The balanced scorecard is an approach that enables organizational budgets to reflect their long-term objectives. The balanced scorecard achieves the reported objective through its ability to augment conventional financial measures with performance benchmarks. The process touches three areas, which are a firm’s connection with its clients, its primary internal processes, and its learning and growth (Kaplan & Norton, 1996). The analyses from the three regions and the financial measures provide a broader organizational health and its activity in addition to providing proper organizational tools. Furthermore, the strategy enables the translation of organizational vision, communication, and linking with stakeholders, business planning, and obtaining feedback concerning the process.
Successful Strategy Execution – Part I
Most organizations fail to execute their strategies mostly because they set unachievable and uncoordinated visions. The reading introduces the critical importance of organizational leadership, especially in defining the need to change, create strategy and vision, and develop a sense of urgency (Kaplan & Norton, 1996). The literature advises that a successful execution of strategy depends on the ability of managers to set credible targets. Managers must always ask themselves important questions concerning how they can set expectations of market leadership, the approach with which they should convince their organizations about the need for change in leadership strategies, the level of investment that they should make, and the approaches to setting targets for their balanced scorecards (Kaplan & Norton, 1996). The reading demonstrated that reducing the rate of customer dissatisfaction is one of the most useful ways of creating value for organizations.
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Successful Strategy Execution – Part II
The reading was a continuation of the first part, and it described the manner in which organizations could reduce customer dissatisfaction. The authors advised that companies could achieve this objective through improving the performance of its internal processes, which greatly influence strategy (Paul & Marcia, 2011). Some of the processes that could be improved included timeliness in the performance of critical processes, quality, which concerned minimizing defects and errors related with critical production processes, improved relationships between organizations and their stakeholders, and improving the effectiveness of operational and production process, which create new services and products within the organization (Paul & Marcia, 2011).
Who has the “D”? (Decision Responsibility)
The reading described the importance of decision-making within organizational settings, and importantly, the individual who has the responsibility of doing so. In acknowledging the diversity in organizational structures around the world, the reading proposed the RAPID model of decision making, which could be applied to solve the ambiguity over who is responsible for critical decision-making within an organization. The reading further addressed the possible pitfalls that most organizations could experience in decision-making (Paul & Marcia, 2011).
The GE – McKinsey Matrix
The reading introduced one of the most widely applied strategies for portfolio analysis, which assess the business strengths against the market attractiveness for the product portfolio while considering other factors, such as the market size and the market share for each of the products that the company offers for sale. The tool enables organizations to understand which of the products in its portfolio should be invested significantly during which time considering the likely benefits and drawbacks that are assessed according to risks and opportunities (Perret, 2017). In most cases, organizations do not invest in risky ventures in the short-run even though their likely outcomes are attractive.
Reading Ideas and their Application to Google Inc
The GE Matrix
As reported in the previous sections of this paper, the GE Matrix is one of the most important tools for planning investments. The tool guides corporations on which product portfolios they should invest based on the market attractiveness and the potential for profit. Figure 1 summarizes Google’s primary products according to the GE Matrix. As figure 1 indicates, most of the investments of the company are contained in the highly attractive segments, and they have been instrumental in pushing the profit motif of the firm (Paul & Marcia, 2011). The subsequent sections describe the different products in each of the market sectors.
Figure 1: Google’s main products analyzed according to the GE Matrix. Adapted from Perret (2017).
Search Engine
The Google search engine continues to be the heart of Google Inc., and it began in 1998. Currently, the search engine has a market share of close to 90% within Europe and 60% in America (Perret, 2017). The primary competitors of this product are Microsoft Bing and Yahoo with market shares of 10% (US) and 3% (Europe) and 21% (US) and 3% (Europe), respectively.
YouTube
Google, upon the discovery of the potential for growth that YouTube possessed, purchased it in 2006. The product dominates the video portals sector with a market share of close to 73% with competitors being Yahoo Video (4%) and Google itself (8%) (Perret, 2017).
Chrome Browser
Google explored the war for browsers that existed between Firefox and Microsoft through the invention of its own browser in 2008. While the product entered the market from a low note, it has grown to be one of the leading browsers in the industry with a market share of 50% worldwide, which beats Microsoft and Firefox at 37% and 11% respectively (Perret, 2017).
Street View, Earth, and Maps
Google considered the uniqueness of making all global objects visible to launch the product in 2005. While the product has been successful since its launch, it has experienced significant challenges, especially for privacy advocates who argue that the makes some of the objects that should be kept private accessibly to the public through real-time images (Perret, 2017).
AdSense and AdWords
While most of the products that Google offers are free, the two, AdSense and AdWords, are not free, and they are the pillar for the success of the company. The products refer to advertisements that are inserted in search words as a means of product promotion for other companies (Perret, 2017). Companies that advertise with google only pay for such services when visitors click on the advertisements, and the company does not charge any fixed amounts for the clicks, but the charges rely on the criticality of the advertising message (Perret, 2017).
Other Products
Google also runs a series of other projects, which have not been as successful as the ones that have already been described. Some of the products may be too small to be considered individual brands of the company, and they include Scholar, Desktop, Books, Gmail, Picasa, Docs, Translator, Images, G1 Mobile, and Toolbar (Paul & Marcia, 2011). Nevertheless, some of the insignificant products could develop in future to be leading brands since the company provides a platform through which users could contribute to their improvement and growth.
Who Has the D?
Consistent with the ideas proposed in the article, it is reported that Google makes decisions based on data-driven insights. The management of the organization understands the importance of careful planning that would incline new products to serve the vision and mission of the organization (Paul & Marcia, 2011). Notably, the company has failed with a number of its products, but the success rate of its inventions indicates that the management makes informed decisions.
At Google, facet-based model of decision-making is one of the operational norms, and that the data forms a critical element in the process of decision-making. The management of the company does not dominate the decision-making process, but strives to include as many stakeholders in the process as possible, including employees, consumers of products, and investors (Paul & Marcia, 2011). The collaborative method of decision-making has five steps in which the company seeks to learn from the success and failure stories of its competitors before inquiring on the possible strategies that could be applied in making the corporation successful (Perret, 2017). The firm then collects and analyzes the relevant data for appropriate decision-making, which forms the core for making appropriate decisions. Lastly, the company evaluates the efficacy of the decisions that were made towards improving its brand by collecting as much feedback as possible. Some of the products in its portfolio have improved in their market performance because of the type of feedback that the management receives from consumers and other stakeholders.
References
Kaplan, R. S., & Norton, D. P. (1996). Using the balanced scorecard as a strategic management system.
Paul, R., & Marcia, B. (2011). Who Has the D?: How Clear Decision Roles Enhance. HBR.
Perret, R. (2017). Decide and Deliver: Five Steps to Breakthrough Performance in Your Organization . New York: NY, Elsevier
