Corporate Strategies of Google LLC

This document discusses the corporate strategies of Google LLC, including horizontal integration, vertical integration, cooperative relationships, and diversification. It explores the importance of corporate strategies and their impact on the company's growth and success. The document also provides an overview of Google's mission, vision, and objectives.

Running head: CORPORATE STRATEGIES OF GOOGLE LLC
Corporate Strategies of Google LLC
Name of the Student:
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Author Note:

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CORPORATE STRATEGIES OF GOOGLE LLC
Executive Summary:
It transpires from the discussion that Google is a multinational conglomerate which
adopts several strategies which has attributed it with the global position it boasts. First of all, the
company in order to expand its product line adopts strategies like vertical and horizontal
integration. The company has a strong CSR policy which sits deep within its product line. The
company also practices diversity management.

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary:........................................................................................................................1
1. Introduction:................................................................................................................................5
1.1 Purpose:.............................................................................................................................5
1.2. Limitations:...............................................................................................................................5
1.3. Scope:.......................................................................................................................................6
1.4. Conglomerate Company’s overview/background including its vision, mission and
objectives.........................................................................................................................................6
2.0. Corporate Level Strategies (within the past 5 years)................................................................8
Define/discuss the importance of Corporate Strategies:..............................................................8
2.1 Horizontal integration:......................................................................................................9
Acquisition:..................................................................................................................................9
Merger:......................................................................................................................................10
2.2 Vertical integration:........................................................................................................10
2.3 Cooperative relationships................................................................................................11
Outsourcing:..............................................................................................................................11
Strategic alliances:.....................................................................................................................11
2.4 Diversification:................................................................................................................11
Related Diversification:.............................................................................................................11
Unrelated Diversification:.........................................................................................................11

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Restructuring:............................................................................................................................12
3. Governance, Social Responsibility, Stakeholders & Ethics:....................................................12
3.1 Evaluate your conglomerate organisation (including all business units) in terms of how it
practices governance, social responsibility and ethics:.............................................................12
Use the Balance Score card in evaluating your organisation’s performance strengths and
limitations:.................................................................................................................................12
Evaluate how the organisation is able to practice or not able to practice CSR and to address the
rights of Stakeholders (i.e. Stakeholder theory) . Evaluate the ethical practices of the
organisation and support your discussion/analysis with relevant academic literatures:............13
4. Organisational Structure, Culture, Diversity & Performance Measurement:.......................14
4.1 Evaluate your organisation’s (including all business units) in terms of the organisational
culture, culture and performance measurement:........................................................................14
What is the organisation’s organisational structure including its culture?................................14
How is organisational performance in the different business unit including functional areas
monitored? What control mechanisms including incentives are used?....................................15
Evaluate how diversity (including inclusion) is practised within the organisation. What are
some of the diversity strengths and limitations?........................................................................15
4.0 Conclusion:..............................................................................................................................15
5.0 Recommendations:..................................................................................................................15
Strengthening positions in the emerging markets and expanding into new markets:................15
Empowering of national level management bodies:..................................................................16

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6.0. References:.............................................................................................................................17

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1. Introduction:
1.1 Purpose:
The purpose of the assignment is to explore the different areas of the core operations of
multinational business conglomerate. The core strategies form the base of all the operations of
multinational business conglomerates. The research would delve into five areas of corporate
level strategies of governance, corporate social responsibility and ethics, culture, structure and
performance measurements in a particular market. The company chosen for the research would
be none other than global information and communication technology business conglomerate,
Google. The country chosen for the research would be Australia.
1.2. Limitations:
The research would suffer from several limitations in terms of collection of data. As
already mentioned above, the crux of the assignment would be corporate strategy of Google.
Corporate strategies are of extreme confidentiality to global business conglomerates like Google.
Hence, it would not be able feasible to gain core business strategies of the conglomerate. The
content of the report would be restricted to the secondary information gained from the data about
Google available on the internet. The information for the research would be gained from
secondary sources of information like journals, newspapers, magazines and last but the least, the
official website of the global business conglomerate, Google. The second limitation which the
analysis would suffer from would be limitation of time. It must be pointed out that in order to
conduct a thorough research about the corporate strategies of global business conglomerates like
Google, a lot of time has to be dedicated. However, in this case, the research has to be completed
within a predefined time period. Hence, the researcher would aim to incorporate the maximum

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possible amount of information gathered from several mentioned secondary sources of
information into the research.
1.3. Scope:
The scope of the research would be five areas of corporate strategies of Google Australia.
The five areas of corporate strategies which would be incorporated in the study are governance,
social responsibility and ethics, culture, structure and performance measurements. The company
considered would be Google and the country Australia. The content of the research would be
based on the information gained from information pertaining to last 5 years.
1.4. Conglomerate Company’s overview/background including its vision, mission and
objectives.
Google LLC is one of the world information and communication technology which
markets its products on the digital platform. The company operates under the leadership of Mr.
Sundar Pichai and in based in the United States of America. Google LLC has direct presence
more than thirty nations in the world. The main markets of the company are in North America,
Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Africa & Middle East. As far as Australia, is concerned,
the conglomerate has offices in Melbourne and Sydney (About.google. 2019). The corporate
mission statement of Google is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally
accessible and useful.” The vision of the conglomerate is, “to provide access to the world’s
information in one click.” The business objective of Google LLC to provide easy and affordable
internet services to users both individual and business consumers which would enable the latter
enjoy a vast range of services with just ‘one click’. It can in fact be pointed out that the various
products marketed by Google mentioned below actually personify the vision of the company.
The products can be accessed by consumers by simply clicking on the respective icons of the

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services. In fact, the Android OS, one of most preferred operating system of smart phones is
owned by the company and is compatible with almost all the apps. This compatibility of Google
products with a variety of gadgets like smart phones, tablets and laptops coupled with the global
physical presence of Google LLC have made the company a global leader in the information and
communication market.
The products of Google LLC consists of a variety of internet products which target both
the individual consumers and business consumers. The conglomerate owns and operates one of
the most used search engines in the world used by individuals and companies alike namely,
google.com. The conglomerate owns products like gmail.com, Chrome,Google Finance and
Google Pay all of which are used by both individual consumers and firms. The products like
Google Ads and Google Cloud Platforms are meant for business use only. The conglomerate also
owns Youtube which is one of its subsidiaries. Google due to vast range of online products
competes with global companies around the world. The conglomerate competes with Amazon,
the largest ecommerce company in the world in terms of products like Youtube and Google Pay.
Amazon Prime and Amazon Pay of Amazon compete with Youtube and Google Pay respectively
owned by Google. Similarly, in terms of cloud computing products namely, Google Cloud
Platform and Google Cloud Print, the conglomerate competes with Amazon and Microsoft. The
internet search engine google.com competes with Yahoo.com and Rediff.com owned by Yahoo
and Rediff respectively. Similarly, Gmail, the email service provided by Google competes with
their Yahoo and Rediff counterparts. Google Flights, the flight booking services provided by
Google competes with the airline and flight booking companies around the world.

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2.0. Corporate Level Strategies (within the past 5 years)
Define/discuss the importance of Corporate Strategies:
Corporate strategies are the strategies made by the highest level of authority of a business
company. Foucault and Frésard (2018) define the term corporate strategy is the strategic plan of
the company which is made by the apex management. The corporate strategies made by the apex
management covers the corporate mission and the vision of the company concerned. The
corporate strategies as per Spear and Roper (2016) shed light on the strategic goals which the
company aims to achieve in the short, medium and long term. The apex management as a part of
the corporate strategies review the performances achieved in the past periods like the previous
financial year and milestones which have to be achieved. Jubaedah, Yulivan and Hadi (2016) add
to the discussion by pointing out that apex management while making the corporate strategies
takes into account the macroeconomic factors which influence the business operations of the
company and consider the changes which are taking place in the market environment. The apex
managers also form strategies which have to be implemented in order to adapt the prevailing and
future external market conditions. Shaukat, Qiu and Trojanowski (2016) opine that corporate
strategies are largely based on the financial performances of the company to outline future
strategies which have to take adopted in order to achieve higher financial performances. Thus, it
transpires from the discussion that corporate strategies of a company can be defined as the
strategies which are made at the apex level. The strategies encompass but are not limited to
crucial aspects like setting of business targets, reestablishing the corporate mission and vision
and corporate finance. As far as Google LLC is concerned, the corporate strategy making of the
conglomerate are commences under the leadership of Mr. Pichai, its present CEO and Mrs Ruth
Porat, the present CFO.

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Figure 1. An excerpt of the Consolidated statements of income data
(Source: Sec.gov 2019)
2.1 Horizontal integration:
Horizontal integration is the strategy which business organisations adopt to increase their
product line by acquiring firms operating in the same industry. Bauer, Matzler and Wolf (2016)
define the term horizontal integration as the process of expansion of a business firms by pooling
resources from firm within the industry. The multinational business conglomerates like Google
LLC implements horizontal integration by using two strategies namely, acquisition and merger.
Acquisition:
Arikan and Stulz (2016) define the term acquisition as the strategic process in which a
firm or business conglomerate acquires the stock and assets of smaller companies.

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Conglomerates like Google use strategic acquisition to achieve two main business targets. First
of all, acquisition of a firm also gives ownership of the products of the firm acquired. Thus,
acquisition allows the Google to expand its product line. Secondly, acquisitions enable the
conglomerates to increase the number of the companies in the conglomerate which means
increase in the value of assets. For example, Alphabet, the holding company of Google acquired
Youtube which is a video streaming site in 2006. This enabled Google to expand its presence
into the video streaming market which expanded its product line at that time. This is evident
from the fact that Youtube is one of the most used video streaming platforms. Youtube at present
is used by business organisations to promote their products and Youtube promotion is one of the
most deadly advertising strategies used by the companies to attract customers (Schwemmer and
Ziewiecki 2018).
Merger:
Merger as per Jagtiani and Maingi (2018) can be defined as the method of business
expansion in which two companies merge to form a third company to exploit the resources of
each other. Whirlpool, the global manufacturer of white goods merged with Google to use its
resources to transform its operations (Cloud.google.com. 2019)
2.2 Vertical integration:
Argyres and Mostafa (2016) defines vertical integration as the situation when one
company acquires its own suppliers. The aim of vertical integration is to gain access to resources
of suppliers. For example, Google in order to reduce dependence on the third party payment
gateways, Google extended its product line to form Google Pay. This allowed the company to
compete more strongly with its competitors like Amazon.

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2.3 Cooperative relationships
Outsourcing:
Foiji, Hoque and Khan (2019) define outsourcing as the business operations in which
companies hire third party companies to operate on their behalf. For example, Google LLC
outsources its customer care service to smaller third party companies.
Strategic alliances:
Albers, Wohlgezogen and Zajac (2016) define strategic alliance as the agreement
between two or more companies to achieve predetermined business objectives. For example,
Google enters into strategic alliances with other IT giants like Apple to bring about more
developed products.
2.4 Diversification:
Ribeiro et al. (2016) define diversification as the strategy which business companies
apply to expand their product line. For example, Google diversified into different markets which
includes flight booking and online payment systems.
Related Diversification:
Related diversification of companies refer to the process when companies enters into
business agreements with companies at the same stage of production. For example, Google
enters into contracts with different software companies to manufacture software.
Unrelated Diversification:
Unrelated diversification consist of agreements between companies in different stages of
production. The aim of unrelated diversification is to lower the cost of production.

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Restructuring:
Corporate restructuring can be defined as the reorganizing the entire operations of the
company. Restructuring can lead to change in leadership, changing in format of the company
concerned or any other important business aspect.
3. Governance, Social Responsibility, Stakeholders & Ethics:
3.1 Evaluate your conglomerate organisation (including all business units) in terms of how
it practices governance, social responsibility and ethics:
An evaluation of the governance, social responsibility and ethics adopted by Google
shows that the conglomerate follows an efficient corporate governance strategy. It can be pointed
out that the very products of the company are guided by the corporate governance and CSR. For
example, the Google Map enables people to navigate ways which they can take while travelling
to nearby places. The people can travel on bikes instead of driving in cars, thus reducing the air
pollution which is caused by public transport. Further, it can also be pointed out that people can
gain information on weather forecast and pollution on the Google maps. Thus it is evident from
this research that CRS and ethics lie at the very crux of the corporate strategies of Google LLC.
Use the Balance Score card in evaluating your organisation’s performance strengths and
limitations:
To my
stakeholders
To my
customers
With my
internal
management
process
With my new
ability top
innovative and
grow
Financial Customer Internal Innovation and

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CORPORATE STRATEGIES OF GOOGLE LLC
perspective perspective perspective learning
If my vision
succeeds, how will
I differ?
Yes Yes Yes Yes
What are the critical
success factors?
Yes Yes Yes Yes
What are the critical
measurements?
Yes Yes Yes Yes
How will these be
connected to
feedback and
rewards
Yes Yes Yes Yes
Figure 2. Balance score card
(Source: Author)
Evaluate how the organisation is able to practice or not able to practice CSR and to
address the rights of Stakeholders (i.e. Stakeholder theory) . Evaluate the ethical practices
of the organisation and support your discussion/analysis with relevant academic
literatures:
It can be evaluated that Google LLC practices CSR and protects the rights of the
stakeholders. Tarhini et al. (2015) mentions that business organisations should operate in ways to

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protect the interests of the stakeholders. As far as Google LLC is concerned, the company
operates towards protecting interests of the stakeholders. Afridi (2018) opines that business
organisations in order to benefit stakeholders today gain their participation in their corporate
planning as well. This is evident from the operations of Google LLC. The multinational company
obtains feedback from consumers which it incorporates in its product strategies. The Google
products like Youtube and Gmail have become more user friendly, thus benefiting customers.
Thus, it is evident that the Google protects the interests of the stakeholders while operating in the
global market which also includes Australia.
4. Organisational Structure, Culture, Diversity & Performance Measurement:
4.1 Evaluate your organisation’s (including all business units) in terms of the
organisational culture, culture and performance measurement:
The organisational structure of Google LLC is flat and designed to make dynamic
decisions suited to the market. The apex management of the company is housed in the United
States and while apex management bodies in the host countries make policies pertaining to the
countries concerned. For example, the management board present in Australia makes decisions
regrading Australian operations in accordance to the central strategies made by the apex
management.
What is the organisation’s organisational structure including its culture?
Organisational structure refers to the structure which the company concerned follow to
arrange their upper, middle and lower level management. For example, the organisational
structure of Google consists of CEO at the helm followed by the board of directors.

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CORPORATE STRATEGIES OF GOOGLE LLC
How is organisational performance in the different business unit including functional areas
monitored? What control mechanisms including incentives are used?
The organisational performance is different in business units because the performance of
each business unit differs. The control mechanism used to measure and monitor the performance
of each unit is determined by the apex management which also includes the incentives
Evaluate how diversity (including inclusion) is practised within the organisation. What are
some of the diversity strengths and limitations?
Google Australia follows diversity by offering all the employees equal opportunities to
attend professional development. The company does not distinguish between employees on the
basis of factors like gender and race. The advantages of diversity are that it motivates employees
to perform and bring about innovation. The two disadvantages of diversity are it require training
of employees and often leads to conflicts.
4.0 Conclusion:
Thus, it can be concluded from the above discussion that Google makes strong corporate
at the apex level. The company practices vertical and horizontal integration to expand its
business.
5.0 Recommendations:
The following are the recommendations which can be put forward before the
management of Google LLC:
Strengthening positions in the emerging markets and expanding into new markets:
The management of Google should form corporate strategies to strengthen its presence of
Google in emerging markets and expand into new markets. The company has several offices in

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the developed western markets of North America and Europe. However, in the emerging markets
like Asia, the company has very offices compared to the size of the market. Most of the
operations of Google in Asian markets are concentrated in emerging economic giants like India
and China with several offices in different locations in these countries. The company has hardly
any presence in other emerging markets like Sri Lanka and Vietnam. There are only two offices
in booming information technology markets like Australia. The company has practically no
offices in Africa save South Africa. The same holds true for the emerging market of Latin
America. The lack of direct presence in emerging markets puts immense pressure on the existing
offices of the company. This also adds to the administration and operation costs. Thus, the
management of the company should consider expansion into new markets and strengthening
presence in existing markets.
Empowering of national level management bodies:
The apex management of Google should empower the national level management bodies
to take more prudent decisions. For example, as far as the national level management bodies in
Australia is concerned, the apex management should provide more training to the managers
stationed in Australia. This would enable the managers in Australia to take more prudent
decisions regarding the needs of the Australian markets. In fact, well trained managers in
Australia would pave ways for the company to expand more into the market. This would
strengthen the position of Google in its host countries.

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6.0. References:
About.google. 2019. About.google. [online] Available at: https://about.google/intl/en/locations/?
region=asia-pacific [Accessed 6 Jun. 2019].
Afridi, A.H., 2018. Stakeholders Analysis for Serendipitous Recommenders system in Learning
Environments. Procedia computer science, 130, pp.222-230.
Albers, S., Wohlgezogen, F. and Zajac, E.J., 2016. Strategic alliance structures: An organization
design perspective. Journal of Management, 42(3), pp.582-614.
Argyres, N. and Mostafa, R., 2016. Knowledge inheritance, vertical integration, and entrant
survival in the early US auto industry. Academy of Management Journal, 59(4), pp.1474-1492.
Arikan, A.M. and Stulz, R.M., 2016. Corporate acquisitions, diversification, and the firm's life
cycle. The Journal of Finance, 71(1), pp.139-194.
Bauer, F., Matzler, K. and Wolf, S., 2016. M&A and innovation: The role of integration and
cultural differences—A central European targets perspective. International Business
Review, 25(1), pp.76-86.
Cloud.google.com. 2019. Cloud.google.com. [online] Available at:
https://cloud.google.com/blog/topics/customers/how-whirlpool-corporation-is-driving-digital-
transformation-with-google-cloud [Accessed 6 Jun. 2019].
Foiji, M.H., Hoque, M.A. and Khan, M.B.H., 2019. Strategic Potential of e-HRM in Outsourcing
HR Functions. International Journal of Business and Social Research, 9(2), pp.01-10.
Foucault, T. and Frésard, L., 2018. Corporate strategy, conformism, and the stock market. The
Review of Financial Studies, 32(3), pp.905-950.

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Jagtiani, J. and Maingi, R.Q., 2018. How Important Are Local Community Banks to Small
Business Lending? Evidence from Mergers and Acquisitions (No. 18-18).
Jubaedah, J., Yulivan, I. and Hadi, A.R.A., 2016. The Influence of Financial Performance,
Capital Structure and Macroeconomic Factors on Firm’s Value–Evidence from Textile
Companies at Indonesia Stock Exchange. Applied Finance and Accounting, 2(2), pp.18-29.
Ribeiro, I., Ribeiro Serra, F.A., Bertolini, F. and Rogis, G., 2016. Influences of international
experience and business diversification in internationalization degree of Brazilian
Multinationals. Internext: Revista Electrônica de Negócios Internacionais da ESPM, 11(3).
Schwemmer, C. and Ziewiecki, S., 2018. Social media sellout: The increasing role of product
promotion on YouTube. Social Media+ Society, 4(3), p.2056305118786720.
Sec.gov. 2019. Sec.gov. [online] Available at:
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1652044/000165204419000004/goog10-kq42018.htm
[Accessed 6 Jun. 2019].
Shaukat, A., Qiu, Y. and Trojanowski, G., 2016. Board attributes, corporate social responsibility
strategy, and corporate environmental and social performance. Journal of Business
Ethics, 135(3), pp.569-585.
Spear, S. and Roper, S., 2016. Storytelling in organisations: supporting or subverting corporate
strategy?. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 21(4), pp.516-532.
Tarhini, A., Ammar, H., Tarhini, T. and Masa’deh, R.E., 2015. Analysis of the critical success
factors for enterprise resource planning implementation from stakeholders’ perspective: A
systematic review. International Business Research, 8(4), pp.25-40.

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