Module Title: Responsible Business
Google Responsibility audit report
Contents
1.0 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1
2.0 Environmental Scanning ...................................................................................................... 2
2.1 Operations ....................................................................................................................... 2
2.2 Human Resources............................................................................................................ 2
2.3 Marketing ........................................................................................................................ 3
2.4 Finance ............................................................................................................................ 4
3.0 The responsible practices of Google .................................................................................... 4
4.0 Recommendations ............................................................................................................... 6
5.0 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 7
References ................................................................................................................................. 7
1.0 Introduction
Google is a multinational corporation specialized in internet related services and products
and was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998. The business services of the
organization include search, cloud computing and online advertising technologies (Kaneica,
2013).
The Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally
accessible and useful. Google also stresses on the famous slogan ‘Don’t be evil’ which refers
to the non-exploitation of the users to make money and it also tries to create an ethical
organizational culture states Kaneica (2013). The main aim of this responsibility audit is to
illustrate Google’s business practices and to mention whether these activities demonstrate
responsible corporate behavior. In the view of Leipziger (2010) Corporate responsibility is
defined as a self regulatory mechanism in which the business firms ensure its active
confirmation in ethical standards and international norms. It also gives a clear picture of
how these responsibilities are managed and organized and this concept will be critically
evaluated with relation to Google Company, headquartered at California, USA.
2.0 Environmental Scanning
2.1 Operations
As per Manjoo (2013) the Google business operations team plays a vital role in defining and
driving strategic, operational and organizational improvements across the company
(Manjoo, 2013). The growth strategies of the exciting products like You Tube, Chrome and
mobile are managed by ‘BizOps’ which is a high profile, high impact team working with
Google’s business across the globe. The growth of Google’s Global Business Organization
(GBO) is driven by the thought of leadership, strategic and operational support of the Global
Business Strategy (GBS). A long term vision of the business is provided by GBS by directly
supporting the chief business officer, Google executives and senior leaders.
Google’s worldwide growth is guaranteed by the corporate development team. This team
also helps the business organization to find and evaluate acquisition opportunities across
existing and future markets and also evaluate the performance.
Google is a free search engine for customers. In the observation of Kaneica (2013) the
customer search engine provides with the search results from the most popular to the least
popular. According to the author it also provides options like image search, article search,
news search and also search for any government based documents. It is fast, reliable and
the cheapest source when compared to other websites and also provides its own dictionary,
calculator and spell check. For the promotion of various products and services on the web,
many advertisers use the Google Ad words program. Business operations mainly cover the
following key areas like search and display advertising, the Android operating system
platform, consumer content through Google play, enterprise, commerce and hardware
products (Annual report, 2013).
2.2 Human Resources
Google has a team of 47,756 employees and among them, 10,000 employees are software
developers. ‘Innovation Time Off policy’ is used by Google as a motivation technique where
Google engineers are encouraged to spend 20% of their work time on their interested
projects. It is by the utilization of this technique that many new products of Google are
being created opines Kaneica (2013).
Google’s human resources department noticed that a lot of women employees were leaving
the company during 2005-2007 periods and this badly affected the bottom line of the
company. Google Company also faced various issues when several top executives left
Google in 2007 and early 2008 and also when Marissa Mayer, the first female employee of
Google, left the organization and became CEO of Yahoo. This clearly indicated that
something was missing out in the company’s happiness machine and the human resource
department of Google- ‘People Operations’ (POPS) headed by Laszlo Bock looked into the
Google’s woman problem and found that it was related to new mother problem. It was
found by the team that the recently delivered women were leaving Google and to overcome
this issue, Google started providing with maternity and paternity leave plans. There was also
an unannounced Google perk in the case of passed away employees and the company paid
half of the salary for a decade to the domestic partner of the bereaved employee (Manjoo,
2013).
In addition to the employment provisions, Google also offers free gourmet food, on-site
laundry, Wi-Fi commuting shuttles etc. According to Kaneica (2013) the employees are
allowed to have fun through many extracurricular activities such as football, pool tables,
volley ball courts, videogames, pianos, ping pong tables and gyms that offer yoga and dance
classes which are available during the work days .
Through fun activities such as roller hockey and casual dress code Google rewards its
employees hard work by providing relaxed workplace to encourage creativity. The
employees are encouraged to work and play together to form a family bond (Zhong, 2011).
The company encourages the employees to become creative in problem solving methods
and the employees in return provide their best service. The employees are also permitted to
bring their pets with them in Google. At the same time, Google expects its employees and
board members to strictly follow the code inside the company and disciplinary actions
including termination of employment are taken by the organization in cases of employees
violating the code of conduct and employment (Zhong, 2011). As per the latest survey
conducted by the Fortune magazine (2014), Google has been awarded with the title of the
best company to work with and this surely indicates that the Human resource activities and
norms of this company exhibits high quality and standards.
2.3 Marketing
The Google search engine is specialized in innovation and technology and the effective
marketing mix has helped Google to keep responsible towards their customers.
As the part of the promotions, Google does not post any advertisement on the website. As a
online advertiser, Google understands the need and preference of people and gives a
maximum freedom to select the required product and service as per their convenience.
Hence it can be mentioned that Google keeps the responsibility through direct marketing
and not through brand marketing. Google has zero risk free entry policy and offers free
services through the compelling techniques like Gmail, Google maps etc (Google, 2015).
Ad words are the key price source of the company, states Google (2015). If any person
clicks the advert, the advertiser has to pay to the Google. If the competitor’s of the specific
company knowingly click the advertisement, that will create a big lose to the advertiser. But
Google has tackled this problem effectively and hence the problem of clicking and related
fraud has been minimized (Takahashi, 2011). Google has kept the responsibility on the
quality of their products and services. Even at the low power the Google search page can be
loaded (Friesner, 2014). Compared to other search engines, Google engine is packed with
minimum advertisements and futile features. The trust of the knowledge and the speed are
the prime marketing features of the Google that retains its customers and attracts newer
ones.
At the same time, Google has faced issues related to the manipulation and misuse of the
available data and the use of intellectual properties in unethical way that will leads to
violation of the privacy and security. Google has faced threat from Facebook and Twitter;
hence Google has launches ‘Google buzz’ (Business Line, 2013) to tackle the competitive
edge. The European commission and the Texas Attorney General office in 2014 rejected the
Google on book scanning projects and hence Google has to develop subsequent steps to
tackle the situation. Now Google can be operated through Apple (Google, 2015), but the
innovation platform in Apple is too far from the Google. So Google has to develop or
modulate the current apps with respect to the Apple innovative technology.
2.4 Finance
To keep the responsibility regarding the laws and to convey the transparency and openness
of the business, Google publishes its annual report on the company website every year.
Through the long term partnership with R & D companies like NASA, Sun-micro systems etc,
Google shares the innovate technologies at low cost (Business line, 2014). Moreover, during
the year 2014, the development of the Google modular data centres across the world has
also minimised the cost of operation. Apart from this, Google also indulged in the
acquisition and merging of companies like Orion, Android, Sparrow, Motorola mobility etc
and this has enabled the company to enjoy ease of operation through new technologies,
synergy, cross- selling, market share etc (Picardo, 2014)
Google is a publically owned company and to make disclosure of its financial matters to the
current market, the company has listed its shares in various stock exchanges including
NASDAQ. This thus makes Google responsible to commit all the requirement and rules
applicable to public disclosures (Google, 2015). Apart from this, the shareholder’s of Google
are devoted to provide a sound growth to the company through a reasonable return on
investment (Google, 2015).
Typically Google practises various tax avoidance strategies (Google, 2015). In homeland, by
comparing five largest American technology companies, Google pays lowest taxes to the
country. Through licensing the technology, Google has achieved partial remittance in the tax
payment from Ireland, Bahamas, Bermuda and Netherland. But in United Kingdom, Google
has paid huge corporate taxes (Picardo 2014).
3.0 The responsible practices of Google
One of the significant practices of Google to be appreciated is its decision to green the
organization. According to Carlson (2011) Google has planned to create an advanced web
by the efficient use of resources. Since 2007, Google has been carbon neutral. Google’s data
centers use 50% less energy than any other data centre. Also, Google has always
concentrated to reduce the environmental hazards caused by its services. In line with Kaiser
(2013) it is said that Google utilizes only small amount of energy than the energy utilized to
drive a car to one mile distance. Google is world’s first prominent internet services
organization to achieve the recognition for maintaining systematic environmental and
energy management in data centres. As mentioned earlier, Google’s data centres are
regarded as the proficient data centres in the world. As reported by Smith (2013) it is to be
appreciated that Google’s data centres have saved above a billion dollars until now.
Another admirable fact about Google is that it consumes only a very small quantity of whole
world’s electricity. Google has taken initiative to buy electricity from wind farms near the
data centres in order to facilitate the availability of renewable energy. Google has claimed
that all Google products and services are carbon neutral.
The working environment created by Google is to be praised. As per CBS News (2013)
Google has got recognized as the best organization in America to work with. It is said that,
even the human resources are regarded as a science at this organization. Google
organization provides the best environment for its employees. As reported by Manjoo
(2013), Google encountered a problem in human resources department as many women
employees were leaving the organization during the period from 2005-2007. It was then
that Google implemented the happiness program. Google works hard to satisfy its
employees and Google’s human resource department always tries to solve the tribulations
of employees. Carlson (2011) finds that the Human resource department of Google is
named as ‘People Operations’ with Laszlo Bock as the head of this department and this
department offers all privileges and perks to its employees. It is startling to find that Google
is one among the rarest companies in the world that provides paternity leave together with
maternity leave plan for its employees. For five months women are being allowed maternity
leave with full payment and full benefits.
Next important responsible practice of Google is its efficiency to fulfill the social
commitment. In order to attain success, Google follows high degree of ethical
considerations. As mentioned by Smith (2013) the ethical standards of Google include
business integrity; no improper advantage, disclosure of information, intellectual property,
fair business, advertising and competition, responsible sourcing of minerals, international
trade, privacy and non-retaliation. Moreover as asserted by CBS News (2013) Google’s
supplier code of conduct advocates that the supplier has to take part efficiently to establish
supervising procedures to enact the anti-corruption laws. McFarlane (2012) affirms that
also, it is necessary by the company to maintain stability in all corporal dealings and not to
be a subject of corruption. According to the rules and regulations of the organization, all
information disclosed regarding the activities and functions must be reliable.
It is important here to mention that Google decidedly protects its intellectual property
rights. According to Kaiser (2013), Google’s policy to assimilate with fair business,
advertising and competition laws and Google’s conformity to obey antitrust laws are
remarkable. The organization follows all laws and regulations regarding the international
trade. Kaneica (2013) stated that Google pays attention not to do business with particular
bodies which are prohibited as per the laws and the organization observes the privacy and
information laws whenever the personal details of the customers are collected and stored.
Google facilitates opportunity for the employees to report their insecurities and problems
confronted in the organization.
Another major responsible practice of Google is regarding the management system. As
observed by Kaneica (2013) the management system of Google has implemented the
responsibility policy which asserts the organization’s commitment to ensure the growth and
advancement of the firm. The superior management monitors the flow of management
regularly and it denotes the management responsibility of the organization. The
management also facilitates the process of supervising process by applying the laws with
regard to the customer needs. In accordance with Leipziger (2010) Google risk management
also concentrates in checking the environmental and health issues to assess the risk factors.
Google management also focuses in analyzing its objectives to improve its functions in
future. It also inculcates programmes for managers and employees to establish the policies
of management and to work for the advancement of the objectives of the organization.
Manjoo (2013) observes that the organization acts as a proper channel for communicating
information among its employees about the policies, functions, activities, performances etc.
It has established a policy to evaluate the workers’ participation, of which the workers can
provide their feedback regarding the work. Carlson (2011) has studied the fact that self
evaluation process of employees is encouraged by Google to ensure the loyalty to rules and
regulations observed by the institution which focuses on environmental responsibilities. It
also enables the corrective action process by which the workers could update or correct the
shortages in the performances. Documents and records are clearly constructed and
preserved to guarantee the observation and agreement of the needs of the organization
with the facility to ensure privacy.
A striking responsibility practice of Google is the revolutionary business model implemented
by the organization. As stated by McFarlane (2012) the traditional advertisements can’t
create awareness about the day to day development of a product and organization, and it is
in this situation Google has executed a revolutionary business model to promote
advertisements. In order to help other organizations to compete in the corporal world,
Google posts advertisements of different companies on its pages. Whenever a user opens a
page which contains the advertisement, the firm that has given the ad would pay a certain
amount to Google. This activity is based on bargaining and the process of posting ads is one
among Google’s revenue strategy.
4.0 Recommendations
The main goal of Google is to maintain its dominant position in the world of search engines.
For this purpose it is essential for the company to ensure progressive improvement and
enhancement in its operations. Important recommendations are given to the company in
the field of awareness of ethical issues and efficient working of research and development
department to achieve long term success of the company (Brown et al, 2010).
Google should also ensure to be the technological leader through constant innovations. To
compete with its rival firms Google should focus mainly on strategic innovations and
development in technological infrastructure. In order to reach a wider audience and to
extend its customer base Google should ensure diversifying its product portfolio. Google
should also focus on the human resource strategy to attract the IT and to maintain its
competitive advantage.
Google‘s culture is to create the happiest and the most productive work place for the
employees. It also provides awards to its employees to motivate the creativity power.
Google also offers maximum preference to select the required products and services.
Google can attain increased profits by strengthening the relationship through trust. For a
beneficial success of the company and to maintain its brand equity Google should think
creatively. The research and development team also should understand that changes leads
to new ideas, technology, innovation and improvement.
5.0 Conclusion
The Google responsibility audit report gives a clear picture about the environmental
scanning and the responsible practices adopted by the company. It has been found that
Google provides a favorable working atmosphere to its employees thereby providing various
increments etc. The successful business and marketing strategies adopted by the company
has made it at the top position. Even though the company has faced many issues regarding
various aspects, it is important to find that the organization solves issues after diagnosing it
from the root cause and solving it at the earliest period. Thus it can be concluded that the
strategic and business activities and policies of the organization is the prime reason for
Google to attain and maintain the competitive edge in the industry.
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