Strategic planning initiatives are programs and projects designed to help an organization achieve its vision of the future. The process involves not only defining goals, but also the specific steps the business must take in order to achieve its objectives. Learning Team D choose Google’s Internet search and advertising initiative to review. The team’s paper examines the effects this initiative has on financial planning, costs and revenues of the supply chain, and potential ethical concern that could arise because of the organization’s choices.
Strategic Planning Initiative
Google’s primary focus is search; display advertising, enterprise, and the Android operating system platform to name a few of its products. As more information becomes
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Effect on Financial Planning
Strategic plans can have a significant impact on a firm financial planning. Because strategic plans focus on the future, and the future is full on unknowns, there is a certain amount of risk associated with the process. This risk is in terms of the plan itself and its financial needs. With Google’s current business model, the company’s primary source of revenue is advertising. In creating a financial plan to continue and to strengthen this model, the firm must create advertising options that entice retailers to choose its platform and deliver customers at a cost-efficient price point. It means investing in infrastructure to keep up with changing technology and growing demand. The plan also needs to address the human capital needs of the plan. Refining search algorithms to deliver relevant results and keep users magnetized to the Google brand is accomplished through skilled workers. The competition for talent in technology fields is highly-competitive and includes not only pay structure, but also focusing on climate as well. Finally, the plan must take into account the need for acquisitions to advance the strategy. Innovation is not cheap – in 2013 the company spent $8.0 billion in research and development. The company states it will continue to invest its capital in people and infrastructure supporting new product development and the improvement of
Google Inc. is one of the leading computer search engines in the world and is continuing to grow as the
Up to this point, CanGo has managed to excel and establish a foothold in the online entertainment industry. In fact, CanGo has recently been recognized by the Hudson Valley Professional Business Association, affirming the fact that CanGo is a company on the rise rather than a small, independent start-up with no expectations. Unfortunately, CanGo has not embraced the concept of strategic planning, which lies out and determines the direction a company plans to take over the next several years. According to John E. Lawlor of Practical Decisions, strategic planning is important from both a macro perspective and a micro perspective. On a macro level, for instance, business (especially ecommerce) is conducted in the global marketplace. Aided by the Internet and rapid improvements in technology, more and more individuals from all over the world have access to the products and services provided by today’s businesses. From a micro point of view, meanwhile, strategic planning will inject a needed sense of purpose and direction to CanGo. With strategic planning, each individual in the organization –from the CEO to the most recent new staff member – will know what products you sell or services you provide, who your target customers are, and how you plan to compete for their attention (Lawlor, 2005). Strategic planning would also clearly define a set of realistic short-term and long-term goals for the company while communicating those goals clearly too each individual member of the
Up to this point, CanGo has managed to excel and establish a foothold in the online entertainment industry. In fact, CanGo has recently been recognized by the Hudson Valley Professional Business Association, affirming the fact that CanGo is a company on the rise rather than a small, independent start-up with no expectations. Unfortunately, CanGo has not embraced the concept of strategic planning, which lays out and determines the direction a company plans to take over the next several years. According to John E. Lawlor of Practical Decisions, strategic planning is important from both a macro perspective and a micro perspective. On a macro level, for instance, business (especially ecommerce) is conducted in the global marketplace. Aided by the Internet and rapid improvements in technology, more and more individuals from all over the world have access to the products and services provided by today’s businesses. From a micro point of view, meanwhile, strategic planning will inject a needed sense of purpose and direction to CanGo. With strategic planning, each individual in the organization –from the CEO to the most recent new staff member – will know what products you sell or services you provide, who your target customers are, and how you plan to compete for their attention (Lawlor, 2005). Strategic planning would also clearly define a set of realistic short-term and long-term goals for the company while communicating those goals clearly to each individual member of the
Strategic planning is crucial for the success of all business endeavors. Analyzing currents trends in technology, consumer markets, competition, and the workforce can play a pivotal part in whether or not the organization can survive. Overtime, strategic planning strategies must be modified in order to compensate for changes in the industry. Goals and strategic planning often necessitate change to ensure that the organization is performing at peak level, while offering the most beneficial and quality services to consumers.
search engine, cloud computing). What I have learned from doing research on the company Google would be that they focus on diversity, data, and non-typical corporate practices. Data is at the central for a lot decisions Google makes. Besides data examined for typical corporate business, Google’s also considers employee operations. An example of this would be lunch lines (Google offers free meals and snacks to employees), to make the most optimal lunch line (to meet new people and to prevent waste of time), Google has taken data to find and state that the most optimal lunch line is 3 to 4 minutes.
Strategic planning can dictate the success of any organization if properly planned as well as the failure of an organization if not implemented as planned. Strategic planning is all about making choices. It is a process designed to support leaders in being intentional about their goals and methods. Simply stated, strategic planning is a management tool, and like any management tool, it is used for one purpose only—to help an organization do a better job. This portion of the strategic plan will explain why an
4. Make necessary assumptions based on your research. Not all data is available. Provide justification for your assumptions. This plan requires quantitative and qualitative thinking, consensus, forecasting, and planning.
Today’s market demands organizations to have a strategic plan. The purpose of the strategic plan describes where the organization wants their organization to go. A strategic plan is a document used to communicate goals, and the actions needed to achieve those goals. In order to remain competitive every organization needs to innovate to stay ahead of the competition. They need to develop new products and services with increasing frequency. The design of these new products and services must meet, or exceed, customer expectations and at the same time, they must generate an acceptable financial return for the organization. However, any business that does not realize the importance of developing new products will not last very long as a consequence
Google’s business model is geared towards mobile computing and the Internet. The company wants versatile smartphones that allow access to the Web and the use of applications that can be used on different devices. Google also has strength in advertising, in that they appeal to many potential customers on the Web.
The area of interest will be where I work now at MDHHS, specifically in the Provider Enrollment section, in regards to the Home Help program. The Home Help program allows providers to do nonmedical necessity tasks, like cleaning and cooking, for qualified Medicaid applicants.
Google Search is the most popular search engine in the world, and just by that has an enormous advantage in information markets. Google has unprecedented access to what people are thinking about at any given moment, information which is extremely valuable to advertisers and marketers. Google also is also an extremely well established company, with its massive revenue allowing it to support its extremely robust infrastructure. Google has massive and modern data centers all over the world, and continues to invest into more infrastructure, including data centers and the new Google Fiber in the United States. Googles massive revenue also allows it to branch off into more innovative pursuits without having to worry too much about funding. Google can pursue expensive and difficult projects that generate little to no revenue for a very long time, if the company believes that the investment will be worth it in the end. Examples of this include Google's Self driving cars, and the aforementioned mentioned Google
As a company of this size, corporate planning is a vital function to deal with external and internal factors, in which, the company's goals or objectives are achieved. In addition, a well-defined strategic planning implemented will be the guidelines in dealing with each factor, such as, globalization, innovation, and
In formulating a process for undertaking a strategic plan for, say the veterinary services organization mentioned in my course paper and presentation, a first step would be formulating at least a mission statement for the organization. Since the veterinary clinic in question had not formalized a mission statement its mission was perhaps nebulous or up for debate. Berman suggests that the original mission statement might be revisited during the design phase (please see the following below), however, if none is in place prior to the start of strategic planning then perhaps an attempt to develop one at the start of the strategic planning process is advisable, even if it were to be revisited and modified during the process. As the Chinese proverb states, “如果你不知道你要去哪裡,任何道路會帶你去那裡。”* The mission statement allows the organization to develop specific goals and programs and serve a purpose in the strategic planning process.
The planning school of thought is a strategy that emphasizes the need for an organization to ensure that its business strategy is in alignment with the environment that it operates. In other words, an organization’s strategy must ‘fit’ the environment that it chooses for a business operation. A meticulous analysis of both the internal and external environments is considered in the planning school of strategy. Furthermore, the planning school of strategy often requires details that could probably make an organization not flexible to a market even when conditions demands flexibility (Barnat, 2014). Additionally, this strategy employs organizations to implement various marketing theories and Product Life Cycle in understanding the maturation of the market so that with past trends coupled with
As we can infer from the table above, Google‘s mission is consistent with its objectives in terms of how they complement each other. In its mission, Google promises to organize the world’s information and make it available for everyone to access. On the other hand, Google’s first objective is to provide information independent of any financial incentives. Moreover, they clearly state that their profits are mainly derived from advertising while information providing is for free. Google focuses on improving its operation by achieving higher quality products in order to better satisfy consumers, while the objectives precisely states that Google will employee all potential technological developments to improve users’ experience.