Corporate Entrepreneurship (CE) has been one of the most important concepts in the recent past (Kuratko, Hornsby, & Hayton, 2015). Most of the companies across the globe are always looking for ways to enhance their products and restructure their strategies for better positioning in the market. What is important to understand is that most of the restructuring and improvement of products can only be achieved by enhancing the concept of corporate entrepreneurship (Chen & Nadkarni, 2017). A company has a chance of developing its competitive advantage in the market by producing products that are better than its competitors in the market. This paper focuses on different aspects of corporate entrepreneurship with the main focus being Google. The company has been at the forefront in enhancing innovation not only in its business line but also in other aspects as well depending on the business prospects of the proposed business.
Google has made innovation an everyday process and does not only use as a strategy to deal with any looming crisis. The company has prioritized innovation since its founding days. The policies the company has been proposing have been aimed at increasing the freedom of employees to enable them to work on various projects of their preference. The company has also been focusing on making it easy for employees to express themselves through several channels. For example, as will be analyzed in this paper, the company has through its Google X division developed many projects that have since materialized and implemented by the company. Projects from the division have been able to deal with competition effectively enabling the company to maintain its competitive advantage in the highly competitive market. One of the things that Google has been able to manage is having the top management take an interest in these projects, which ensures that they are supported well enough to succeed during the incubation period as well as after they have been launched.
- Environmental Trend
One of the projects that Google has developed using Google X has been Project Loon. This project aims at providing most of the people across the globe with internet access as far as they have access to a device that can enable them to access the internet. The company aims to have hot air balloons floating in the atmosphere connected with routers providing people with access to the internet. This project would disrupt the role played by internet service providers by getting some of the companies out of the market (Kuratko, Hornsby, & Covin, 2014). The amount of investment required to initiate such a project across the globe means Google will enjoy much monopoly because will take time before a company can initiate such a project. Moreover, Google will be able to increase traffic to its search engine, which will make it easier for the company to increase its sales when it comes to adverts, which contribute the largest revenue for the company (Kamnani & Suratkar, 2015). However, the effect of this disruption is that it would increase information access to millions of people across the rural areas in many parts of the globe. For example, the project would enable a farmer in a remote area in Africa to have access to information on how he can improve his yields.
The monopoly created by the project would create an extra segment in the company’s business model. The company will have to ensure a redesign of its business model to ensure the provision of the internet. One of the ways through which the company can attain this is by acquiring an internet service provider that can provide internet across the globe (Kamnani & Suratkar, 2015). The company has in the recent past successfully acquired companies such as Motorola with the aim of having access to its expertise in the development of mobile devices.
One of the challenges that the company would face is competition from other companies that aim at providing the same services. The company would receive much criticism for aiming at monopolizing the same market. The company would also receive much opposition due to internet privacy issues that emanate from the company having a lot of control on internet usage (Kamnani & Suratkar, 2015). It is important to note that Google owns Android operating system and may have control of access to information for all Android users. Project Loon may also experience challenges related to its design, as the company will have to ensure that the design is perfect especially about power storage. The other design challenge is the prospect of hardware failure where it would be hard to access the devices and rectify the problem (Kamnani & Suratkar, 2015). This leaves the balloons with the risk of either remaining floating in the stratosphere or falling in unwanted places where some damage may be experienced.
- Entrepreneurship Orientation
Google is a company that has always been oriented towards innovation and entrepreneurship. The employees are provided with the right autonomy to develop the right project that can push the company forward and ensure it maintains a competitive advantage (Kuratko, Hornsby, & Covin, 2014). Right from the hiring process, the company focuses on those individuals who are capable of developing new products or improving on the current ones to ensure Google competes effectively in the market.
The entrepreneurial architecture of the company is one that leans towards corporate entrepreneurship and innovation (Chen & Nadkarni, 2017). It can be seen the company’s leadership, culture, structure, and strategies. Google is one of the companies that has a well-established system that has operational units in almost all the segment the company operates in. Innovation is at the core of the company in these segments.
Corporate entrepreneurship at Google usually takes many forms with the success of each project being measured on the effect it has on users. In the past, the company has installed the 20% time policy to all employees with the aim of ensuring that employees work on projects of their choice. This has led to new ideas and discoveries such as Google Chrome, an invention that has revolutionized the user experience. Similarly, the company has been running an innovation hub known as Google X that is located separately from the mother company. This is where most of the new ideas are incubated, and only the viable ones are released into the market (Nielsen, 2016). Project Loon has been a product of Google X where it was incubated and only announced by Google’s CEO when it was evident that it would make a mark in the market. This shows that the company is oriented towards innovation and entrepreneurship in all sectors as the employees are not limited in the types of projects that they can come up with.
Leadership has been one of the architectural aspects of the company that have geared it towards innovation and entrepreneurship in all fronts (Kuratko, Hornsby, & Covin, 2014). The founders who have a keen interest in the projects and ideas from the employees head most of the major departments. For example, one of the co-founders heads Google X as he guides employees on what the company is likely to adopt during innovation (Kuratko, Hornsby, & Covin, 2014). The leadership process of the company makes it easier for innovators to have the funding necessary to realize their projects. The founders have made it a priority to fund those project ideas that have a higher chance of making a mark in the market. The fact that the founders pick the projects increases the ease of getting funding.
The business strategy of the company is also focused on innovation. The implication is that the policies passed by the company’s management are in alignment with the model. The policies have encouraged the company to have a culture based on constant iteration as well as feedback. Google’s corporate culture is one based on coming up with the best products that strengthen the company against the competition. The culture is one based on the autonomy of employees about the type of ideas they want to produce and incubate within the company (Kuratko, Hornsby, & Covin, 2014). The culture of employees getting recognition for their contributions to successful projects also encourages more employees to develop their ideas with the company and seek funding to realize them fully.
Concerning corporate structure, Google has fully operational research and development section that deals with the incubation and development of new ideas and project. The department falls under the guidance and leadership of one of the co-founders; Larry Page and Sergey Brin (Kuratko, Hornsby, & Covin, 2014). This means there is much expertise in the department, and hence the increased chances of success. It is for this reason that Google X has been able to come up with many projects that are disruptive in many industrial fronts.
Addressing the Trend through Corporate Entrepreneurship
The company focuses on solving most of the issues it faces through entrepreneurship within the company. The culture of the company is one that focuses on rewarding employees who come up with working ideas that can of benefit to the company. In most cases, Google depends on its technology hubs to come up with the right solutions for the consumers as seen from investments that the company puts on these tech hubs (Kuratko, Hornsby, & Covin, 2014). The involvement of the management at Google X is an indicator of the importance of the tech hub to the company. The future of Google depends on how well the company can instill innovation within its culture to enhance success.
However, there many challenges that the company faces when developing projects such as Project Loon and others considered ambitious for the company. It is evident that Google expects much backlash from various sectors across the globe about the risk of failure and the threat of monopolizing the market. This means that the company will have to design something with the reduced risk of hardware failure to prevent disasters that might have unintended effects (Kuratko, Hornsby, & Covin, 2014).
The other major issue relates to having a team that can work on the project. Internal rivalries within the organization may affect the company in a direct manner leading to reduced efficiency within the team. This is mainly evident when the team is not the one that came up with the innovation and has to be filled in by the idea developer. Some opposition is expected if the team is made up of individuals whose projects did not make it past the idea phase. The company can deal with this challenge by making sure that employees are aware of the probability of their projects being rejected for valid reasons. It is clear that the company may have issues with the development of operational readiness and the activation of employees towards the project.
What it can do to Boost Corporate Citizenship
The management can adopt various strategies to boost corporate entrepreneurship in the wake of blockchain technology. Presently, many the companies are not able to structure their corporate entrepreneurship in the right manner as it does not have guidelines (Kuratko, Hornsby, & Covin, 2014). Enabling the employees to be innovative and entrepreneurial is a challenge for the company. To deal with this, challenge the company has developed the Google Cafes where employees from different departments can interact and share ideas and in the process have project partners. The company has also developed a culture where no stigma is attached to failure in the company. Although Google has mastered the development of a culture that can foster entrepreneurship, maintaining the same is a challenge for the company. With the disruptive nature of blockchain technologies, the company should invest more in research and development because it is a new field and many firms have not fully embraced it. The strategy will ensure that Google enjoys the benefits of being a market leader because of the innovative prowess depicted and spearheaded by its employees.
Recommendations
The company should maintain its culture of promoting employees with entrepreneurial ideas (Zahra, 2015). This can be done by maintaining the funding of such projects developed by employees within the organization. However, the company should look for ways to make employees partners in those projects they develop. The reward system is not enough to ensure efficient motivation of the employees (Kuratko, Hornsby, & Hayton, 2015). By making them partners, it means that the employee will have the innovation or technology patented and earns a certain percentage of income generated from the sale of the product developed. Besides the better equipment of the research and development segments, the company stands a chance of increasing the number of ideas and projects that come from the employees.
Google should also continue taking care of the employees as a way of making them innovative. Research indicates that most of the employees are happy working for the company and are ready to develop their ideas with the company. For example, the provision of the Google Cafes should continue because employees can interact with other personnel working in the organization. This is where the company can get project partners who can help it in the overall process of idea generate and making sure that the incubation process is a success to develop a project or product that would be appealing to the consumers. Maintaining the entrepreneurial leadership that is currently in place within the organization will be ideal for preserving the future of the future of the company as far as innovation is concerned.
Conclusion
Corporate entrepreneurship has many benefits for the company in today’s market due to the high rates of competition that multinational companies face. Google is one of the companies that have made a mark in the digital world and benefits from innovation from the employees. Google has been able to develop a culture that fosters innovation at all times. To continue benefiting from corporate entrepreneurship, then Google should maintain its current management style where senior company officials foresee the corporate entrepreneurial ventures and the company funding the best projects even in the emerging blockchain technology. There is need to reduce any ill feeling that might lead to internal rivalries within Google by making the employees aware that they should expect anything ranging from rejection of the projects to having the project supported by the company.
References
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Kuratko, D. F., Hornsby, J. S., & Hayton, J. (2015). Corporate entrepreneurship: the innovative challenge for a new global economic reality. Small Business Economics, 45(2), 245-253.
Nielsen, P. S. (2016). Entrepreneurship orientation in policymaking. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation.
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