Topic: Google and Baidu will Google dominate;

Describe 5 points how these strategies will impact the overall organizational operations.

Strategies to be considered:

Google and Baidu have both made mistakes in expanding and operating their businesses in overseas markets due to which they faced severe consequences and backlash from those respective markets. These mistakes include the cultural structure of their organizations, the methods of their negotiations with foreign governments and markets, their lack of understanding about the requirements and wants of their users. In order to have successful and profitable operations by expanding their businesses in foreign markets, they need to understand the root cause of these issues, analyse and develop appropriate strategies to overcome such issues and execute these strategies systematically which ensures them to capture a good share of those markets.

Google had problems following the regulations and censorships enforced by Chinas government. It also failed to provide accurate information to the Chinese users. In order to overcome this issue, Google could recruit executives who had good experience in cross-cultural negotiations especially with Chinese officials as well as has a good understanding of Chinas market. Another strategy for Google would be to hire executives from China as they would be fluent with the language which would be a good advantage in negotiating with Chinas government. A Chinese executive would be very familiar with the local market and understand the requirements of the users in Chinas market and its culture better than a foreign executive.

The next step for Google would be to prepare its management and the executives to have a flexible approach in negotiating with Chinas government. Google should develop profiles of the Chinese officials with whom their executives will be negotiating about the regulations and search engine rules in order to have a good understanding of their positions, authority and demands. Next Google should focus on developing a good relationship with them and build mutual trust with them. This would be beneficial for Google to convince the officials to be adaptive towards aligning their regulations with Googles policies and allow Google to enter Chinas market with fewer restrictions. Googles executives should also demonstrate to Chinas officials how their companys services would be beneficial for Chinas consumers. In exchange, Google must be cooperative with Chinas government by following their rules without compromising with their companys values and policies.

Furthermore, Google must form an effective global management team which has the capacity and skills to properly handle any cultural differences or management issues they might face while operating in China. This management team must be trained properly and be well familiarized with chinese culture, work values and ethics. This management team should promote a low-context cultural work environment where employees can freely communicate about their thoughts and ideas with their superiors and colleagues without feeling any kind of limitation due to the power distance difference in the organizations management hierarchy levels. With the free flow of information and inputs from their employees, Google will be able to better understand what the Chinese users expect and want from their search engine and other services and then develop or modify their services accordingly.

In Baidus case, they have been focusing on increasing their advertisement revenues due to which their users are not able to get enough reliable information results for their search queries. This has also resulted in many scam websites to jeopardize users personal information and steal their money. Baidu must focus on developing verification systems which identifies legitimate advertisers and only allows them to advertise and promote their products and services. But baidu must also make sure that the advertisements do not overcrowd the search results as this makes the user frustrated due to not being able to find what they are looking for and switch to an alternate option. Baidu can place their advertisements on different locations of the web page like on the right or left side of the search results or place them after 8-10 search results. This will allow the users to find better results for their queries.

The next issue which Baidu faces is expanding its operations internationally. Since Baidu is a Chinese company, its strategies and operations are based on the demand and requirements of Chinas consumers and its culture. So using the same strategy for entering international markets might not be very effective as the consumers will react very differently. Baidu would need to hire an international market research company to learn about the dynamics of the foreign market, the consumers problems, their expectations, culture and values. Baidu should then customize their service accordingly to offer more information about the region through its search engine. Baidu should also be careful in how they brand their services in new markets. This is due to the reason that some things which are acceptable in one country may not be acceptable in another due to cultural differences. Baidu should be culturally sensitive towards both their employees as well as users in different countries in order to successfully enter new markets. They should also train their employees to develop good cross-cultural communication skills in order to have a smooth workflow and avoid any confusions in the workplace.