Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Google - Does It Need a Different Corporate and Organization Structure?

"Rivals get the jitters when Google's nonsearch products grab headlines. But a close look shows that so far, there's not a market leader among them." What is the reason? Does Google need a different corporate and organization structure?

What is your analysis? Give it in comment

Google launched Nexus one mobile phone on 5th January 2010. It is available for online sale through http://www.google.com/phone/?locale=en_US&s7e= (http://www.google.com/phone). One more product from google. But Google is not known for its marketing successes in nonsearch products.
A July 2006 article in Business Week with the title "So Much Fanfare, So Few Hits" (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_28/b3992051.htm) summarizes and depicts the inability of google to market its products  well. "Rivals get the jitters when Google's nonsearch products grab headlines. But a close look shows that so far, there's not a market leader among them." What is the reason? Does Google need a different corporation and organization structure?
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Company Overview and Products

Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin named the search engine they built "Google," a play on the word "googol," the mathematical term for a 1 followed by 100 zeros. The name reflects the immense volume of information that exists, and the scope of Google's mission: to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.
In the overview provided by the company, it identifies search, ads, apps, and mobile as main categories of its products and services.
But at the moment google has a vast product portfolio. Observe this remark by webopedia(http://www.webopedia.com/quick_ref/Google_Services.asp):
"In 1996, Google started out as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two Ph.D. students at Stanford University. In 1998, Page and Brin — while continuing to perfect their technology — bought a terabyte of disks at bargain prices and built their own computer housings in Page's dorm room, which became Google's first data center. In 1999, the beta logo came off the Google Web site. Since then Google has expanded its search technology into blogging, mapping, shopping, research and more. In fact, Google now has so many services it's hard to keep them straight. To help you get a grip on Google, our Google Services Quick Reference will highlight the many Google-branded services and provide links and references for each."
The webopedia product list still does not cover knol, orkut or youtube. May be it does not cover many more. It already emphasized the difficulty with the statement "Google now has so many services it's hard to keep them straight".               
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Organization of Google Management

Operating Committee
Key executives by function:
Engineering
Products
Sales
Legal
  • Kent Walker, Vice President & General Counsel
  • David Lawee, Vice President, Corporate Development
  • Megan Smith, Vice President, New Business Development, and General Manager, Google.org
Finance
Business Operations
Google.org
  • Megan Smith, Vice President, New Business Development, and General Manager, Google.org
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Comments on  the Organization Structure of Google

Google is using a functional organization structure. In this structure, the market does not see the key persons behind the product. Obviously the top four or five persons are not attached to any product. People down the line are not given appropriate weight by the market and market runs them down also more easily.
Lack of visible product champions, which other start ups have, is probably making things difficult for google products in the market.
Who is the product champion of Orkut?
Who is the product champion of Knol?
Who is the product champion of Nexus One?
The public does not know. May be it is better that google reorganizes its management structure on product basis and makes the head of the product organization responsible for success of the product. Then he is there in public all the time to promote the product, to launch offensive actiity to promote the product and to defend the product in market competitive propaganda.
An alternative could be setting up of subsidiary companies for various product categories. This will create an entrepreneurial spirit among the personnel associated with each company as their future is now linked with the performance of the subsidiary and their incomes depend on the success of the products of their subsidiary company. They cannot depend on google's search success to mask their failures in market place.
An interesting observation was made by Thomas R. Eisenmann, an associate professor at the Harvard Business School. “Google needs to make sure that its management culture is in sync with the strategy,”  “I’m not sure the bottom-up approach will do it.”    
As we observe google products closely, we feel absence of product champions and product ambassadors is hurting the market performance. Google products are to be led  with a product CEO standing in front all the time in the market battle field.

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Does Google Need Managers


49.49 minutes



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What is your analysis?
Write in Comments.

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Related Knols


Google Social Mail

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Related Web Pages

January 5th, 2010, Google needs its own Telco service not a phone, Posted by Tom Foremski
January 4, 2010, Five New Year's resolutions for Google by Tom Krazit
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-10423524-265.html
June 19th, 2008, Google needs to rethink its customer service strategy Posted by Garett Rogers
January 2007, Should Google Stick to the Knitting or See What Works?
November, 2000, Interview with Google's Sergey Brin
Original Knol - Number 2132
Posted by at 9:09 AM
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