Google and Microsoft are two of the best-known brands in the world, and both are dominant participants in their markets. While both companies are relatively new compared to global giants such as Exxon or Toyota, they have grown quickly and influence millions on a daily basis. Microsoft has the largest market share of the personal computer operating system market, and a significant share of the office productivity software market. Google was initially a search engine, but has since expanded its product offering to include e-mail and to position itself as a Web portal. Both Google and Microsoft are expanding their positions on the Web; Microsoft also participates in television programming with its MSNBC channel. Although relatively new companies, both Google and Microsoft have changed the way that people around the world interact with one another, and how they conduct and communication with each other in their personal and professional lives. Viewed as the future of commerce and communications by many, these two companies are both welcomed and reviled. This research considers the organizational environments in which the two companies operate, including structure, behavior, critical success factors, and makes recommendations regarding how both companies might move forward.
Microsoft started in the mid-1970s when Paul Allen and Bill Gates started marketing their version of the BASIC computer language to hobbyists, and later expanded their reach to the corporate market, including General Electric and Citibank. They expanded their product line through acquisition to include an operating system for personal computers, and sold it to IBM-which dominated the microcomputer market when it entered in the early 1980s. However, Microsoft did not sell DOS only to IBM; they also sold it to competitors and clone makers through licensing agreements. This was a new business model which would eventually force IBM out of the mar...