Google Case

Google is the biggest web search and web service company in the world that entered our lives and became part of them. Innovative search technologies, which Google opens to the world, provide millions of people with the perfect access to information and connect them all. The company was founded in 1998 by two Ph.D. students of Stanford University, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. They worked hard and invented a ranking system, which sorted more popular sites up and less popular ones down. Simple and user-friendly interface immediately made Google the most profitable search engine.

Generally, Google has two main specializations. They are internet search and online advertisement. However, besides that, there appeared a lot of Google applications, which promoted success of the web search. They are Image Search, Google News, Google Product Search, Google Groups, Google Maps, Picasa, Gmail, and many others, which make this search engine more and more attractive to the users and profitable to its owners. Also, YouTube is another interesting application bought by Google in 2006. Besides that, users can check sports scores, stock quotes, find necessary addresses, images, maps, videos, patents, and much more. Among the key characteristics of this technological leader are constant innovations. That is why the company developed very quickly and successfully, making the information accessible to everyone all over the world.

Also, there is one more person who plays the key role in the development of the company. This is Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, who started working in the company in 2001. The company developed very quickly; it raised sales from $1.6 billion in 2004 up to $38 billion in 2012, respectively. The number of employees in 2013 was more than 47 thousand. At the same time the company excluded hierarchy and maintained small-firm relations between its workers. As far as innovations are the main secret of Google’s success, they tried to create conditions suitable for that.

The secret of Google’s success is its creative side, which has its advantages and disadvantages, and highlights Google among other companies. Also, among its advantages must be mentioned that its personnel implement innovations by using their own ideas. Different creative people can do a great thing if they work together and are interested in the things they do. Google is run flexibly leaving the members of the company a chance to progress and develop the best products. The company supports collaboration among the stuff and does everything possible to let people implement their ideas. It encourages people to identify and use new opportunities. And yet, there are some disadvantages, as it is very difficult to maintain tight collaboration between employees without strict hierarchy.Also, it should be mentioned that much depends on the quality of people’s ideas. However, the company hires only right people, so it is prospering now and new products appear continuously, which is the best indicator.

Google’s culture is highly developed, too. It offers multiple facilities, such as communal cafes, exercise and game rooms. Also, Google provides a number of different services to its employees making their lives and jobs pleasant, and in such way attracting and retaining them. The company appreciates its workers and supports them with the necessary opportunities to promote informal communication and cooperation. That is suggested to be the most useful in making new innovative products.

However, the creative side is a brilliant peculiarity that helps the company thrive. It creates a lot of challenges. As nobody can control creativity, and no one knows whether the new product will be successful. According to Andy Grove, the organizational structure of the company seems to be chaotic. As we know, chaos will never lead to creation. It can only break. Anyway, Google has very different structure and such strategic departments as legal, financial, sales, and others, which work in accordance to the traditional business.

One of Google’s key peculiarities is 20 percent time to work on personal projects, and it makes sense. People work on the projects of their choice and create unique products, which are the result of such structure. To my mind, Google would be able to continue this management style, even if it had closer competitors. At this moment, there is no such a company, which can compete with it, as Google is an outstanding and distinctive search engine. Its free form structure allows employees to open their talents and do their best as they are interested in the result. The establishers of the company set up the values, which would always keep the company at the level of the world leader.

All in all, the company is developing. It has numerous awards and is recognized all over the world. There is no other web search giant, such as Google. Of course, Google has some weak points but life is impossible without them, and the number of company’s strengths is much higher. Google has already acquired a lot of companies and continues to buy them gaining more power and strength. This web search engine is available on more than 100 languages; therefore people can find information all over the world in the foreign languages. However, the founders of this unique company never stop. They do not feel totally satisfied as there is always place to develop and become better. Google’s co-founder, Larry Page, says, “The perfect search engine would understand exactly what you mean and give back exactly what you want”(How Search Works - The Story â Inside Search â Google). It is their aim and they would certainly do everything to cope with it.