Q 4: Imagine that at the same time Dropbox was founded, Google decided to target the

opportunity that Houston has identified. How would Google's approach to pursuing "G-Drive"
have differed from the approach that Dropbox's team followed?

Ans:
Google launched Google Drive in 2012, way later after the launch of Dropbox in 2008. Had, Google
launched the G-Drive the same time as Dropbox was founded, Google’s approach would have been
an aggressive strategy.

Even today, the pricing for extra storage is low for G-Drive as compared to that of Dropbox. The base
pack of G-Drive called Google One provides 100GB data for $1.99 per month as compared to
Dropbox’s price of $19.99. The storage available for free users also vary significantly. G-Drive offers
15GB of free space while Dropbox offers only 2GB.

The level of superiority of Google is due to extensive team of software engineers they have. They
can also afford to give the storage at so low prices because of the deep pockets. Also, since the
customers in this segment are price sensitive, it is highly likely that Google would have captured
huge market as compared to Dropbox. With the Android phones being quite popular the G-Drive
would have come as a pre-installed app (which they do even today) and this would have only added
to the Google’s cause.

Google would have also notified its millions of Gmail users through an email and may have created a
G-Drive for anyone and everyone who had a Google account. This would have reduced the signup
hassle for the clients. They would have also reached more technical blogs, websites, show their own
paid ads given the amount of resources Google had.

Q 2: What should Houston do about the decision posed at the end of the case, i.e., creating a
separate version for small and medium-sized business (SMB) customers? What process should he
use to make this decision?

Ans.
Houston should launch a separate version for small and medium sized business (SMB) customers.
The requirements for a business are completely different as compared to the requirements of an
individual. Also, by not launching a separate version, Dropbox is losing on a huge opportunity.

Reasons to launch a separate version for SMB:

 Businesses expect more sophistication, security and additional features
 Dropbox can explore other utilities like tools, content collaboration etc. which are preferred
by business. (Though Houston wanted Dropbox to be as simple as it could be, it is always
good to keep the options open)
 By not launching a separate version, Dropbox is losing on a revenue potential, and
eventually a competitor will identify the void and take up the market.

Process Houston should follow to make the decision: Houston should follow the 5-step process of
Design Thinking in taking a decision about the different versions of the Dropbox.

Emphathise Define Ideate Prototype Test

 Empathise: Houston and his team should sit with SMBs and should understand the
requirements of an SMB.
 Define: Once the requirements have been identified, the team should work on defining the
main objective of the differentiating the versions. The definition should be more consumer-
centric and should carry the essence of the Empathising phase.
 Ideate: Create as many ideas as possible. Not sticking to the core utilities and features but
thinking beyond the obvious what the SMBs might want but have not mentioned. What
additional features would buy-in the SMB.
 Prototype: Once, the requirements, utilities are clear, the team should work on a prototype.
 Testing: The finished prototype should be given to a few SMBs for testing and depending on
the response, the decision should be taken whether to launch or not, and if yes what is the
best version of the product to be launched.