Google at a crossroad

Google's mission statement is and always has been "organize the world’s information". It has also understood how technology evolves, introducing and leading changes in the market. For example, by launching Android, Google proved it’s deep understanding of the market's migration from static towards mobile Internet connection. It has expanded way beyond "searching" to provide organized solutions with products like Google docs, Google Maps and Google Calendar. It has grown from organizing online queries to providing all kinds of online organization solutions for people.

Today, Google is at a crossroads facing several challenges to become a better and more competitive growing business. What should Google do to sustain its leading position and keep its fast-growing pace? 

On one hand, there is a pressing competitor that could take it out of business. Should Google focus on tackling Facebook? Secondly, there is China: a "new" market that is growing at a light-speed yet very difficult to enter due to various factors - i.e political.  Third, Google needs to be weary of anti trust lawsuits in Europe and other parts of the world. And fourth, Google's workforce is currently being poached by important tech start ups due to the lack of strong company culture and organization.  

Google can work on these and many other challenges at the same time, but it may need to prioritize its overall strategy. I think that the company should focus on it's social network strategy and optimizing it's organization. Google's social focus will deal once and for all with Facebook and Twitter by proving to be a worthy competitor. It is easier to tackle this problem first and then, if successful, expand it to other markets. 

From an organization point of view Google is very horizontal and employees sometime have no way to move up the corporate ladder. Rather than being the "it" company to work for, Google should work harder at implementing values and beliefs to make the company's purpose more palpable. It shouldn't be all about money, or trends. It should be about the future, and making technology easier and more accessible to people. So it's not only about the best performing employees, it's also about the ones who are more loyal.  

Dealing with many problems at the same time is a common symptom of big and diverse companies. Prioritizing while managing all of them is what helps them overcome these issues. In Google's case, it not only needs to prioritize, but also compete in different fronts at the same time. The problem is: will the choice it makes be the right one? And if not, will it have time to react? 

Social Web

Last Tuesday (may 24th) we started a new class called Social Web in the Digital Business Master I am currently coursing at IE Business School. And guess what our main assignment was? I'll give you a hint: the phrase "to blog or not to blog, that is the question" was involved. Indeed, another "hint from above" telling me to get my blog together and write some posts.

Just to give you a little "entree" of the topics we will be covering in Social Web - and therefore writing about, besides the news I'll analyze for Distribution Strategies - there will be lots of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google. But most importantly, we will analyze how the web has gone social, how we went from "watching the web" to "interacting with it", and nowadays to practically "making the web".

To me, it sounds incredibly exciting! And for those who are not convinced, I promise I will do my best to make it feel and sound exciting!

Cheers!

What Google's Music Beta means for the future

Recently, Google launched it’s music service called Music Beta. This got me thinking about how the music industry has changed drastically in the last 15 years, and as we can see in this article, change is still going on.
First, it was about  MP3, a new electronic format that is very easy to distribute. Then it was about devices that could play MP3’s. Later came the legal distribution of digital music, through iTunes, Amazon and other players. Now it’s about having access to our digital music library 24 hours a day on any of the devices we own: phones, computers, ipad, etc. There is a need to have the information on all our devices synced. That includes music.
The biggest problem, in my opinion, is getting all the players in the act together. Record labels have lost power. Decreasing record sales has seen their revenue collapse. Plus, they are not that influential as they were before, with radio stations and retailers in the picture. The only card they hold is their copyrighted music catalog. Distributors like Apple and Amazon have focused in changing the business model. For example, they not only sell albums, but also singles. Also distribution of music is practically instant. Buy a single and in less than 5 minutes you can listen to it.
Because they are all part of the music industry's value chain, one can’t function well without the other. Even though there are artists who are becoming independent, the fact of the matter is that for music distribution the first thing you need is music. Something that record labels have a lot of.
I think there will be intense licensing negotiations and the record labels will finally give in. Why? They have no choice yet. Opening their own digital shops might be too costly, and there are not enough players in the industry yet to establish profitable alliances. Apple had an incredible head start in all this and they managed to control almost all of the value chain. Because of their streamlined process to deliver a song through iTunes to an incredible and new device like the iPod, competition barely stood a chance.
But now Google is stepping in. And with its mobile Android platform and appstore, it's going to become the first real threat to Apple. Why? There are more phones with Android OS than with iOS (iPhones). Google is big enough to sit down with Record Labels and negotiate better deals. And because of Apple’s dominance and its “my way or the highway” attitude, a lot of players are going to be happy to know they have different choices.