1.

Explain how each of its strategic components – distinctive competence, scope,

and resource deployment – plays role in Google’s success.

Distinctive competence refers to the core skills and practices that

increases the competitiveness of an organization. It played an important role in
Google’s success because it made them different or distinct from others. They
have their own core of skills and practices that their competitors find difficult to
follow. One example of its distinctive competence is the high-end and wide
variety of features they offer- not limited to search engine only but also to news,
shopping, local businesses, interactive maps, discussion groups, as well as
blogs, web-based email and voice mail, a digital photo-management system, and
many more. Another strategic component they have is the scope. Scope, in
business, is defined as the combined objectives and requirements needed to
complete a project and is also important in order to save both time and money.
Since the founders of Google plans to follow their proven recipe for success
which is to compete head to head with the service providers and to develop new
features and services, they have invested more on R&D and acquired new IT
assets. Although this may increase their expenses, the investment is expected to
bring more information and develop further innovation that would generate more
users and income.

And lastly, resource deployment. Its purpose is to help the business

optimize the utilization of resources across the organization. In Google’s
situation, resource deployment played an important role because they identified
first their goals- which to create more features and services, and from there they
have successfully laid out plans so that no money, time and human resources
are wasted.

2. In what ways is Google prepared to respond to both organizational opportunities

and organizational threats in the U.S. market?

Google prepared to respond to both organizational opportunities and

organizations threat through their strategic planning. They respond to the latter
 by diversifying extensively through acquisitions and key or strategic alliances.
They respond to the former, on the other hand, by improving its technology by
adding variety to its own online offerings such as acquiring new IT assets,
innovating an automated universal language translator for translating documents
in any language, personalizing home pages that allows users to design automatic
searches, developing unique algorithm for just every form of activity in the firm,
and also by attracting talented and creative employees and providing them with a
working environment that will foster the kind of productivity and innovation for
which they were hired.

3. How can Porter’s generic strategies approach help explain Google’s U.S.
strategy?

Poster’s Generic Strategies Approach includes cost leadership,

differentiation, and focus. Cost leadership in Google’s US strategy is through
their distinctive competence by which their offerings are different from their
competitors along their most valued dimensions. The next one is differentiation
which can be used in combination with cost leadership strategy. In Google’s US
strategy, they adopt differentiation by emphasizing their unique product features
and by addressing the consumers’ growing concerns. Lastly, the focus strategy.
Google adopts the focus strategy in terms of offering the best value. They
adopted it by emphasizing over the scope and design of the product features that
could best match the customers’ needs and requirements. Through those
strategies, Google created a strong foothold that made them different from other
brands.

4. Identify situations in which Google might use tactical, operational and

contingency planning.

Google might use tactical planning in situations, like for example, when
they release a new features or products and hiring someone such as a famous
celebrity in endorsing it and/or for the promotional campaigns. Operational
planning when Google, for example, is planning to upgrade the quality of their
features or products and in order to improve users’ satisfaction. Lastly,
contingency planning. Google might use this to address unforeseen or
emergency situations like for example, when key employees resigned or
extended their absence.