Organization paper

Airbnb, Inc. is an American company founded in 2008 and it is headquartered in San Francisco, California. The firm operations includes providing an online market place where people list accommodations worldwide and others discover and book them online or by use of a mobile phone.  It provides a space where people can rent out extra spaces in their property and display it to audience. The property owner sets the price of accommodation and the firm receives part of the services fees from both the host and the guest in addition to every booking. Its operations aim at connecting travelers all over the world with affordable and comfortable rooms. The Company is privately owned and operated (Airbnb, n.d).   

The story of Airbnb growth involves peer-to-peer rental website for vacation whose market place expansion throughout the globe can be attributed to creativity.  The company’s strategy involves providing world class serviced to its customers (Airbnb, n.d).  It has managed to do this through digital marketing and referrals of new participants by users in an email invitation.  The digital marketing approach was aims at matching the set company mission.  It was not doing well initially but to survive the company started improving its listing image quality. This involves not only using ratings systems for the listings of rentals like other firms but ensures that ratings from the website trustpilot.com are shown in their Adwords listings. Ratings are usually forms a big part of business plan involving online vacation rentals more so in a peer-to-peer market. The strategy also involves content matters where the listings management is dine in form of content that I carefully curated (Patel, 2015).In the search results of the website, the spaces which are most appealing are ranked higher while those that have lower ratings or quality content that is low cannot easily be found. This is attributed to employees and a good algorithm that ensures the best content is featured and curated. The site also uses professional photos on the provided spaces while offering guidelines for images generated by the users. Therefore, better content I provided by the visuals and the spaces become more appealing to the users who are searching for accommodation (Patel, 2015). This represents a win-win approach given that the digital marketing approach ensures listings on the search engine are optimized and this allows the cream to appear on the top and their own content becomes always fascinating.  

In addition, the company decided to focus on Google display advertising using banner –ad campaigns which include images of the actual spaces being offered on this site. The strategy also uses referrals as part of marketing. In this scenario when new participants are referred by users, the referrers are offered a travel credit of $25 I case the new members complete their first trip and a credit of $75 when the new members host their first guests.  The only benefit going to Airbnb is the pay out for the referrals after payment is made into the system by the new user (Patel, 2015). This allowed the firm to grow by use of the referral program in a way that is sustainable.  Essentially, the company noticed the need integrate with at least two big digital marketing forums to attract enough customers.  The company integrated with Craig’s list and Google. This allowed the company to obtain clients and hosts necessary to provide for them a good starting point in their market. Given that people were already posting short-term housing ads though the Craig’s List, the firm allowed people the opportunity to use the List to share their Airbnb post with an effect of bringing more traffic to the Airbnb website and user’s listing.  This highlights an effective growth and marketing strategy. The referral program is a successful way of growing start-up and making the brand to catch the attention of the important influencers (Helm, 2014).  It is a reflection of a well developed growth strategy which involves resources mobilization, marketing research and competitive analysis and client relations. The strategy should be directed to the mission of the organization and any efforts that can help in the achievement of the desired results must be focused on simplifying services delivery or solving a problem facing the community (Rao & Krishna, 2003).  The mission of Airbnb involves serving as a market place for the community for listings, discovering and booking unique accommodation thought out the work.  

The Airbnb Inc. can be analyzed through the framework of Michael Porter’s competitive rivalry. He services provided by the company represent the most recent disruption that can have faced the travel lodging industry.  The competitive rivalry can be seen in the way many automated intermediaries in the travel industry have replaced the traditional ones. The online platforms can manage to compete with Airbnb in the provision of information about property space sales and an interaction between the sellers and buyers (Galliani, 2014).  However, in an age where consumers demand convenient related to ICT service delivery, Airbnb takes a disintermediation step where it acts as the provider of information and the product. The competitive advantage enjoyed by Airbnb originates from the manner in which it has managed to introduce the customer to customer model in an industry which has traditionally operated through the business to customer model.  Airbnb can be said to be a ‘cybermediary’  to refer to a firm which benefits from a cost structure which is leaner , has a global reach and possesses technological economies of scale. This can be attributed o large quantities which informs low cost of transaction. The rivals of Airbnb include Orbitz and Google and the hotels themselves (Galliani, 2014). It is able to beat competition form hotels due to the fact that it is not constrained by increasing variable costs. Rather, Airbnb can provide expansive list of rooms all over the world without being constrained by cost

Airbnb organizational culture   

Organizational culture means a system of assumptions, beliefs and values that are shared by people and shows them what is the right or wrong behavior (Kummerow & Kirby, 2014).The basic understanding of the way culture is approached at Airbnb is the vision of the company to stands for something more than just a home and, hence, a greater purpose of belonging is reflected. The culture is built on values that extend beyond its employees to include the community of guests and hosts. It is a deliberate effort to have the culture of the company extended and having everyone included into the commitment curve.  The focus starts with employees being shifted to the commitment curve until the point where they are treated like owners of the company. The culture created by Airbnb Incl. is shown in its commitments to values and missions and to the strong belief in a two-way communication which is honest. The common rule is that not information should be gotten from external sources until it has been provided internally (Clune, 2016).  The communication takes places through a live stream where everyone around the world joins information is distributed, questions asked, ideas and thoughts are shared. Furthermore, there have been developments of an intranet where every employee is appreciated through anniversaries and birthdays (Clune, 2016).  

The culture also involves the ground control group that is normally a part of a team for employee experience where the aim is to bring the culture to life. The tam looks at the environment of the workplace, recognition of the employee, various events and celebrations.  In recruitment, the company gives preferences for inside filling of roles and then looks externally. The company’s culture ensures that internal recommendations are given a priority. There is also effort to create belonging through bringing across various geographies together (Clune, 2016). Instilling understanding and empathy is considered part of belonging and the management encourages the employees to acts as hosts by assisting them where possible to have that experience (Kummerow & Kirby, 2014).  

The organizational culture of Airbnb to a great extent aligns with the strategy with the strategy of providing world class customer services. The company aims at being an open community where the world can be brought together by way of fostering shared and meaningful experience. This will only be possible if the company adheres to its all inclusive culture that will consider millions of peoples from all corners of the world.  The premise to provide customer services that are of high quality is informed by the manner in which the company’s culture upholds its employees, who are essentially, the determinants of the kind of services offered.  This argument considers Airbnb’s position that treating employees as being part of founders of the firm ensure they feel appreciated and included into the whole system (Clune, 2016). The strategy for growth and development involves digital marketing whose main driver is competent employees. The success of the company from a small start up to multibillionaire can be attributed to a conducive working environment which appreciates the role played by the employees in the whole process.  The company’s culture that emphasis on the career growth for its employee can align to the community focused services delivery since any development, expansion and development strategy undertaken by the firm is carried by the employees. Employees who are content with the way they are treated will give their best to the organization.

Considering that the Airbnb’s culture focuses on communication, personal inclusion and development, my attributes can align well with what the firm stands for to a great extent. My leadership skills which relate a variety of communication skills to engage, inform and persuade others relates to the communication policy upheld by the company. These abilities can enable m to establish a rapport with many employees who follow the culture created in the firm. The company’s strategy of providing world-class services to the customers aligns with my personal value of fairness while dealing with others so that they get quality for what they have paid for. The aspect of belonging is aligned with my attribute of building personal confidence in others by letting them feel part of the whole group.

References

Kummerow, E., & Kirby, N. (2014). Organisational culture: Concept, context, and measurement. New Jersey, NJ [u.a.: World Scientific.

Rao, V. S. P., & Krishna, V. H. (2003). Strategic management: Text and cases. New Delhi, India: Excel Books.