Google’s Four Functions of Management

Google’s Four Functions of Management

Google began as a research project in January 1996 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two Ph.D. students at Stanford University, California. They hypothesized that a search engine that analyzed the relationships between websites would produce better results than existing techniques, which essentially ranked results according to the number of times the search term appeared on a page. Originally the search engine used the Stanford University website with the domain google.stanford.edu. Google is now an American Public Corporation specializing in Internet searching and online advertising. The domain google.com was registered on September 14, 1997, and the company was incorporated as Google Inc. on September 7, 1998 at a friend's garage in Menlo Park, California. The Google search engine attracted a loyal following among the growing number of Internet users, who liked its simple design. After quickly outgrowing two other sites, the company leased a complex of buildings in Mountain View at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway from Silicon Graphics in 1999. The company has remained at this location ever since, and the complex has since become known as the ‘Googleplex.’ In 2006, Google bought the property from SGI for 319 million (Olsen, Google). Google’s competitive advantage has been built upon two decisive factors: its innovative technology, and its simplicity. It led in the United States with 47.3% of Web searches in the month of May compared with Yahoo at 20.9% and MSN at 13.6%. Google’s management techniques have proven to be fruitful. One of their “10 Golden Rules” -Google’s compilation of ten rules which help motivate their employees - is place employee’s in the same or even different departments in close quarters to allow them to communicate, which in turn, makes coordination extremely efficient. Google runs a unique and exceptional work atmosphere, from its constant technological advances to its friendly work environment; Google’s future seems limitless.

Google is situated in Mountain View, California, or most commonly known as the ‘Googleplex’. It is there where the powerful minds at Google create tens of hundreds of applications and products which are aimed at either small business or individual users. But it is from there advertisers which they receive their most profit (Google Form 10-k). One of the ways Google generates revenue from these advertisers is a product called Google Adwords. Advertisers specify the words that should trigger their ads and the maximum amount they are willing to pay per click. When a user searches Google's search engine on www.google.com, ads for relevant words are shown as "sponsored link" on the right side of the screen, and sometimes above the main search