Nadler Tushman organizational model outputs and framework

Nadler Tushman Outputs

In the Nadler-Tushman congruence model, there are three different levels of outputs. The first level is the financial, and on that measure Google has done very well. The company has increased its revenue and earnings substantially since its inception, such that it now earns $59.8 billion with net earnings of $12.9 billion. The Google balance sheet is freakish, with $58.7 billion in cash and equivalents. So the company literally has more money than it knows what to do with. This situation is actually not great for shareholders, as they get a fairly low return on capital. The stock is trading over $500. The book value of the equity is $87.3 billion and the company's market cap is $346.7 billion, which indicates that the shareholders are generally getting good value for their investment in Google. The earnings are so high that even at this valuation, Google is trading only at 17.42 forward P/E (MSN Moneycentral, 2014).

Google is also known as a desirable employer, in an annual survey by Fortune Magazine (2014). This highlights how well that Google performs not just on the employee side in terms of inputs but in terms of outputs as well, as people stay with Google and love working for the company. The high score in being a great employer is something that is congruent with the high level of overall organizational performance because the company needs great people in order to perform and it seems as though the evidence is there to suggest that this is the case.

The company has a few divisions, but all of the revenues at Google come from advertising, and this is the level on which the company needs to be understood. Groups can be ad hoc at Google, for example to work on a new, emerging project, but there is little in the way of formal data to outline how well the company performs in this respect.

One area where Google has done well is with the market share aspect of the business. So at the group level, Google dominates on things like online search and those sorts of websites, but it has also enjoyed success with other products, even when those products are not making money. Google has the number one market share in mobile, with Android, and the Chrome browser is also among the most popular market leaders in its field. This highlights that Google has been able to enjoy success, if not financial success then at least market-driven success, in products that are outside of its core business.

The individual level is an interesting issue. On the one hand, Google is a highly-successful company with relatively low turnover, which implies that it is performing well with respect to individual outcomes. On the other hand, the inputs are fairly good. Google hires top people, so when they perform well, and stay with the company, this does not necessarily mean that the company has genuinely added value for said individuals Their high level of performance might have been incidental. While this theory is just that, an unfounded theory, it must be taken into consideration when evaluating whether Google has great outputs at the individual level.