Google: Achieving Industry-Wide Product Leadership

Google: Achieving Industry-Wide Product Leadership

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract ................................................................................................................ 4

Introduction .......................................................................................................... 5

Brief History of Google ...........................................................................................7

Google: Taking the Three Value Disciplines in Perspective...................................7

Google’s Product Leadership Strategy ..................................................................9

Google’s IT Support Strategy................................................................................10

Conclusion ...........................................................................................................13

References ...........................................................................................................14

ABSTRACT

Value disciplines are key factors in determining market leadership in any given endeavour. The three widely accepted value disciplines are operational excellence, customer intimacy and product leadership. These disciplines have their peculiar features and requirements in terms of IT support. In studying Google as a company, it is evident that while it implements all three strategies to a certain degree, it leans more towards product leadership and leverages on that to establish a formidable presence in the search engine market. Google has a sound IT infrastructure in terms of hardware and software that supports the product leadership value discipline.

INTRODUCTION

1 Overview of the three value disciplines

According to Treacy & Wiersema (1993, p. 85), there are three ways an organization can attain market leadership in its industry. These disciplines are operational excellence, customer intimacy and product leadership. For a business to dominate

References: 2 Customer Intimacy Companies that engage in customer intimacy always seek to tailor their products and services to suit the continuous changing requirements of the customer (Treacy & Wiersema, 1993 p Botella, M n.d., Google’s Business Model, Retrieved February 7, 2010, from http://cseweb.ucsd.edu/~paturi/cse91/Presents/mbotella.pdf Carr, DF 2006, How Google Works. Retrieved February 7, 2010, from http://www.baselinemag.com/c/a/Infrastructure/How-Google-Works-1