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Strategic Business Proposal 1 of 21
Strategic Business Proposal
For
Google, Inc.
For: Google, Inc. www.google.com
Prepared On: June 7, 2014
Prepared By: Jordan King, Michelle Betancourt, and Jessie Streeval
Instructor Name: Margaret Cox
Strategic Business Proposal Page 2 of 21
Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................ 3
Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................................. 3
1. Environmental Scanning ..................................................................................................................................... 4
Company Overview ............................................................................................................................................. 4
Internal Analysis .................................................................................................................................................. 4
External Analysis ................................................................................................................................................. 7
2. Challenges & Solutions ..................................................................................................................................... 10
Organizational Challenges ................................................................................................................................. 10
Proposed Solution ............................................................................................................................................. 10
3. Strategy Formulation .......................................................................................................................................... #
Operations .......................................................................................................................................................... #
Sales & Marketing ............................................................................................................................................... #
Legal & Ethical ..................................................................................................................................................... #
4. Financial Data Analysis ....................................................................................................................................... #
Financial Overview of the Company ................................................................................................................... #
Ratio Analysis Chart ............................................................................................................................................ #
Stock Price Chart ................................................................................................................................................. #
Label Additional Chart Here ................................................................................................................................ #
5. Strategy Implementation ................................................................................................................................... #
Timeline and Proposed Milestones ..................................................................................................................... #
6. Strategy Evaluation ............................................................................................................................................. #
Implementation Evaluation & Benchmarks ........................................................................................................ #
7. Appendices and References ............................................................................................................................... #
References .......................................................................................................................................................... #
Appendices .......................................................................................................................................................... #
Appendix 1:Three Year Synopsis of Income Statements ............................................................................... #
Appendix 2:Three Year Synopsis of Balance Sheets ...................................................................................... #
Appendix 3: Comparison Graph of Competitive Sales/Revenues ................................................................. #
Strategic Business Proposal Page 3 of 21
Introduction Executive Summary
To Whom It May Concern,
YourU is Google's breakthrough into the educational market. By acquiring a collegiate niche, we
hope to expand our brand into schools nationwide. Our mobile application will help guide
students through their college journey, giving students access to what is important to them
immediately on their mobile devices. YourU will feature campus map, peer and teacher contact
information, access to grades and class schedules, as well a becoming a valuable tool for campus
guests and potential new students. YourU will start small, focusing on group beta testing, before
we offer this product to eager college campuses nationwide. With a student-‐focused marketing
campaign, as well as a partnership with Google Charity's One Today, YourU is creatively and
effectively crafted with today's student in mind. We ask you to join us on our journey into the
world of education, and hope that YourU will aid the spread of education everywhere.
_____________________ _______________________ ______________________
Michelle Betancourt Jordan King Jessie Streeval
Strategic Business Proposal Page 4 of 21
1: Environmental Scanning Internal Analysis
Company Overview As the world leader in global technology, Google has paved the way for online search operating systems and platforms since it’s creation in 1998. Previously known as BackRub, founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin initially built the company as a search engine to uncover the importance of individual webpages to the public. Google, Inc. was born after Andy Bechtolscheim invested $100,000 to the entity, and over the years Google has evolved into the global conglomerate it is today. The Initial Public Offering of 19,605,052 shares of Class A common stock took place on Wall Street on August 18, 2004, making Google one of the fastest companies in the US to go public (The Wall Street Journal, 2004). Google focuses on key areas of global technology, including search engine optimization, advertising, operating systems and platforms, enterprise and hardware products As of May 2014; Google is valued at $382.47 billion, with sales of $59.73 billion. The company generates revenue through the delivery of online advertising, the production of hardware products, and the acquisition of multiple corporate entities. Google has remained successful by upholding their ethics, goals, missions and objectives. (Google, 2014) Mission Statement: “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” (Google, 2014) Goals and Objectives:
1. Focus on the user and all else will follow. 2. It’s best to do one thing really, really well. 3. Fast is better than slow. 4. Democracy on the web works. 5. You don’t need to be at your desk to need an answer. 6. You can make money without doing evil. 7. There is always more information out there. 8. The need for information crosses all borders. 9. You can be serious without a suit. 10. Great isn’t good enough.
(Google, 2014) Products: Google has 50 products that span nine various categories, including Web, Mobile, Business, Media, Geo, Specialized Search, Home & Office, Social, and Innovation.
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• Products include the following: Web Search, Google Chrome, Toolbar, Bookmarks, Helpouts; Mobile, Search for Mobile, Maps for Mobile; AdWords, Google Apps for Business; YouTube, Google Play, Books, Image Search, News, Picasa, Video Search; Maps, Earth, Panoramio; Blog Search, Custom Search, Patent Search, Finance, Alerts, Google Shopping, Scholar, Trends; Gmail, Drive, Docs, Slides, Sheets, Forms, Drawings, Sites, Calendar, Translate, Voice, Google Wallet, Google Cloud Print, Google Keep; Google+, Blogger, Groups, Orkut, Hangouts; Fusion Tables, Code. (Google, 2014)
Organizational Strengths Google is one of the most recognizable brands in the world, boasting a lasting brand loyalty. This brand loyalty is attributed to Google’s quality customer service and their desire to present an effective and positive online experience. Due to the popularity of Google as the premier search engine, the company has access to 79% of the world desktop search market and 89% of the world mobile search market. Through these large market possessions, Google can more efficiently promote and sell it’s various products and services (Zeckman, 2014). Google resides within the realm of creativity and constant innovation; therefore, the constant outflow of new, unique products, both original and integrated, help Google maintain it’s top tier within the online market, keeping the company fresh and appealing to loyal users, while displaying appeal to new users entering the market (Strategic Management Insight, 2013). Because Google makes it a priority to continuously innovate, they have consistently dominated the majority share of the United States’ search engine market with a 67.8% market share (Zeckman, 2014). Google is prime real estate for advertisers. Users can personalize their search on Google, which makes the platform an attractive option for advertisers looking to target their marketing. By using Google’s optimized search, as well as tools like Google Analytics, marketing firms can quickly and effectively advertise to the large amount of users that search on Google’s platform. Advertisers can depend on Google for the best information, specifically geared towards individual businesses (Sydell, 2009).
Organizational Weaknesses Google, Inc. has strong competition with large shareholders of the technological market, including Apple and Microsoft. The constant competitive atmosphere can be a financial burden, as Google continues to create faster, enhanced, and more attractive equivalents to previous models in an attempt to dominate the market. Because of the constant launch of products in the name of competition, some products do not catch the eye of the public, and sales are disappointing on some levels. The lack on product integration and the excess of new products makes for an expensive attempt at competitive advantage (“What are Google’s Strengths, 2012).
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Since Google is an advocate for the accessibility of technology and the right to knowledge and freedom of speech, Google recently pulled out of China due to their government regulations regarding censorship of information. This results in a large loss of users, which will affect the company financially and socially. Though Google ‘s primary objective is for the preservation of the freedom of the internet, the loss of China’s internet population is a step backward that will temporarily hinder the company’s market procurement (“Google Co-‐Founder on Pulling out of China,”(n.d.).
Customers Google, Inc. has one of the broadest target markets in the world, given it’s status as a primary online search engine. People all around the world use Google for informational research, shopping, advertising, and entertainment. The largest market Google caters to is to the established business advertiser. More than half of the revenue of Google comes from AdWords, which is an advertising interface for both small and large businesses. The advertisers that use Google value personalization. This is evident by the way in which AdWords targets specific demographics by advertiser key words and customer searches.
The majority of Google’s users fall in the age range of 18 to34 years old, coming from well-‐educated middle to upper class families. They primarily use Google to help with research papers, homework, shopping, and to visit entertainment websites. Research found that 55% of Google users are business minded male professionals. More than half of Google search results are delivered to users outside the United States, and Google’s products are available in more than 110 languages, with continued expansion (Slide Share, 2010).
As of today Google owns 68.69% of the search engine market. Trailing behind are companies like Baidu and Yahoo, whose global presence makes them tough competitors; however, Google has a lot of space for growth. It is continuously offering new products and services that are capable of going head-‐to-‐head with various competitor products. Google releases products that are extremely well developed, but at a later date than other competitors. Nonetheless, Google has made the majority of its products fully compatible with multiple platforms and devices, which is an extreme advantage (Google’s Business Model Canvas, n.d.).
Collaborators Google has four primary partners who have helped shape Google into the industry leader it is today: GeoEye, YouTube, Android, and NextEra Energy Resources. In 2008, Google secured exclusive online mapping using the GeoEye-‐1 satellite, and Google Maps was born. In October 2006, Google announced that it had acquired YouTube for $1.6 billion in Google Stock, and soon after, in June 2008, a Forbes magazine article projected the 2008 revenue at $200 million, noting progress in advertising sales (Slide Share, 2010).
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Android is an operating system based on direct manipulation, designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smart phones and tablet computers. Google acquired Android, Inc. on August 17, 2005. Little was known about Android at the time, but there was a clear assumption that Google was entering the mobile phone market with this acquisition. Lastly, there is NextEra Energy Resources. Google made its first direct investment in May 2010 to this company for $38.8 million in wind projects, investing in two wind farms with a combined 169.5-‐megawatt installed capacity. This partnership lead to a tax equity investment, meant to accelerate the deployment of renewable energy (Renewable Energy World, 2010).
External Analysis
Competitors
Direct Competitors The World Wide Web is a vast and expanding entity, open to new, creative markets. Though Google is a primary force within this staking their claim to their own sections of the consumer faction. Some of these competitive forces include Apple, Microsoft, and Yahoo.
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1. Apple Apple, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Cupertino, California. It designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software and personal computers. Steve Jobs, Ronald Wayne, and Steve Wozniak founded it on April 1, 1976. The stock price for Apple today is $645.57. (Forbes, 2014)
2. Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington. It develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells computer software. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled Bing on May 28, 2009. On July 29, Microsoft and Yahoo announced a deal in which Bing would power Yahoo Search. In January 2011, 27.44% of Internet searches were conducted through Bing, resulting in market share growth by 0.68%, a growth of 5% in one month. Bing has become one of Google’s largest competitors because of its rapid growth as a preferred search engine. (Microsoft News, 2011)
3. Yahoo
Yahoo’s current market cap is 36.1B. Being Google’s biggest competitor, it offers a similar experience that Google provides. Much competition deals with customer loyalty, ease of use and general friendliness of the website, similarities that Google and Yahoo’s front pages and user interfaces share. Yahoo is an American multinational Internet Corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. Jerry Yang and David Filo founded it in 1994. In 2013, Yahoo made revenue of $4.68 billion. Its main sources of income are marketing services and advertising. (Singer, 2012)
Indirect Competitors Users can search using many different online platforms; even websites that are not known as traditional search engines. Examples of these websites include Facebook, Pinterest, and Amazon.
1. Facebook Users can find companies, group pages, and individuals quicker and more simply through Facebook’s platform. Facebook uses its own analytics system to help customize users’ search, using information like your likes, friends and interests to customize your experience (Facebook, 2014).
2. Pinterest Pinterest is a unique platform that brings together multiple links, letting users search and choose directly through the Pinterest platform. The website essentially becomes a one-‐stop-‐shop for specific Pinterest search categories, such as women’s fashion, pets, design, and beauty (About Pinterest, 2014).
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3. Amazon For the shopping market, web users can search directly through Amazon for desired products and pricing information, virtually skipping the “middle man” of the internet search realm (Amazon, n.d.).
Business Climate Google, Inc. is known for a creative culture and advocating for knowledge. This corporate reputation leads to a positive political image, making Google an attractive company to work within and collaborate with. With multiple partnerships and acquisitions, stock market growth is a positive economical factor for the global conglomerate. Growth of revenue can be attributed to Google’s advertising partnerships, made possible by Google’s revolutionized direct advertising platform.
Demographics of online users show a young populace using the Internet. This is a positive influence for Google, giving the company a chance to change and adapt, as its current users grow older. Also, Internet usage is not a gender specific activity, opening up endless marketing opportunities and customizable potential (Morrow, 2008).
As a scientific trendsetter, their leadership in the cloud computing market and the title of dominant search engine has benefited Google’s reputation as a technological inspiration. Partnered with a fun corporate culture, their focus on creativity, and progressive environmental practices like Google Green, Google is a social entity to look up to, as they respect and appreciate their employees, customers, and the globe. (Google, 2014).
Business Opportunities With countless current corporate partnerships, Google is always looking for a new product or company to partner with. Google has recently acquired E-‐book Technologies, an online textbook distribution company. By coupling this company with Google’s already impressive partnership list, including YouTube, Blogger, and Android, future opportunities are endless (Parr, 2011).
In the Android market, Google recently announced the creation of a wearable smart-‐watch, called Android Wear. The smart watches will enable users to receive notifications, while quickly and effortless being able to use the technology to be connected real-‐time to mobile devices (Bohn, 2014).
Business Threats Technological competition is always going to pose a threat in the business market. In 2010, Facebook was listed as the most popular site, surpassing Google. In terms of product competition, Motorola recently announced their plans for their own version of smart watch technology, and Apple’s innovative mobile products are a threat to Google’s own mobile phone and tablet products (Schumacher, 2007).
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2: Challenges & Solutions Organizational Challenges The competition in this industry is fierce. Google needs to look for new niches to add to their customer base.
Proposed Solution The overall college enrollment for 2013 was 19.9 million students according to the National Student Clearinghouse (National Student Clearinghouse, 2013). Development of YourU mobile application by Google and partnership with Orgsync to launch the application is the answer to finding this new niche market. YourU is a mobile application for college students, parents, college staff, and perspective students with a target market starting at 16 years old.
3: Strategy Formulation Operations YourU will allow Google to tap into a new market while introducing an innovative new product. The education niche is an area that has received little attention from online conglomerates. Our goals is to expand our company’s reach to tech savvy college students, who utilize Google throughout their academic journey. YourU will provide features like navigation, group chats, instructor information, grades, schedules, and much more. Each university will have control over the features they want to provide for their school. Personalization of this app is an important feature due to the fact that each university experience is different, and we want to cater to all our partner schools’ needs. Partnering with OrgSync will allow us access to current information they possess regarding their university clientele, such as grades, instructors and students. Partnering with OrgSync will aid in the development of the app, ensuring our product is created quicker and more efficiently. The distribution will be done through OrgSync to their current partner universities. The combination of a partnership and new product will aid in an increase of sales through the licensing of the app, as well as allowing advertisement through the app. Financial factors that we are considering is are pricing, partnership shares, and advertising sales.
Sales & Marketing This new application launch will impact the company’s sales by integrating a new product and distributing it to various universities across the country, eventually becoming available to international markets. Revenue will be dependent on licensing and advertisements. Our marketing campaign will consist of an informative commercial that will play throughout universities. Our commercial will include a view of the app and how to use the included features. It
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will be a short 20-‐30 second video. Also, promotional cards will be passed out during university freshman orientation, helping bring awareness to our new application and to the trending online marketing campaign, #YourU. Our primary target market consists of students, ages 16 and over, who attend universities in the United States. Our secondary market will be prospective students, staff, parents, and visitors.
Legal & Ethical
Legal Factors Protecting the credibility and original intent of the YourU mobile application is priority. In order to maintain the intended user interface, legal licensing considerations will be made. The use of an End User Licensing Agreement will be implemented in order to protect the creative and developmental copyrights associated with our app, insuring that duplication or changing of the application will not be permissible without the consent and involvement of the YourU creative and
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developmental division within Google, Inc. By equipping the development team with legal aid, procuring lawyers whose focus is in the online and mobile market, YourU will remain a consistent, helpful tool to universities everywhere (Newitz, 2005).
Ethical Considerations Google is creating a better web experience while remaining environmentally conscious; maintaining one of Google’s codes of ethics. The company has gone green by using resources efficiently and supporting renewable power. The company has committed over one billion dollars to renewable energy projects. The development, distribution, and use of YourU will stay within this ethic. The application will eliminate paper newspapers, maps, and much more on campus nationwide creating an impact on the environment in a positive way (Google, 2014). Keeping with the generous spirit that Google is known for, YourU will also have a section dedicated to “One Today by Google,” a charity application allowing students to have the opportunity to donate a dollar to various causes each day. While participation of the intergrated application will be optional, the partnership of this application with our app will help give these charities more exposure while keeping with the Google mission (One Today, 2014)
4: Financial Data Analysis Financial Overview of the Company Google’s financial standing the past three years has portrayed positive results. Google displays top revenue and advertising sales in the search engine industry; in 2011 website revenue revealed $26,145,000 and increased to $31,221,000 in 2012. By 2013, the total website revenue increased to $37,453,000. Advertising department sales are leading; in 2012 advertising revenue was $43,686,000 increasing to $50,578,000 in 2013. (Google,2014)
Ratio Analysis Chart
Price/ Earnings Ratio
Price Earnings Growth Ratio
Current Ratio
Debt to Equity Ratio
Gross Profit Margin
Earnings Per Share
15.43 1.71 4.58 0.27 63.4% 5.00
15.69 1.75 3.22 0.26 73.99% 2.66
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16.50 1.24 1.63 0.71 39.32% 1.75
Google Stock Price Chart (Previous five years)
Smartphone Market Share Pie Graph (Past, Present, Forecast)
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5: Strategy Implementation Timeline & Proposed Milestones
Year One
Date/Timeframe Event/Milestone August 2014 Approval from Google board of directors
September 2014 Contact legal team for Google contract and partnership contracts with Orgsync and Blackboard as secondary partnership.
November 2014 Begin Orgsync partnership negotiations January 2015 Close and finalize partnership with Orgsync
February-‐ July 2015 Start research and developmental phase of YourU mobile application with completion date of application set in August 2015.
Year Two
Date/Timeframe Event/Milestone August 2015 Completion of YourU mobile application August 2015 Integrate universities data into application
September-‐ December 2015
Beta testing with Full Sail University, or secondary choice UCLA. Three months to fix bugs and apply necessary updates.
January 2016 Get Sponsorships for advertisements and begin research and development of marketing campaign #YourU
March-‐ July 2016 Launch marketing campaign & soft launch of application on 20
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university campuses.
Year Three
Date/Timeframe Event/Milestone August 2016 Full public launch of YourU mobile application October 2017 Survey’s and research on application performance
December 2017 Application update 2.0 with two new features February 2017 Contact lawyers for YourU website contracts
July-‐ August 2017 Research and Development of YourU Website
6: Strategy Evaluation Evaluation Strategy & Benchmarks In order to insure quality production, a strategy development schedule will be set, in which time developers will have ample time to design, program, test, fix, and reinvigorate the product before it’s initial public release. Our implementation plan of the YourU mobile application will take two years until its release to the public. After receiving permission from the Google board of directors, lawyers will be acquired for contracts. Once permission and legalities are completed, the research and development team will move forward with development. Over the next three years continued development, beta testing, implementation of surveys, and creation of inventive marketing campaigns will ensure the success for our application. Market research and user reviews will aid in the measurement of the application’s success. We will be using three metrics to measure the market research: acquisition metrics, engagement metrics, and outcomes metrics. Each metric will be able to tell us where the users come from, how much time is spent in the application, quality of content and interest of users. We will always be measuring our success by the partnership deals with Orgsync. Through securing a partnership, we will have access to a vast database of universities, aiding in future application integration.
7: Appendices and References References
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Bohn, D. (2014, March 18). Motorola, LG announce upcoming Android Wear smart watches. The Verge. Retrieved June 6, 2014, from http://www.theverge.com/2014/3/18/5522340/motorola-‐lg-‐announce-‐upcoming-‐android-‐wear-‐smartwatches EULA -‐ End-‐User License Agreement. (n.d.). What is End-‐User License Agreement EULA? Webopedia. Retrieved June 12, 2014, from http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/E/EULA.html Forbes (2014, May). Google on the Forbes Global 2000 List. Retrieved June 7, 2014, from http://www.forbes.com/companies/google/ Google (2014). Google. Retrieved June 7, 2014, from http://www.google.com Google PEST. (2011, May 2). . Retrieved June 6, 2014, from http://sites.cdnis.edu.hk/students/074100/2011/05/02/google-‐pest-‐2/ Google Business Model Canvas (n.d.). Key Partnerships -‐ Google Business Model Canvas. Retrieved June 6, 2014, from http://informationstation600.weebly.com/key-‐partnerships.html Mashable (2011, January 13). Why Google Acquired eBook Technologies. Retrieved June 7, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2011/01/13/why-‐google-‐acquired-‐ebook-‐technologies/ MICROSOFT CORP on MSN Money. (n.d.). MSNMoney. Retrieved June 11, 2014, from http://investing.money.msn.com/investments/stock-‐price?Symbol=msft
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Newitz, A. (2005, February 17). Dangerous Terms: A User's Guide to EULAs.Electronic Frontier Foundation. Retrieved June 12, 2014, from https://www.eff.org/wp/dangerous-‐terms-‐users-‐guide-‐eulas
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Strategic Management Insight (2014, March 10). Google SWOT analysis 2013 | Strategic Management Insight. Retrieved June 7, 2014, from http://www.strategicmanagementinsight.com/swot-‐analyses/google-‐swot-‐analysis.html The smartphone market's radical shakeup. (2013, January 29). CNNMoney. Retrieved June 11, 2014, from http://money.cnn.com/gallery/technology/mobile/2013/01/29/smartphone-‐market-‐share/ The Wall Street Journal (2004, April 29). Web Leader Google Files To Go Public in Unusual IPO -‐ WSJ. Retrieved June 7, 2014, from http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB108302617400094273 Wall Street Journal (2014, May 24). Google’s Long List of Subsidiaries Gets Much Shorter -‐ Washington Wire -‐ WSJ. Retrieved June 7, 2014, from http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2013/05/23/googles-‐long-‐list-‐of-‐subsidiaries-‐gets-‐much-‐shorter/
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Yahoo Answers (2011, December 12). Who is Google and Yahoo's target market? Is it the people who use the search engine or advertisers? Retrieved June 5, 2014, from https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=1005123005924
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Appendices Reference the attached appendices and any supplemental items, such as financial forms and marketing materials, which you will be including as reference material.
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