The history of Google began in1996 when the company was known as BackRub. To analyze the success of the company which became the largest world search engine in 2000, it is necessary to concentrate on the peculiarities of its business strategy. The company develops according to the principles of business-level strategies and accentuates such aspects as different kinds of innovations and orientation on the customer.
Innovations in technologies, processes and services are connected with such tactics as implementing initial public offering in 2004, developing of such services as Mobile Web Search, Gmail, Google News, working out Android operating system for mobile phones in 2008, developing Google TV in 2010. All the innovations are launched with the orientation on the customer and his needs. To develop the company and get the revenues, the innovative system as AdWords was presented which is oriented on the sponsors and advertisers.
The peculiarities of human resource management and its operations can be described with the help of the fact Google cooperate with the best programmers, economists, and managers with focusing on the intellectual development and innovative progress.
The accents are made on the brand and company equity, initiatives and their implementing into practice. The key strengths of the development are the constant growth of revenues, advertizing directed to the possibilities of the Internet.
If we analyze the peculiarities of the financial ratios for Google in 2009, we should start with the liquidity and efficiency ratios. The current ratio of Google in 2009 can be used for the discussion of the creditworthiness of the company. It was 10.62 in 2009. If we discuss the total asset turnover, we can speak about such a number as 0.58 which focuses on the ability of the company to pay to the creditors. The leverage ratios can be discussed with the help of debt-to-asset ratio which was 0.11 for Google in 2009 and debt-to-equity ratio which was not fixed in 2009. The profitability can be analyzed with the help of return of asset which was 0.16, return on equity which was 0.18, and net profit margin of 0.28. We can observe rather high profit margins. The financial strategy helped to increase the profits of the company.
If we discuss the opportunities and threats to Google’s growth, we should focus on the technology forces. Thus, the development of the information technologies used for the progress of Google products (wireless and mobile technologies) can be considered as the opportunities for the company.
The main threats are connected with the quick development of innovative technologies which can be used by competitors. The opportunities of the company also depend on expanding the market which will result in increasing profits. However, there can be observed the threat of decreasing the interest to the products provided by the company.
According to Porter’s Five Forces, we can state that the level rivalry in the industry is not very high for Google because the most influential rivals are only Microsoft and Yahoo. Threats of new entrants can be discussed with references to inventing the most effective and powerful search engine.
However, today Google is the leader in the industry and constantly improves its possibilities. The threat of suppliers exists on the level of regions. Moreover, Microsoft and Apple develop their innovations in the field. Threat of substitutes is also considered as rather high because of the rapid development of technologies. The buyer power depends on the level of the availability of products because more and more companies offer free products of high quality.
Today Google is considered as the leader of the industry because of its successful business strategy. However, to improve such aspects as the buyer power, it is possible not only to focus on technology innovations but also on their effective presentation for the customers.