Case Study

Helene BergemanGary Franklin

Eric Schmidt, CEO

• Bilingual in Business – Geek speak

• As the former CIO of Sun Microsystems, Schmidt could speak the language of engineering and innovation

– Street speak • As the former CEO of Novell, Schmidt spoke the

language of financial markets and positioning

Schmidt’s Objectives

Be Creative, Flexible

Expand global

exposure Develop new

products

Auction IPO

SharesCreate Strong Balance Sheet

GoogleGoogle

Objectives

Key Decisions

• New Products / Services– Continued roll-out of the expanding Google

product mix

• Acquisitions or design in-house– Purchase another company or develop the

Google version

• Technological infrastructure– Newer, faster computing solutions

• Development of New Markets– Create new opportunities for advertising

Problems/Risks

• Keeping Google independent, unbiased in delivering search information to users

• Privacy issues, where do we draw the line concerning what information is private versus public.

• Is Google getting too big, less focused by competing on multiple fronts?– Microsoft– Yahoo– Ebay

Opportunities

• Continue with Google’s distinctive competence of developing superior search solutions and monetizing those solutions through targeted advertising.– Growth beyond world wide web to print and video

• New areas of growth– Portal– Ecommerce– Software applications

Alternatives

• Continue developing superior search solutions and monetizing those solutions through targeted advertising and adopt one of the following projects:

• Build Google into a Portal like Yahoo! or MSN• Extend Google’s role in ecommerce to become

more active in transactions• Compete with Microsoft’s dominance in the

office and windows applications

• In keeping with Google’s mission “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”, we believe each alternative should be based on the following criteria:– Adhering to Google’s mission– Not infringing on user’s privacy– Offering a new model, not copying an old

model– Potentially high rewards

• We believe Google should move further into ecommerce transactions based on the following:

• Mobile computing is on the rise• Small ecommerce transactions are on the rise• Google with the majority of the US search

related ad market coverage is in a good position to capitalize on transactions following a search.

• Consumers drive our economy therefore Google should focus on consumer and small business ecommerce.

What if I were Eric Schmidt?

• Embark on a comprehensive cataloging of medical information– Diseases - Known Genetic issues– Known causes - DNA genomes– Known cures – Unproven cures

• Utilizing the superior power of Google’s proven search algorithms

Why?

To benefit humanity.

– In accordance with the Google tenet: “Do No Evil”

– Comprehensive medical information would be beneficial to the populations in the discovery of causes and development of cures

How?

Create a medical portal with a backbone database of collected

information

• Additional usefulness as a tool for criminalists & anthropologists

– Searchable DNA markers

Impacts

• People: – Discovery of genetic predisposition to cancer, Parkinson’s, etc.

• The Competition: – Google’s first entry advantage – ad revenue market

• Employees: – High Intrinsic levels of job satisfaction knowing the global impact to

humanity

• Business Partners: – Advantage by association; increased brand value

• Stockholders: – Increased return on equity

• Customers: – Increased knowledge of treatments & affectivity…thus better quality

care

Reponses

• People: – Happy

• The Competition: – Sadness at having missed the opportunity

• Employees: – Thrilled

• Business Partners: – Making more $$ by increased click rates

• Stockholders: – Ecstatic

• Customers: – Contented and well

Google 2009

• #1 Search Engine• U.S. search market share 63.3%

– http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2009/03/17/fresh-evidence-that-search-is-still-competitive-not-so-fast/

• Revenue up 23% from 2007 to 2008• Per share stock price as high as US$602 in the last 12 months

– GOOG 329_71 -5_63 (-1_68%) - Google Inc.htm

• Google.org – new philanthropic arm dedicated to “use information and technology to empower communities to predict and prevent emerging threats before they become local, regional, or global crises”

• Tracking spread of diseases using Google Earth; exploring uses for clean energy

– www. Google_org.htm

• Multitudes of new applications and useful services including document managers, single service calling

– http://news.cnet.com/webware/?categoryId=2012&tag=rtcol;tags

• Acquisition of YouTube