Google, Inc. Case Analysis

Google, Inc. Case Analysis

Kelly Siegal, Estela Lopez, Noelle Morgan

Pacific Union College

Mission and Corporate Governance of Google

               Google has been one of the most revolutionizing companies of the 21st century. It was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998 for one reason, and one reason only: to create a search engine that could organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and practical. This will always be Googles mission, however, rumors of modification are in the works. Google has gone beyond the framework of simply being a search engine and as a result of innovation they have become a brand that goes beyond data collection. They have products and services that make them much more than what they initially intended. Their vision statement is to provide access to the world’s information in one click. Google purposely chose a mission/vision statement that they can never achieve because “there will always be new information to organize and more ways to make it useful” (Feloni 2015). Google’s mission has no mention of profit, market, customers, shareholders, or users like other successful companies mention in their mission statement, “It is a moral rather than a business goal, one that is forever something to chase” (Feloni 2015). This mission statement has created a space for Google to innovate and push themselves to new heights in their industry.
Googles motto: “Don’t be Evil”

            Google also has a motto that they have used for many years called, “Don’t be evil”. Google’s idea for don’t be evil was a representation of how they were going to treat their users. For example, it would only show relevant ads, never show pop-us or annoying ads, and would never sell search results (Rosoff, 2011). They have lived up to this motto by some major things for its users such as: tightening the restriction and source code releases on Android and buying a hardware maker to create “reference” phones makes Android better for users; Changing its search algorithm to get rid of irrelevant results makes Google search engine a much better option for users. Additionally, adding a social network gives Google access to data that users are sharing with each other, which adds product value in that it makes Google search better for users; and taking less money so developers will create games for it makes Google+ better for users (Rosoff, 2011). “’Don’t be evil’ is one of the best things about Google, simultaneously representing the important idea that a company should not take itself too seriously, and an acknowledgement of the potentially corrupting power that Google strove to acquire” (Newman, 2014). Although Google puts its emphasis on “Don’t be evil” to their users, they still cause some shifts to other competitors around them. For instance, when Google bought Motorola for 12.5 billion dollars in 2011, they entered into the phone market. It was then that Google started to compete directly with partners like Samsung and LG. Google also changed its algorithms with no warning causing certain business plunging in the rankings (Rosoff, 2011). And lastly Google entered into the social media market when they came out with Google+. Google tried to take smaller cuts of in-game sales to draw developers to its platform (Rosoff, 2011). Google has no problem with doing marketing tactics that put them above their competitors or eliminating weaker competitors.