HRM1101 – #4 Corporate Analysis Assignment

Company Studied
Name of company studied / Google
url of the company website /
Articles you read about each company (online or print) – you must list at least 5 citations (article title, author, publication, date or if the article is online, the URL). If you read more, list more. / 1. Miller, Claire C. "Google's Biggest Threat Is Google.” The New York Times, 27 Sept. 2011. Web. 03 Sept. 2014. <
2. Singer, Hal. “Who Competes With Google Search? Just Amazon, Apple And Facebook.” Forbes, 18 Sept. 2012. Web. 12 Sept. 2014. <
3. Levy, Ari. “Coming soon to a kindergarten near you: Google.” CNBC, 12 Sept. 2014. Web. 14 Sept. 2014
4. Clancy, Heather. “Google’s $145 Million Clean Energy Investment Puts Solar Atop Old Oil Field.” Forbes, 13 Sept. 2014. Web. 14 Sept. 2013.
5. Pringle, Max. “Amazon vs. Google: the battle for supremacy.” Deutsche Welle, 12 Sept. 2014. Web. 14 Sept. 2014 <
more: Harris, Mike. “How Google’s Autonomous Car Passed the First U.S. State Self-Driving Test.” IEEE Spectrum, 10 Sept. 2014. Web. 14 Sept. 2014 <
Conner-Simons, Adam. “CSAIL’s Nick Roy helms Google’s delivery-drone project.” MIT News, 11 Sept. 2014. Web. 14 Sept. 2014

Headquarters location / Mountain View, California
Number of employees / Google has [about] 52,070 employees.
Gross Revenue in most recent year available / Google’s gross revenue in fiscal year 2013 was 33.91 billion.
Chairman of the Board and CEO / Eric Schmidt took the position of Google’s Executive Chairman of their board of directors, after being their CEO. Larry Page is Google’s current CEO.
Are there any interesting people on the company board of directors? If yes, who do you think is interesting and why? / None of the people on Google’s board of directors are unexpected. They are all extremely smart people with degrees from Ivy League schools, or other prestigious universities. Every person on the board has a background linked to at least one of Google’s projects. Many people on Google’s board served on another large technology company’s board. They are all interesting people who are extremely successful and have significant accomplishments. The member who peaked my interest the most was Shirley Tilghman. Tilghman received her doctorate degree from Temple University. It’s awesome that someone from Temple ended up in such a high position at one of the best companies in the world.
How is the company leadership described? Are they competent, admired, respected, etc.? / Google’s leadership is extremely well-respected. Google’s management serves as a model for many other companies. Google is constantly working on the development of their employees, innovation, and is extremely successful. Google is ranked highly on Forbes’ list of most admired companies, and is consistently listed as one of the best companies to work for.
Key Products/Services / Google is most widely known as a search engine. However, Google also provides email services, social networking, mobile applications, media, business tools, maps, advertising services, and is working on numerous other products-both physical and digital. Some of Google’s most-known products include Blogger, Google Translate, Google Docs, advertising, Chrome, YouTube, Android, Google Maps, Gmail, and of course Google Search.
Three adjectives that describe the company in the marketplace – why did you choose these three particular adjectives? / Google is innovative, successful, and quirky. I chose innovative because Google never stops trying to develop the next big thing. They are always on the cutting edge of just about everything. I chose successful because the numbers do not lie- Google makes a huge amount of money. They are also a major household name, and have won numerous awards and landed themselves on countless “top” and “best” lists, including the Global 2000 (#52), World’s Most Valuable Brands (#5), and Innovative Companies (#47), among others.
Describe the company’s culture / Google calls themselves a “start-up” culture. They are a very hands-on company, innovative, open to new ideas, and love interactions and conversation among different levels of employees. Collaboration is key at Google. “Googlers” talk directly to talk level executives, and their offices are designed to foster these kinds of interactions. Google’s culture seems to be very comfortable, fun and exciting.
Describe the company’s values / Google’s list of “Ten things we know to be true” describes their values in detail. Google believes in focusing on the customer, doing what they do very well, providing service fast, practicing democracy, to be mobile, to conduct business with excellent ethics, to never stop innovating, to extend knowledge across borders, to have fun, and to always get better. Google’s “Ten things we know to be true” is pretty basic, and should be the standard for all businesses. In short, Google wants to be an excellent and innovative company that is loved by everyone.
From what you’ve read, does the company live its values? / Google definitely lives its values. It is rated one of the best places to work consistently, it is the most used web browser in the United States, they have projects scattered across the globe, and from pictures their offices look like a blast. Google rarely receives bad press for anything.
Biggest internal challenge – what makes this company difficult to lead or manage? / CEO Larry Page reported that Google’s biggest threat is Google. Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt added that, “The problems at a company at Google’s scale are always internal at some level.”1 Google faces a myriad of challenges within itself daily- from communication issues, to “brain-block” issues, to just trying to keep up with the everyday hustle and bustle. Managing a company of Google’s size would be a daunting task for anyone.
Biggest external challenge – what about the market or business landscape is making it difficult for this company to compete? / Google’s biggest external challenge is other companies that make similar products. Google has so many competitors, and in order to remain on top, they have to beat all of them. The technology industry is huge and global. Google must be on top of not only domestic competitors, but the countless global ones that can often produce similar products at a lower cost.
Internet presence – is it effective? Please describe. / Google’s internet presence is extremely effective- it is everywhere. Google Search is one of the most widely used search engines, and Google Chrome is one of the most popular web browsers. Google is just about everywhere on the internet.
Advertising in other media – is it effective? Please describe. / Google does not do much, if any, advertising offline. They frequently receive new stories and articles written about them that may be published in print. Google has recently started rolling out billboards in certain cities, but because they are so new, their effectiveness is not yet able to be measured. Regardless, Google is a household name across the nation.
Target customer demographics / Google’s target demographic is extremely diverse. Many of their users are from outside the United States, and there is a pretty even split of gender. Google is more popular with the younger generation (34 and under), but Google is constantly trying to widen their user demographics. Google would ideally like everyone in every country, of every age, of every race, of every education level, to use Google.
Describe the company’s reputation / Google has a stellar reputation. They are known for their innovation, creativity, and unconventionality. Google is extremely ethical and well-liked. They are typically granted flattering compliments like “unstoppable” and “genius”.
Are there any scandals associated with the company? / Google’s only scandals were about privacy. Google has had many privacy “scandals”. Despite their frequent breaches in privacy, Google still remains widely well-respected and well-liked. Google has also been accused of being a monopoly.
Who are their major competitors? / Google’s major competitors include Facebook, MSN, Yahoo!, AOL, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft.
Would you like to work for this company? Why or why not? / I would absolutely love to work for Google. A job at Google has been my dream since I first started hearing about the company. It is ranked as one of the best companies to work for, and many of their beliefs and values are in line with mine. The culture is awesome, and I love the workplace style. The benefits are also amazing. While I may find that Google is not for me once I am there, I have strong intuitions that Google is the kind of setting that I would love. If it is not, it still would be a life-changing experience (and a great resume builder, if nothing else).