Business and Economics: The UK Government and Google

Part 1

The UK government’s Action

Summary

The presentation was based on the UK government’s continued action of minimizing expenditures in the education center. It is also evident that there is a huge gap in terms of the budget size that some of the educational institutions will be receiving in the fiscal year 2015/16 as compared to what they have been receiving in the last four years. A good illustration is presented in the fact that in the last four years the allocation to educational institutions has been 500,000 four years ago as compared with the currently expected allocation of about 130,000 (Weale 2015). These heavy budget cuts have affected the educational sector heavily with the greatest impact being forced upon small rural schools. The intention of the state is to minimize the expenditure per student. This phenomenon will cause rural schools characterized by a few students to receive large budgetary cuts.

Besides, the educational budget cut has also affected the money allocated to the research, where there has been a 4% loss (Harrison 2011). The universities have faced a 12% budgetary lapse (Harrison 2011). The result has been evident in the universities’ expenditure cuts towards research actions, which have a far-reaching impact. One of the impacts of reduced research funding is the fact that the state will start receiving less qualified employees. Less apt employees will mean poor quality thereby putting in jeopardy the competitive edge of the United Kingdom in terms of education and creativity. The budget cuts have also affected the schools’ expenditures for extracurricular activities. Music classes in various schools have experienced heavy cuts, and the trend continues to make the future for the students interested in this venture uncertain (Burns 2014).

The goal of the UK government to cut down its expenditures in the education sector has impacted the industry in a negative manner. The job loss of some professionals from various institutions has led to an increase in the unemployment rate. Moreover, the loss of job for some means an additional workload for the remaining employees. Increased workload for teachers means less time per student. This phenomenon will negatively affect the quality of education. Besides, the budget cuts will have a greater impact in the rural areas where schools have smaller numbers of students than those in urban areas meaning an even greater loss of funds based on the government rationale for cutting costs per student. The result will be the poor quality of education being offered to the rural students in comparison to their colleagues in the urban areas (Weale 2015). As a result, the government will be opposing the ideas laid down in the Constitution whereby all students have the right to equal and quality education.

Development

It is evident that the rationale behind this policy can be traced back to the UK government’s support for a more liberalized economy where there is minimized government control. However, it is also clear that due to the UK’s support of a liberalized economy, it has failed to offer high-quality social amenities, such as decent education, to all. It is also of interest to note that all political figures agree that no further budget cuts should be made to the educational sector. They have also agreed that the budget cuts have brought crisis into the industry manifested by the risk of closure of some of the public secondary schools (Weale 2015). This trend can be seen by the politicians asserting that the government should ensure that all students should have access to quality primary education. The above illustrations clearly present a worrying picture of the great negative impact the UK society is facing as a result of huge budget cuts the educational sector is facing.

Having identified that the government’s action of reducing the budget for education poses a great threat to the welfare of the students and the entire UK population, there is a need to understand the rationale behind this decision. Moreover, it is necessary to follow the sequence of the actions of the government that have brought forth this idea. The budget cuts became of significance in 2012 when the educational sector began to face a reduced budget allocation. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance to put more effort into discovering the reason necessitating these reductions. In appreciation of the fact that the education sector is one of the most important pillars of any economy, there is the need to dig deeper into the reason and the rationale for the UK government taking this direction and subsequently putting the education sector in jeopardy. Economic liberalization seems to be the fuelling factor of the budget cut, but more factors need to be analyzed to gain a deeper comprehension of the reason for the budget cuts.

Moreover, it is significant to look more into the effect the budget cuts have on the quality of the education offered in various public schools. A good illustration is a fact that in many regions across the UK, the schools facing a financial crisis are coming up with different techniques for handling the situation at hand. In South Yorkshire, some of the schools prefer hiring new less qualified teachers to the more experienced ones thereby risking the quality of offered education. Besides, teachers are being forced to teach subjects that they are not competent in. This phenomenon will eventually translate to poor education standards across the United Kingdom (Weale 2015). This example clearly demands more effort to be channeled towards sensitizing people concerning the loopholes that are created as many schools come to terms with huge budget cuts.

It is also surprising for many teachers and other active parties in the educational sector that the government seems to argue that the budget cuts are not hurting the industry. The state on its part argues that the budget cuts do not represent a crisis in the educational sector, but presents time in which the sector needs to tighten its belt (Harrison 2010). In countering this situation, it is important to present facts and figures prior to and after the budget cuts. This comparison will be important for the presentation of factual evidence. A good start along this line is the fact that as the school faces budgetary cuts, more and more experienced teachers are losing their jobs, and their replacements are less qualified. According to the experience of one of the teachers in South Yorkshire, students are now taught by teaching assistants who are less competent (Weale 2015).

Another component that is left out in the presentation and is of huge importance is the perspective of the students across the country. Subjects are being dropped to minimize the costs as schools try to cut their expenditures on teachers. At Poole grammar school in Dorset, the headteacher confirms this fact by indicating that the circumstances have forced to drop some of the A-level courses, namely politics and media. According to Deborah Hermanns, a campaigner against the budget cuts, the deficits caused by the reduced budget amount to the greatest attack on the public sector (Taylor 2015). Her argument is that vain search for maintenance grants will impact poor university students negatively. Additionally, a narrow choice of subjects will force students to take alternative subjects that they are not interested in at all. The ripple effect of such action should also be heavily discussed since it poses a danger to the students themselves and the general society. The cancellation of various classes in one school will mean that another school offering more interesting subjects will attract more students leading to the increased workload for the teachers.

Lastly, there is the need to mention a thorough description of the budget cut with respect to the constant increment of students in the schools, which represents the main demographic issue. There has been a consistent 1% increase in the number of students in the UK annually from the year 2010 (Association of Colleges 2014). This growth will result in more demand for the already squeezed budget rendering the situation more severe. As a result, there is the need to compare the positive sides and the negative aspect of the budgetary restrictions forced onto the education based on a sound rationale. This approach will make it possible to devise a solution that will be sensible and factual. The education sector has to get its fair share of resources without jeopardizing the intention of the government to have a liberalized economy.

Part 2

Google Company

Overview

Google provides the most famous search engines in the world founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin both of who in 1995 met at Stanford University (Google 2015a). The company is best known for the search engine (web search) “Google” where people from all over the world can get all the information they want from their internet-enabled gadgets at any time. Besides, the company has other products that include Google Chrome, a browser that is best known for its agility. It is also the company behind the Android operating system that is compatible with Google play a platform where people can download a wide range of applications. Google organizes its operation to ensure they meet its two major broad business market and the web market (Google 2015a). The major engagement on the business platform by Google is an advertisement where it provides an avenue where companies and business personalities can attract customers from all over the world. On the other hand, on the web front, Google is at the forefront coming up with products that are aimed at ensuring the web becomes better and more accessible with time.

Why They Are Creative

Recruitment Culture

A creative company is the one that realizes that the best asset the right workforce. In the same spirit, Google has been very focused on what type of workforce it recruits into its teams. They hire individuals who are smart; moreover, it is the policy of the company to employ applicants who have the ability rather than those who have experience (Google 2015b). It is also creative of Google to promote the culture of combined responsibility where all the employees are active in many aspects of the business and decision making. Combined responsibility is aimed at ensuring that all employees have the feeling of belonging to an organization. The company makes them involved with the management rather than obey all orders without question. The action of involving the employees in the company matters also acts as motivation for the workforce. In the context of Google, there is a culture known as ‘all-hands (“TGIF”) meetings’, where Googlers (the name given to Google’s employees) have a chance to pose all types of questions to the Google executives (Google 2015b).

Location

With respect to the fact that Google offers services across the world, it has opened its 70 offices in over 40 countries (Google 2015c). These offices have the task of coming up with tailor-made products that conform to the expectations of the clients from various countries. This is the reason behind the company offering its services in different languages. This approach has enabled people from different regions across the world to access the company’s products with ease. The result is that Google has been able to present itself in the market as not only a customer-oriented company but also a customer-friendly firm.

Product Mix

The company serves both individuals and businesses. The main goal of Google is to enable people to get the information they are searching for at any time. According to Larry Page, the search engine forms the core business of Google (Google 2015d). However, over time, Google has expanded its products to include business and web aspects. Under the business aspect, Google offers advertisement services where individuals can post their ads in the huge market the company presents in terms of web users (Google 2015d). With the great number of people surfing via Google, small businesses, writers and big companies are able to lure more people to consume their products. This is what is known as making money out of the internet – a goal Google is proud to help people attain. On the other hand, under the web platform, Google has created such products as Chrome and Android that are geared toward making the process of surfing faster and easier with different gadgets (Google 2015d).

Struggling with your essay?

Ask professionals to help you!

Start Chat

Google is also improving and upholding the idea of having an open web where different developers from all the world can contribute to the ‘online ecosystem’ easily (Google 2015d) thereby improving the internet experience of users around the world. The product mix has enabled Google to exploit different aspects of the market thereby giving it a competitive edge over its rivals and becoming one of the biggest companies in the world. While the corporation is continuing to improvise more products that are interconnected with the main venture of the ‘web search’, the management has been able to caution the company from shocks accompanied by overdependence. Creativity here is manifested in the form of the company’s ability to uphold constant innovation in terms of expanding its market niche.

The above illustration portrays Google as a creative company cemented on a solid, unique recruitment culture that is interested in more inability than experience. This approach is seen as going contrary to the norm of many organizations that prefer experience rather than ability. The result has been vibrant young innovative employees who have over the time made Google the giant that it now is. Having offices located all over the world has helped the company to come up with products that are market specifically thereby helping the company to lure more customers. The heavy exchange between junior workers and managers positions Google as a creative company that follows rules as it continues to forge ahead as one of the most successful companies of all time.