Chapter 2 Closing Case
Google’s Closing Case Questions
1. How does Google’s mission drive strategy at the company?
Google’s mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally acceptable and useful helped it develop a very useful search engine that we all use or have used on a regular basis. They run on the mantra “don’t be evil!” They came up with the saying in the hopes to always run the business with integrity. One aspect of this was the decision to not let outside companies’ interests bias where they rank. “Don’t be evil” is the cornerstone to the company’s ethics and it is the basis of every strategic decision. (Hill & Jones, 2012)
2. Is Google’s stance toward Internet search in China consistent with its mission?
Google’s stance toward internet search in China is not consistent with its mission. Google’s mission of making the world’s information universally acceptable and useful are present at Google in China even though they are censoring. The service is still there. Even though the Chinese initially blocked them, they were convinced that the 400 million internet users in the Chinese market needed them and they need China. (Lee, 2014)
3. Do you think that Google should have entered China and engaged in self-censorship, given the company’s long-standing mantra “Don’t be evil”? Is it better to engage in self-censorship than have the government censor for you?
Going to China was a huge step in the business end of Google. They stand to make a lot of money in that market. Dealing with the censorship was just something they had to get around. But as for integrity and their mantra “Don’t be evil”, going to China and participating in censorship goes against everything they built the company on. They simply gave in to greed instead of sticking to what they had said they believe is right. China accounts for $300 to $400 million dollars of their yearly revenue and for a company whose annual revenue is around $24 billion per year, it’s
1. How does Google’s mission drive strategy at the company?
Google’s mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally acceptable and useful helped it develop a very useful search engine that we all use or have used on a regular basis. They run on the mantra “don’t be evil!” They came up with the saying in the hopes to always run the business with integrity. One aspect of this was the decision to not let outside companies’ interests bias where they rank. “Don’t be evil” is the cornerstone to the company’s ethics and it is the basis of every strategic decision. (Hill & Jones, 2012)
2. Is Google’s stance toward Internet search in China consistent with its mission?
Google’s stance toward internet search in China is not consistent with its mission. Google’s mission of making the world’s information universally acceptable and useful are present at Google in China even though they are censoring. The service is still there. Even though the Chinese initially blocked them, they were convinced that the 400 million internet users in the Chinese market needed them and they need China. (Lee, 2014)
3. Do you think that Google should have entered China and engaged in self-censorship, given the company’s long-standing mantra “Don’t be evil”? Is it better to engage in self-censorship than have the government censor for you?
Going to China was a huge step in the business end of Google. They stand to make a lot of money in that market. Dealing with the censorship was just something they had to get around. But as for integrity and their mantra “Don’t be evil”, going to China and participating in censorship goes against everything they built the company on. They simply gave in to greed instead of sticking to what they had said they believe is right. China accounts for $300 to $400 million dollars of their yearly revenue and for a company whose annual revenue is around $24 billion per year, it’s