industries in the market with high profits and not
many resources to use.
14.0. Conclusion
As conclusion, Google consider one of the top leading companies in the industry, starting
from a collaborate research project between two students to become a multibillionaire
company that leading the search industry with top search engine in the internet industry. With
the massive success of their search engine, Google developed a new method for new product
development and that by releasing many products as bate form to the market and then employ
user feedback to migrate development efforts towards the final product to choose which one
of these products is the best. By following this approaches Google expended their industry to
include more than fifty service and products currently in the market including two of the most
top products such as Google android system and Google Chrome.
As the profits and products of Google keeps increasing year by year, Google prove that
their innovation management at the top level. In their innovation management strategy,
Google provide the employee with great culture that include a lot free services and facilities
with high degree of freedom to ensure the employee have the best creative environment
which will produce the best innovation from the users. Google also give the users 20% of
working time to work on their own projects to increase the efficiency of their employee
innovation. However, in order to stay at the top and increase their efficiency, Google has to
modify their strategies by limiting the target of their employee from focusing on producing a
five products at one time to only one or two products at the which will increase the chance of
getting a successful product.
15.0. Reference:

Page 21 of 21

Afuah, A., 2003, Innovation Management. New York: Oxford University Press.
Barclay, I., Dann, Z., & Holroyd, P., 2000, New Product Development. Worburn, M.A.:
Butterworth-Heinemann.
Cooper, R., 2001, Winning At New Products. New York: Basic Books.
Dan Farber, 2005, A view into Googles innerworkings [online], USA, ZDNet, Available
from http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/a-view-into-googles-inner-workings/2065 [Accessed
2nd March 2013 ]
Google, 2011, Google Timeline [online], Silicon Valley, Google, Available from
http://www.google.com/corporate/timeline/#start [Accessed 8
th
February 2012]

Google report, 2010, Scribd [online] Available from
http://www.scribd.com/doc/53896113/2010-Google-Annual-Report [Accessed 8th March
2013]
Interactive Advertising Bureau, 2011, IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report 2011 Full
Year Results, New York, USA, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

Levy, S. 2011, In The Plex. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Studymode.com (2013) Google - Term Paper - Hessa3. [Online] Available at:
http://www.studymode.com/essays/Google-1427438.html [Accessed: 19 Feb 2013].

Plantescompany.com (2010) Innovation Makes Google a Leader. [online] Available at:
http://www.plantescompany.com/blog/business-model-innovation-best-practices/innovation-
makes-google-a-leader/ [Accessed: 12 Mar 2013].