Final Strategic Plan

Environmental Analysis

John Mbiti

STR/581

02/03/2017

Carlos Pinda

University of Phoenix

Organization: Google Inc.

Google is a business organization that basically operates in the internet technology industry. One of its major services is the provision of internet searching services. It is the largest search engine that enables internet users to look for different information about different topics on the internet. It is easy-to-use thereby a preference of many. In addition to this, Google also has various other services such as Google documents, Google maps, and the Google drive. These provide a wide variety of services to its users enabling them to perform different tasks. Another major service of Google is their Gmail. Users are able to create email accounts that enable them to send and receive emails.

Over the years, the company has been dominant due to its ability to meet and exceed the expectations of its customers. The success of the company is attributed to its customer service as well as the consideration of the welfare of its employees. It is important to realize that the customers and employees play a significant part in the survival of a business in any industry. This is a consideration that the management and ownership of Google have taken into account and this has enabled it to stay successful and competent despite growing competition from other businesses.

Internal Environment Assessment

The internal environment of an organization basically refers to the environment that is found within the organization (Craig, 2012). This is a small organizational environment that can be manipulated or affected by the strategies of an organization. The ability of an organization to perform in the market depends on its internal environment. From within the company, Google does not pay attention to maximizing profits. Rather, the company focuses its efforts on meeting the needs of the customers. It has a competent team of employees as well as sufficient resources that can enable it to meet and exceed the expectations of their customers.

The employees are part of the company's internal environment because it can decide who to hire, fire, or retain. As aforementioned, the internal environment of an organization significantly contributes to its performance in the market. Google ensures that it hires committed and competent employees. It provides training services to them to make sure that they improve their skills. In addition to this, the company uses its resources to create a friendly working environment to make sure that the employees do their best. The manipulation of the internal environment determines the future of the organization (Steiner, 2010).

The most important strengths and weaknesses and resource assessment

Strengths and weaknesses are part of the internal environment of an organization because they can be manipulated internally. The most important strengths of Google is the fact that it is the market leader with respect to search engines. Over time, the company has managed to improve its services connection that it provides the best for its clients. For this reason, Google has built a strong brand and is the leader of the respect to internet search engines. This has enabled it to maintain the position of a market leader.

One of the major weaknesses of Google is over-dependence on advertisements. As at now, more than 85% of Google's revenues come from advertisements. This implies that true that be a reduction in advertisements, then the company will greatly suffer. If businesses prefer advertising the products to other platforms Google will feel a great negative impact on its revenues. Despite this weakness, the company has sufficient resources that can enable it to invest in other businesses or projects. It has an able workforce as well as financial and material resources that can guarantee it a bright future.

Internal Environmental Factors

One of the most important internal environmental factors is the corporate culture. This basically refers to the overall behavior that has been developed within the organization and affects the performance of employees. Google has a strong corporate culture that enables its employees to display the best talents in different places. The company assigns different duties and possibilities to its employees in an attempt to bring the best out of. This has enabled Google to create employees that are accountable and responsible. The corporate culture has greatly contributed towards the success of the company in the external business environment.

Technological capabilities have also assisted Google to stand out in the external environment. As aforementioned, this technology giant has resources that enable it to achieve different goals and objectives. It is noted that the utilization of the internal factors of an organization affects its performance in the external environment. Google realizes this and has utilized its internal abilities to create a favorable external outcome. The external analysis of a business environment creates a result that is caused by the internal environment. Therefore, whether or not a business is profitable in the external environment depends on how the internal factors are manipulated.

Competitor Analysis

A competitor analysis simply refers to the identification of competitors as well as the strategies that they utilize to achieve their goals (Fleisher, 2015). This enables a business to understand the strengths and the weaknesses of other industry players. It is important to understand competitors because the knowledge provides details on how to adjust strategies to be more competitive. One of the biggest competitors of Google is Microsoft. This company is considered a competitor because it provides similar services to Googles. The two companies have the same market to a large extent. For example, Microsoft also has an email service (outlook). In addition to this, it provides cloud computing or storage, maps, and document management software such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Microsoft has a strong brand name which makes it trusted and preferred by many users. It has managed to stand the test of time through overcoming challenges even under the most threatening financial crisis. It also has a competent team of employees as well as sufficient resources that can enable it to invest in other projects. This makes it a strong competitor because it is equipped with resources and has a large customer base.

The Structure of the Organization

An organizational structure shows the allocation of different duties and responsibilities between different levels of management (Alvesson, 2012). A typical organization has three levels of management, the lower level management, mid-level management, at the upper or executive level of management. An organizational structure shows how these different levels of management engage and relate with respect to duties and responsibilities. Google uses matrix organizational structure in the sense that it employs different tactics. Generally, the company makes use of the function-based organizational structure. This is an organizational structure whereby employees are grouped depending on their functions, for example, engineering and design, sales and marketing, and product management among others.

The nature of the structure of the organization has a significant impact on its performance (Simerson, 2011). Taking this into account, it is necessary for the management teams of different organizations to come up with effective organizational structures that will enable them to achieve their targets. The function-based organizational structure used to buy Google comes along with a positive impact on performance. It boosts the relationship between different employees and also enables them to focus on the goals and objectives assigned to them. In addition to this, it has led to the decentralization of duties and responsibilities thereby reducing the workload and reducing the time within which tasks are achieved.

The Organization’s Competitive Position and the Possibilities

As stated earlier, Google is the market leader with respect to search engines. With respect to this, the company is the most competitive because it is ahead of the rest of its competitors in the market. As a means to boost its competitive position in the market, Google has added on it services by providing additional services to its users such as email services, document management, maps, online storage, among others. This diversification has boosted the company's competitiveness. For the purpose of sustaining the competitive position, it is important for businesses to diversify the products and services for the purpose of attracting more customers.

This competitive position of Google comes along with various possibilities. First of all, the company has managed to strongly build its brand name and this enables it to attract and retain more customers thereby achieving sustainability in the future. In addition to this, the company will enjoy the partnership of other businesses that will be pleased to be associated with it. Businesses need to focus on achieving competitiveness as this opens new opportunities for them.

References

Alvesson, A. (2012). Understanding Organizational Culture. London: SAGE.

Craig, T. (2012). Organizations and the Business Environment. Burlington, MA: Elsevier.

Fleisher, S. (2015). Business and Competitive Analysis. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.

Simerson, B. (2011). Strategic Planning. Santa Barbara: Praeger.

Steiner, G. (2010). Strategic Planning. New York: The Free Press.