Google is an American multinational that offers internet based services that include cloud computing, internet search, advertising technologies and software.  The company obtains its revenues primarily from advertising services. Founded by Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the company has grown and become the leading internet-services provider despite competition from other firms such as Yahoo and China based organizations. The firm operates in a highly uncertain environment filled with risks and responsibilities. For instance, the company may face sanctions from other governments, or face media restrictions. Additionally, the firm does not have certain sources of revenues because of emerging technologies supported by the internet platform. Despite these facts, the firm must make decisions and carryout organizational and business functions. It is crucial to highlight managerial decision making at Google in risk, certainty and uncertainty.

2.0 Introduction

Decision-making is a crucial aspect of management and organizational operations. Decision-making occurs as a mental process that leads to the selection of an appropriate course of action despite the different alternatives. Most importantly, decision-making leads to a final choice. The performance of humans particularly managers in decision-making occurs in different approaches and strategies. For instance, psychological perspectives lead to the realization that it is crucial to examine decisions based on the needs of an individual and the preferences and values of the individual. A cognitive perspective leads to the realization that the decision making course occurs as a continuous process incorporated with the decision making environment. A normative perspective shows that individual analysis have their basis on the sense of decision-making, invariant choices and rationality (Bouyssou, & Wiley InterScience (Online service), 2009). In all cases, decision-making is a crucial strategy and approach towards the resolution of organizational problems. However, the environments of making the decision differ that leads to varied decisions and different outcomes. Certain environments facilitate decision-making, but uncertain environments have risks that challenge the decision making process. Because of these risks, it is essential for the decision making process to analyze the environment and identify alternatives with the lowest possibility of risk.

3.0 Brief Company Background

Google is an American multinational founded by Sergey Brin and Larry Page in 1998. The firm provides internet based products and services such as cloud computing, internet search, advertising technologies and software technologies. The firm primarily gets its revenues from advertising income. Since its incorporation in 1998, Google has witnessed remarkable growth in services and organizational structure that led to the 2004 initial public offering. The firm, according to its mission, aims to organize global information and facilitate global accessibility and usefulness of this information (Bouyssou, & Wiley InterScience (Online service), 2009). The rapid growth of Google triggered series of acquisitions, chains of products, and partnerships that occurred beyond the firm’s core web-search engine. This shows the nature of uncertainty and the scope of risk within the firm’s decision-making process. For instance, the firm made acquisitions and oversaw innovative products in a new environment. In addition, as an internet based business, the firm operates in an extremely competitive and sensitive environment.

The company provides different online products such as online productivity software such as email, social networking and office suite. The products by the firm extend to desktop, applications for internet browsing, instant messaging, and editing and organizing photos. Recently, the firm began to develop mobile application and operating systems such as Android and Google Chrome OS (Bell, Raiffa, & Tversky, 2009). In addition, to these products, the firm has become a leading hardware producer following partnerships with leading electronics manufacturers. The firm is also involved in infrastructural development such as the development of a fiber-optic in Kansas City.

Estimates indicate that the firm manages close to a million severs globally and processes one billion search requests daily. Additionally, the firm has 24 petabytes of data generated by users, daily. According to consumer research firm, Alexa, google.com was the most visited internet site in 2012. In addition, other Google run sites such as Blogger and YouTube features in the list. In the BrandZ equity database, Google ranks second. Despite its rise and gain in market popularity that has led to dominance, the firm faces criticism and risks over issues such as censorship, copyrights and privacy (Bell, Raiffa, & Tversky, 2009).

Managerial Decision Making In Risk Part II