Portfolio Management Planning Report: Google's PPM Strategy Analysis

This report provides a detailed analysis of Google's project portfolio management (PPM) planning. It begins with an introduction to portfolio management and its significance, followed by a situational context and evaluation of Google Inc., including its organizational structure, mission, and vision. The report explores how Google manages its projects, the 70/20/10 rule, and areas for improvement. It examines sustainability criteria, opportunities, and threats faced by Google. The report also addresses potential challenges and offers strategies to overcome them. A development plan is proposed, including key elements for introducing PPM, a suggested PPM model, and implementation strategies. Finally, the report discusses tools and techniques relevant to Google's PPM, culminating in a conclusion and references. The report aims to provide insights into Google's strategic approach to resource allocation, risk management, and sustainable development within its project portfolio.

Running Head: Portfolio Management Planning
Portfolio Management Planning Report
Report
System04104
3/15/2019

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Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Project Portfolio Management..............................................................................................................2
Situational Context and Evaluation.......................................................................................................3
Introduction to Google Inc.................................................................................................................3
How Google manages its projects?....................................................................................................4
Google’s 70/20/10 Rule.....................................................................................................................4
Scope for improvement.....................................................................................................................4
Sustainability criteria in Google’s business decision and operations.................................................5
Opportunities and Threats....................................................................................................................5
The likely success that Google might experience by introducing a Project Portfolio Management
Process..............................................................................................................................................5
The likely challenges for adopting project portfolio management process in Google.......................6
How to avoid potential challenges in Future.....................................................................................6
Development Plan.................................................................................................................................6
Key Elements of Plan to introduce Project portfolio management...................................................6
Proposed Project Portfolio Management Model...............................................................................6
Plan to Implement Project portfolio Management in Google............................................................7
Tools and Techniques............................................................................................................................8
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................9
References...........................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
Portfolio management is necessary for every company because it helps the company
in taking correct decisions related to investment. This also helps in matching these investment
with organisational objectives. The Portfolio management assist the organisation in balance
the risk against performance by using optimization of available resources for different
projects. This report is based on portfolio management planning of Google. It also includes
how well this organization has utilized the available resources in terms of investment in those
projects that provide more benefits. The first chapter of this report includes the fundamentals
of portfolio management and its key role in the company. The second chapter includes
information about Google and helps in understanding the concept of portfolio management in
Google. The second chapter helps to understand that what are the risks involved in portfolio
management. In the last part of this report, a project development plan has been discussed for
Google that includes different steps in planning and some key techniques that helps Google in
its investment plan.
Project Portfolio Management
Project portfolio management (PPM) can be defined as a process used by project
managers to analyse the potential return on undertaking a project (EPMC, 2011). Project
manager organises and consolidates every piece of information about projects for forecasting
and business analysis that helps in investing in new projects. Project portfolio management
enables the organisation and manager to see the big picture. A portfolio manager is
responsible for managing and taking care of financial investment. A project manager is
responsible for leveraging the life cycle of investment, projects, and outcomes for effectively
achieve the organisational goals and objectives (Morris and Pinto, 2010).

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(Source: Choi & Varian, 2012)
Situational Context and Evaluation
Introduction to Google Inc.
Google is known as one of the giant organisation in Internet-related services and
products. Google is a USA based multinational technology Company that operates its
business worldwide. Google was founded on 4th September 1998, by its founder members
Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Google has various subsidiaries such as YouTube, Dialogflow,
Google AdMob, etc. Currently, Sundar Pichai is the head of Google and appointed as CEO of
Google. Google is known for its Internet-based services and considered as one of the big four
technology companies alongside Amazon, Facebook, and Apple. The mission and vision of
Google is to organise the world’s information in such a way that is accessible and useful for
everyone.
Mission/Vision Statement of Google: The mission and vision of Google is to
organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
Organisational Plan of Google: Google applies cross-functional structure in the
organisation and give more emphasis on team building and team approach to management.
Google follow the small-company culture where people are working freely and making their

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decision by their own. Google maintains an excellent culture that provides every people to
participate in the company’s success and fee that they are equally important for the company.
How Google manages its projects?
Google is known for its best portfolio management and the organisational structure of
google allow it to focus on those products which yield maximum benefits to the company.
Google has a cross-functional organisational structure that facilitates team building and easy
communication between top management and lower level management. Google culture also
facilitates communication among teammates. This helps the organisation in project portfolio
management while people can easily talk to other responsible people about the project
investment plan and associated risks that involve in the projects (Teller & Kock, 2013).
Google is known for its ‘hands-on-fun’ company culture where people enjoy their work.
Google’s 70/20/10 Rule
70% - Spent on core business: Google spent 70% of their funds on the core
business and which is related to Internet search, cloud computing, videos, advertising, Google
AdMob etc.
20% - Related projects: Google spent 20% of its fund on those businesses that are
related to its business operation but cannot be considered as its core business.
10% - Unrelated new business: Google spend only 10% on the new unrelated
business. Thus, here the risk is on the maximum level, the level of investment is low. Google
spent very less money on the new unrelated business projects.
Scope for improvement
It can be seen that Google mostly invest in its core business operation and not focuses
on new business. However, the other giants such as Facebook and Amazon are known for the
investments in the new business. Thus, Google should approach the new venture and new
projects all over the world. However, the risk of investment in the new business is very high.
However, higher risk project gives a higher profit (Kaiser, El Arbi, & Ahlemann, 2015).
Thus, Google should focus on new projects portfolio that helps the company to gain a
competitive advantage over other technology companies and enables it for sustainable
development in future.

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Sustainability criteria in Google’s business decision and operations
Google is known for its sustainable decision making and operations that gives
maximum benefits to Google. The company has a large number of employees who are able to
perform at any project or assignment in different groups and teams. Google uses a standard
negotiation when the other competitors or company uses the same portfolios having a similar
objective in mind (Jonas, 2010). Google usually launched its project all over the world
including America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa. The organisational
breakdown structure and components of Google's goals are playing an important role in the
program management plan in Google. Google is known for its large investment project plans.
Thus, ensuring the project team responsibility is the major need in project portfolio
management. A better plan always helps in achieving the organisational goals and also helps
in better team coordination (Kerzner, 2010).
Opportunities and Threats
It is the nature of the portfolio that it can also increase the expected potential return
while keeping the risk constant. Google also has some potential threats and opportunities in
future, which are discussed below:
The likely success that Google might experience by introducing a Project
Portfolio Management Process
Google have various potential opportunities in future that determine its future success.
In recent time, the needs of customers are changing day by day and people buying a new
primary internet-enabled device every year and changing their old devices so frequently
(Cooper, 2009). Thus, the heavy demand of customers forced Google to look in a portfolio
type of approach in managing the businesses. According to the theory of corporate finance, it
is accepted by many experts that portfolio can hold an equal level of expected potential return
while reducing risk (Jonas, 2010).
Likely challenges for adopting project portfolio management process in
Google
Google’s portfolio management always clashes with a major social network company
which is pioneered a portfolio approach managing major digital assets - this company being
Facebook. Google has a large number of competitors that are related to the same business
operation as Google such as search engine, cloud computing etc. These companies also
provide online product and services like Google (Siew, 2016). The major challenge in

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portfolio management for Google is high-risk involvement in financial investment because of
strong competitors already challenging Google businesses. Google operations and financial
results are subject to a higher degree of risks and uncertainties. These challenges and risks
can adversely affect the business operations of the company.
How to avoid potential challenges in Future
To face the heavy competition and minimise the investment risk, Google should
invest in small and medium-size organisations that allow Google to minimise its risk of
investment and compete with large competitors like Facebook, Amazon, etc. The increasing
number of new organisations provides more options and choices to invest in new portfolios.
The Google is experiencing increase in demand, which could encourage it to invest in new
portfolios of small business organisation (Smith & Sonnenblick, 2013).
Development Plan
The objective of portfolio management in any organisation is to determine the sequencing
of projects to achieve the organisational objective and goals in an economic manner. Google
should follow this plan for the successful completion of projects:
Key Elements of Plan to introduce Project portfolio management
These are the key elements of Google portfolio management plan which helps the
company to make rights investment decisions in various projects:
1. Risk assessment of every projects before investment decision.
2. Proper alignment of plan with business objectives
3. Ensure optimum use of resource utilisation
4. Division of people in small team that is headed by a project manager.
5. Focus on coordination to improve collaboration among people during projects
Proposed Project Portfolio Management Model
According to the current situation of Google, it will be better if Google can adopt the
Modern Portfolio Model of Harry Markowitz. The emphasis of modern portfolio model is on
investing on various projects and calculating the performance of each asset in the portfolio
with reference to potential risk and benefits. As per this model, Google can investment in
various projects in small and semi-large organisation. If Google calculates the risk on every
project, calculate the final risk and return from each project before investment, Google can
gain maximum benefit and faces low risk.

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Plan to Implement Project portfolio Management in Google
1. Google should improve alignment with business strategy and objectives
Google should choose the project that helps the company to achieve its future goals. The
project should be aligned with the organisational objective. Thus, Google should also focus
on the capacity planning. Google has a large number of employees and they can work in a
collaborative team. The project manager should also constantly focuses on portfolio reporting
by team members (Kopmann, Kock, Killen, & Gemünden, 2017).
2. Improved coordination among people
Google should work on improving its communication and coordination within the
organisation. Pipeline management is also crucial for Google. The fundamental of pipeline
management is the ability to connect the decision-making process for new portfolio projects
and selecting new capital investment projects as well.
3. Resource Utilization Management
Resource utilisation plan is the core of portfolio management. Google should focus on
record the time used in every project. The company should also need to define the appropriate
variables in the new portfolio. It helps in assessing the risk involved in the project. Google
should determine where and when the company should deploy the organisational resources
and in which type of portfolio (Project Management Institute, 2013).
4. Improved Financial Management
Financial risk is also involved in large and long-term projects. Google should allow the
finance department to check the viability of every project before investing in any project. It is
necessary for the financial organisation to measure and assess the value of each project and
determine that strategic objectives and priorities of the organisation can be achieved in an
effective manner.
5. Improved Risk management
Various risks are involved in portfolio management because there are large numbers of
competitors are involved in the same type of portfolio with the same objectives. The needs of

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customers are shifting continuously with changes in technology; Google should care about
these factors, which create risks for the project.
Tools and Techniques
There is a large number of tool and techniques are available for portfolio management.
The different tools and techniques help the portfolio managers in achieving the optimum
balance between risk and return, stability and growth by making good use of available
resources and information. Some common famous PPM techniques are as follow:
1. Value Cost performance Metrics is considered one of the famous technique to
measure portfolio management because it is not always considered ROI. It is one of
the key techniques, which is used in project selection. This technique calculates the
overall return on the investment, measures the value cost relationship, and measures
how an investment will return.
2. Strategic Alignment Metrics is helpful in measuring the alignment of the project
with the organisational strategy and determine whether the proposed or current project
is strategic fit or not. This technique helps the organisation to measure the impact of
the project through a score line and consider whether the project or investment serve
the purpose or not.
3. Continuous Improvement Metrics is designed to identify the level of operational
excellence in order to manage the projects and process of managing the portfolio. This
technique helps in to identify the possible opportunities for improving the project
process and may have an impact downstream in the portfolio.
In the era of heavy competition, Google should focus on the first technique of project
portfolio management. Google is a large company and invests a huge amount of money on
the projects. Thus, it is necessary for the company to evaluate the cost and value of every
project and its portfolios. Ignoring the return or value, which is yields by investing a huge
amount on a project, may cause a huge loss for the company.
Conclusion
Google’s business is one of the more intensely competitive businesses in the world.
As per the report, it can be said that Google’s business operation totally depends on user
demands and needs and it is affected by changes in technology, and frequent introduction of

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new technological products and services etc. Google invest so much money on its existing
projects and very less invests in new projects. Google should invest its money on new
projects because it provides its opportunity to explore and bring new things to its customer. A
good Project Portfolio Management plan helps Google to meet its strategic goals and future
objectives. However, Google spend very little amount on its new business. However, in the
end it can be said that the company should focus on new portfolios that meet customer needs.
However, Google should also care about using the proper portfolio management technique to
invest in a project. A good portfolio management plan also helps the company to assess the
project effectiveness and its return on investment.

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References
Choi, H., & Varian, H. (2012). Predicting the present with Google Trends. Economic
Record, 88, 2-9.
Cooper, R. G. (2009). Effective gating. Marketing Management, 18(2), 12–17.
EPMC (2011). Project Portfolio Management: A View from the Management Trenches (1st
ed.). Wiley, NJ.
Hubbard, G. (2009). Measuring organizational performance: Beyond the triple bottom
line. Business Strategy and the Environment, 18(3), 177–191.
Jonas, D. (2010). Empowering project portfolio managers: How management involvement
impacts project portfolio management performance. International Journal of Project
Management, 28(8), 818-831.
Kaiser, M. G., El Arbi, F., & Ahlemann, F. (2015). Successful project portfolio management
beyond project selection techniques: Understanding the role of structural
alignment. International Journal of Project Management, 33(1), 126-139.
Kerzner, H (2010). Project Management Best Practices: Achieving Global Excellence (2nd
ed.). Wiley, NJ.
Kopmann, J., Kock, A., Killen, C. P., & Gemünden, H. G. (2017). The role of project
portfolio management in fostering both deliberate and emergent
strategy. International Journal of Project Management, 35(4), 557-570.
Martinsuo, M. (2013). Project portfolio management in practice and in context. International
Journal of Project Management, 31(6), 794-803.
Morris, P. and Pinto, J. (2010). The Wiley Guide to Project, Program and Portfolio
Management, (1st ed.). Wiley, NJ.
Project Management Institute. (2013). The standard for program management (3rd ed.).
Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.
Siew, R. Y. J. (2016). Integrating sustainability into construction project portfolio
management. KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering, 20(1), 101-108.

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Smith, D., & Sonnenblick, R. (2013). From budget-based to strategy-based portfolio
management: A six-year case study, Research-Technology Management, 56(5), 45–
51.
Teller, J., & Kock, A. (2013). An empirical investigation on how portfolio risk management
influences project portfolio success. International Journal of Project
Management, 31(6), 817-829.