Google/Alphabet Company
Alphabet is an American holding company, created during the restructuring of the Google company in October 2015. As the official website of Alphabet Inc. says: “What is Alphabet? Alphabet is mostly a collection of companies” (Alphabet, para. 5). Wirtz (2019) elaborates on this statement: “Alphabet serves as a multisector holding that allows its subsidiaries to act more freely than within one company, which was necessary for Google to stay fast and innovative” (p. 209). Thus, from the 2015 year, Alphabet has become a parent company for Google, and former Google subsidiaries, including Calico, Fiber, Nest, and others. Moreover, in Alphabet Inc., a couple of the Google co-founders have remained to be controlling shareholders.
Before and after the restructuring under the Alphabet umbrella, Google’s revenue rates had constantly been growing. For instance, in 2015, its revenue was 75.4 billion USD, while in 2017, it had increased up to 110.8 billion USD already (Wirtz, 2019). During the first year after the Alphabet Inc. creation, Google’s revenue had been increasing by 20.3% compared to the outcomes achieved in 2015 (Wirtz, 2019). Thus, Google, and therefore, Alphabet itself, can be called an innovative and constantly growing company. Among their strengths, Wirtz (2019) highlights the “dominant position in the online and mobile advertising market including a broad advertising network, as well as its strong position as online and mobile content provider” (p. 228). In 2003, one of the main competitors of Google, Apple, launched the iTunes platform, which gained popularity quickly. However, Google adapted to this challenge and took iTunes as a model for the Android marketplace (Wirtz, 2019). Moreover, Alphabet Inc. apply marketing strategies by formulating its “business model mission, strategic position, and development paths, as well as business model value proposition” (Wirtz, 2019, p. 210). Thus, Google (and Alphabet itself) is constantly aimed at targeting new markets and technological advancements.
Cummings and Worley’s Five Dimensions of Leading and Managing Change
One of the existing tools to organize an organization change is represented by Cummings and Worley’s five dimensions of effective development. Thi five-step system includes: motivating change, creating a vision, developing political support, managing transition, and sustaining commitment (Cummings & Worley, 2009). To begin with, it is necessary to define all the dimensions for a change. Firstly, the motivating step includes the need for a leader to encourage all the company workers to seek a change and be ready to address the possible challenges. Secondly, leaders should create a workers’ vision to oversee the consequences of their actions. Thirdly, political support is a component that should be gained from the change stakeholders. Finally, developing a plan for a change is managing transition from point A to point B, and afterward, the company should achieve sustain commitments, meaning preservation of the outcomes.
Summing all the written above, companies’ leaders can use these five dimensions of effective change to organize existing resources and convert them to development advancements. Leaders need to satisfy the expectations and maintain the motivations of the employees gained via the first step, and each of the following actions is built upon this idea. Applying this strategy to Alphabet Inc., one main claim is that the created business model mission, development paths, and proposed business values satisfy Cummings and Worley’s effective change model. This is proved with the constant revenue growth from the 2015 year when the Alphabet umbrella was created.
References
Alphabet. G is for Google. Web.
Cummings, T. & Worley, C. (2009) Organizational development and change, 9th edition. Mason, OH: South Western.
Wirtz B.W. (2019). Google/Alphabet case study. In Digital business models. Progress in IS. Springer, Cham, 207-236.