Strategic Decision Making and Integration Analysis: Google's Strategy

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Google's strategic decision-making and integration processes. It begins with an executive summary and then delves into Google's mission and vision statements, strategic intent, and corporate social responsibility initiatives. The report examines Google's leadership and practices, evaluating strategic approaches to innovation, including mergers and acquisitions and the blue ocean framework. It also analyzes ESG sustainability innovations and organizational improvements, focusing on environmental, social, and governance criteria. The report concludes with a strategic position statement analysis and a summary of key findings, providing a thorough understanding of Google's business strategies and its ability to remain a relevant technology leader.

Running Head: Strategic decision making and Integration
STRATEGIC DECISION MAKING AND INTEGRATION
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Executive Summary
In today’s contemporary times, many organizations are facing a volatile and fast-changing
business environment that they have to adapt regularly to stay on track. Consumer taste and
preferences are always changing from time to time and adapting to these changes maybe
occasionally overwhelming. Such changes, for example; change in government and international
policies, technology penetration and cultural beliefs and practices depend on the current business
environment(Johnson, 2016). However, these changes could be handled easily through effective
strategic decision making and integration in organizations. Strategic decision making and
integration could be described as the process where an origination’s mission and objectives are
created through effective studying of the business environment and undertaking a good course of
action in pursing activities, that will lead in achieving its goals and objectives. This report will
analyze the business strategy used by Google Incorporated which is a technology giant and see
why it has remained relevant and a crucial organization in spearheading technology.

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Contents
STRATEGIC DECISION MAKING AND INTEGRATION........................................................4
Introduction and Background..........................................................................................................4
Mission and vision statements.........................................................................................................4
Strategic intent posture....................................................................................................................5
Google Corporate Social Responsibility.........................................................................................6
Google Leadership and Practices.....................................................................................................7
Evaluating Strategic Approaches to Innovation on Performance Frontier......................................8
ESG sustainability innovations and organizational improvements...............................................11
Strategic Position Statement Analysis...........................................................................................13
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................15
References......................................................................................................................................16

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STRATEGIC DECISION MAKING AND INTEGRATION
Introduction and Background
Google incorporated is an American based public corporation established in 1998 by Larry Page
and Sergey Bring while they were still Ph.D. students at Stanford University. The company earns
its revenue through advertising related to its Internet-based services and products such as cloud
services, web-based mapping, video sharing services, internet search and social networking.
Google has always been able to stay dominant in the market through a series of strategic
partnerships and acquisition of promising firms related to one of its main products A good
business strategy creates an effective foundation where organizations perform well in their target
markets. There are also in a position to adapt to changes and still remain relevant in the market,
therefore, regardless of the numerous strategies available depending on each business market or
the environment, it is essential that the right strategy is chosen and effective plans for integration
are performed.
Google’s vision statement is “to provide access to the world’s information in one click.” This is
a clear reflection that the company has achieved for example, through Google search engine,
people are in a position to find any information or data by just accessing this product which is
easy to access and use. (Gurley, Peters and Collins, 2015)
Google’s mission statement is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally
accessible and useful.” This is a clear reflection that the company has achieved since the
company was established it has strived to maximize its efficiency and effectiveness through
proprietary algorithms which manage data in their databases where individuals are able to access
any information they want through their search engines. Google has been able to round up and

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arrange information varying form each known discipline, therefore, catering to each individual
need (Nylén, and Holmström, 2015)
Strategic intent posture
This is an approach organization pioneers take in applying a business' qualities to the present and
long-haul needs of the target market. Defining a strategic posture is a piece of an extensive key
planning process when top-level employees team up to build up the vision, objectives, and
strategies for a business within a reasonable time-frame. Google has two strategic intent postures
i. Being the future. Through adherence to its mission and vision statement, Google has
shaped the future and continues to do so. Starting out as a search engine company where
it has managed rounded up all knowledge known to humans into a single database for a
click away from access is riveting. Through this, it has rationalized and created an online
world where individuals are able to learn, shop and have fun through its products a
service. Google is also invested in advanced research on the technology field where
career students and professionals from different backgrounds are able to interact and
come up with new innovation and ideas.
ii. Mergers and acquisitions Consumer taste and preferences are changing time to time due
to the business environment and technology advancement. Google adaptability to the
future is possible through mergers and acquisition of companies offer products and
services that offer ground breaking technologies

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How strategic intent can lead to sustainable competitive advantage.
Competitive advantage is when a company has favorable conditions that are suitable in gaining
dominance over a target market. This condition always aligns with the three Michael porter
strategies of sustain a competitive advantage which are cost leadership, differentiation and focus.
However, a good strategic intent will lead to maintaining the competitiveness of the
organization. The strategic intent paves a rout that leads to the key factors in Michael porter’s
theory of completive advantage. Google is a world class leader in technology innovation and
advancements which is its primary objectives. It gains a completive advantage through acquiring
patents to the innovations where it would lease the technology to its competitors in the same
market.Another way googles strategic intent can lead to competitive advantage is through merger
and acquisition .Google has a strong purchasing power which will enable it to acquire firms that
have groundbreaking technology that may shape the futre.A good example is the purchase of
Android mobile operating system that later gave google a competitive advantage over Symbian
and Apple operating system in more than a decade.
Google Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate social obligation, frequently shortened "CSR," is a partnership's drives to evaluate and
assume liability for the organization's impacts on natural and social prosperity. The term, for the
most part, applies to endeavors that go past what might be required by regulators or ecological
insurance gatherings. Googles stakeholders are diverse from the various products and services
offered by the organization from its original google search engine to its mobile brand. Google
maintains the interest of its stakeholders through suitable CSR policies and maintains its position
as the leader in technology innovation (Brunswicker and Vanhaverbeke, 2015).

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The mission statement “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible
and useful has two fundamental purposes rather than profit. It's investing in acquiring
information and organizing the information into a user-friendly forum that will suit everyone and
make that information accessible globally, for this to be possible one has to access internet
connectivity (Bryson, 2018). Therefore, in areas where there is minimum or no internet
connection google has launched free air balloon Wi-Fi hotspot in various regions in Africa.
Google also provides free student training programs and scholarships in universities globally to
increase idea flow and innovations among students
Google Leadership and Practices
leadership in Google assumes a successful part and is thought to be of vital significance.
Authority and great administration were viewed as two essential mainstays of the organization
once its potential was perceived. As in every single other organization, in Google additionally
the pioneers or the best directors set the objectives and after that, all groups strive to accomplish
those objectives (Mair, Mayer and Lutz, 2015). However, Google has constantly been laying off
secretly engineers and specialties, is has been claimed that Google has laid off its employees to a
total of 30,000 since its establishment due to efficiency and market demand in providing quality
and efficiency. However, their hiring of skilled professions has also increased since the
2007/2008 crisis.

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Figure 1: Number of full-time Alphabet employees from 2007 to 2017
The position of chief executive at Google has only been filled by two individuals, Google’s new
CEO, SundarPichai the former head of chrome and android replaced Larry page who is now
running Alphabet company which is a google group of companies. The leadership seems to be
very stable especially under the new CEO who joined the company at 2004 as the vice president
of product management. He successfully led the team that innovated chrome browser and its
operating system
Evaluating Strategic Approaches to Innovation on Performance Frontier
Google is broadly considered, by the overall population and business specialists, to be among
most creative organizations on the planet. So how does Google advance a culture of development
and guarantee that imaginative thoughts are appropriately executed, making gainful new
products that position the organization for long haul achievement?, This is achieved through
google strategic intent postures where they innovate and acquire companies. However, Google

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has for the past years using the blue ocean framework to stays ahead of the competition and gain
the largest market share
Fig 2: Worldwide desktop market share of leading search engines from January 2010 to October
2017
Blue ocean framework is when companies or large cooperation such as Google tend to contest
into the markets where it is minimal or no competition. A good example is when Google
purchased YouTube a web-based video streaming service at a time when such a product seemed
farfetched. Critics were sure the product would fail as of the heavy pirated content that the
product hosted. Google ha to sought the issue through remitting payments per every view which
skyrocketed their revenue years later.

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Figure 3: Google's revenue worldwide from 2002 to 2017 (in billion U.S. dollars)
Basically, googles constantly increasing workforce, expansion and billions in revenue will assist
the cooperation in changing its innovation strategy and adapting to changes in the environment,
A good example is when Google entered the browser market where there were competitors such
as opera mini and Microsoft who dominated the browser product market. Google innovation
strategy was to work on a similar product and provide quality features that will attract customers
to use the products ( Kotabe and Helsen, 2014) The company works on the Chrome browser for
years and today is the best browser. A study showed that 7 out of 10 personal computers are
using a chrome browser. This shows that it was able to dominate the market through innovation
strategy. An instance or response to a competitor is when companies such as Netflix and Hulu
revolutionized the streaming services to a home subscription theater where consumers watched
their favorite films at their residents, this which was a game changer for Google’s YouTube

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products. The company adapted by introducing similar products but what made it catch up is the
diversification of content that addresses social-cultural practice and beliefs automatically.
Anyone over 16years of age could open a YouTube channel and start vlog in (recording videos
of one’s activities) their life experiences and so on. This attracted a huge audience where Google
made billions through advertisement. YouTube made stars, makes money off them, pays them
well and gains a conducive market share, a win on both sides.
ESG sustainability innovations and organizational improvements
Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Criteria is an arrangement of models for an
organization's tasks that socially cognizant financial specialists use to screen investments.
Environmental criteria take a gander at how an organization executes as a steward of the
indigenous habitat. Social criteria look at how an organization oversees associations with its
workers, providers, clients and the groups where it works. Administration manages an
organization's initiative, official pay, reviews, inward controls and investor rights (Skibiñska,
Sukiennik, and Szczepanik, 2015).
Environment. Google has for the past years taken measure in sustaining energy use and pollution
while considering the stakeholders. They consider the use of energy by their products and
services and try innovating products that would use the minimal energy possible. They have
resulted in going into clean energy by turning most of their major offices to be powered by solar
energy. Through this, there are able to save energy bills that will be focused on innovation which
will revert bonuses to its stakeholders (Eden, 2016).
Google had to break barriers by going green and focus towards innovations that will sustain
environment as well as reward its stake holders in the process. One innovation is the electric car
where Google is in competition with Tesla to acquire autonomous driving rights. Another

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breakthrough is the monitoring of deforestation globally through their google maps product. This
product is now issued by governments and nongovernment organizations in monitoring
deforestation, this goes in handy as stakeholders benefited from these products which show a
strategic incentive leading to a competitive advantage over its competitors in the technology
field.
Social and governance Google being a technology company focused in technical there is a minim
number of female employees compared to the male employee, however, compared to other tech
firms, Google is within the stipulated policies but thus can still be improved (Antoun, Zhang,
Conrad, and Schober, 2016). With regards to governance, Google has revealed that 70% of its
board is autonomous, which surpasses the business normal of 60%, however, it may not be
sufficiently powerful to fulfill financial investors who incline toward more prominent executive
freedom. Finally, Google did not reveal its group venture metric (Grant, 2016)