An Analysis of Google’s Attempt to Create a Venturesome Climate
In August 1998, two entrepreneurs, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, formed the company Google, Inc. Quickly spreading worldwide, Google is known as one of the largest search engines in today’s market. Due to the company’s large size and access to financials to fund new ideas, Google is very involved in corporate venturing, and has been since the very beginning.
To start with, it is important to define a corporate venture before looking at creating a climate for new ideas. Block and MacMillan (1993) define a corporate venture as:
Internal corporate ventures (ICVs) may include major new products, development of new markets, commercialization of new technology, and major innovative projects. They can involve a marked diversification or be closely related to the company’s other businesses. The key differentiating qualities are risk, uncertainty, and significance. (p. 14)
Google’s corporate ventures include major new products, developing new markets, commercialization of new technology and major innovative projects both closely related to the current business and into new businesses altogether. While it is important to note the types of ventures, this paper will look solely at the venturesome climate that Google has created, and not necessarily at the individual ventures themselves.
Perhaps the most critical challenge for senior management is creating a pervasive commitment to new-business development (Block p. 36). Google has addressed this challenge successfully in many different ways. Founders Page and Brin have fostered development, creativity, entrepreneurship and risk taking by setting the example for their employees. There are essentially ten strategies for creating a venturesome climate (Block p. 37). Google has created a venturesome climate by following these ten strategies.
The first strategy is to insist that the entire division pursue new-business development (Block p. 37). The Google Jobs website states “We work hard to create an environment which is inclusive, collaborative and innovative. One of the ways in which Google actively encourages innovation in the workplace is through promoting the “20% project”. All Google engineers have 20% of their time to pursue projects that they’re passionate about. This has lead to the creation of some well-known Google products, like Gmail, and Google News '' products that might otherwise have taken entire start-ups to launch” (www.google.com). This strategy has paid off for Google as has landed the company on Fortunes Top 100 Companies To Work For.
Google is a well-known free net-search service that millions of people use around the world every day. Every time we don’t know the answer to something right away we take out our smart phones from our pockets and google it. The possibility to be able to google in a search engine is all to co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Google was created in September 1998. The website can be used in 120 different language and more. It has 97% revenue in advertisement, making almost all of its profit on advertisement. Google is valued at USD $100 billion, first company to be known to be valued at this amount. The company was started up from a garage in Menlo Park, California.
Google’s corporate environment has always been groundbreaking and cutting edge since the company was founded. A significant portion of the company’s success must be given to the far out ways in which it develops it products and services, therefore, standard business practices probably will never work for Google.
It is true that Google has contributed immensely to the development of America, but one must not remain sidetracked by the holistic effects, and should instead delve deeper into the true principles of Google in order to realize that the company is, on the contrary, run by “robber barons”. Recently, Google has posted about the principles that guide the company: “do what’s best for the user”, “provide the most relevant answers as quickly as possible”, “label advertisements clearly”, “be transparent”, and “loyalty, not lock-in” (Rosoff). During Larry Page and Sergey Brin’s time at Stanford together, they wrote an essay titled: The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine
excels in among its industry competitors is its distinctive competencies. They are defined as, “firm-specific strengths that allow a company to achieve superior efficiency, quality innovation, and responsiveness to customers,” (Hill, Jones, Schilling, 2013). Name recognition is one of Google’s strongest distinctive competencies. The word Google has become a synonym for “search” which has increased Google’s status as one of the most widely known search engines on the Internet. Another distinctive competency of Google’s is its human resources department. This refers more to the inner workings of Google, Inc. instead of its customer. Google’s human resources department is in charge of hiring the best engineers and innovative employees who will help grow the company and continue to distinguish it from other companies. Google also makes innovation one of their top public priorities, setting it apart from other competitors who do not provide new services or enhancements to the customers. The fact that Google is so open about everything from their innovative employee policies and benefits to their ever changing technology lets customers be sure they will never fall behind by using any of Google’s products or
Influencing a group of individuals to achieve a common goal is leadership in its simplest form and the three people responsible for this are Dr. Eric Schmidt, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer; Larry Page, Co-Founder & President, Products; and Sergey Brin, Co-Founder & President, Technology. Overseeing the company's technical and business strategy since 2001, Dr. Schmidt’s leadership has helped the company grow from a startup to a global enterprise while maintaining a culture of strong innovation. Larry Page the founding CEO grew the company to over 200 employees and profitability before moving into his role as president of products. Sergey Brin directs the research efforts of Google with areas of focus in search engines, information extraction from unstructured sources, and data mining of large text collections and scientific data. However Dr. Eric Schmidt, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin all share responsibility for Google’s day-to-day operations (Google Management, 2010).
INTRODUCTION The Google company has engaged the controlling location and position in its industry since the launch due to its unique product which is a result of its unparalleled working location. Google has moved out on to achieve the largest share of online search engines as it affords its users with a product that is difficult to find even though there are a lot of challenges. By analyzing and examining the internal and external environment of the company, it is obvious that Google company is running an efficient machine, giving attention to the most of its customers and it ensures that it offers a quick and reliable product to its customers. Origination structure at Google :
Google is known for its many perks it grants to its employees. The company’s corporate office is located in Southern California and its employees refer to its corporate office as a “campus.” Its corporate headquarters is known for its beautiful office space. Googlers are provided with free food and drinks, shuttle transportation, and daycare. Google’s headquarters is known for its playful interior design, which is used to inspire its employees creativity and efficiency. Google believes that by treating its employees properly, it will motivate its employees to work more efficiently, therefore producing quality services and products. The company’s employees are one of the company’s greatest assets (5). Its employees are in fact, stakeholders of the company and Google looks out for their interest, as any business that practices ethics
Before they start recruiting, the company must decide what attributes and qualities they want in candidates and define as a hiring group what great looks like. After defining what specific attributes they are looking for, Google must then work to build an applicant pool that is filled with qualified candidates that would be a great fit for Google. With the incentive benefits that Google offers for referrals, Google can use selection tactics such as walk-ins, college campus visits, Internet recruiting such as LinkedIn and Google+, and referrals. By using these recruiting and selection tactics, hopefully Google will create an applicant pool that will sort out who the best candidates for them could be. After recruiting is complete, Google needs a structured selection process that can thoroughly determine great candidates by personal, phone and/or Skype Interviews. Additionally, formal pre-employment tests on personality, verbal, and/or numerical could be administered that include questions relating to performance, personality, and attributes Google is seeking for in
Google Inc. is a company that started in 2002 and has gradually grown to become an international technology company. Google’s business is mainly focused around vital areas, like advertising, search, operating systems and platforms, hardware products and enterprise. The company produces its revenue mainly by distributing online advertising. Google also produces revenue from Motorola through selling products. The company offers its services and products in over 100 languages and in over 50 regions, territories and countries.
The Google employee follow the 70/20/10 rule where they devote 70% of the day to whichever project has been assigned to them by the managers, 20% of the day to new projects or ideas related to their core projects and 10% to new ideas which they want to pursue irrespective of what they might be. Because of this rule many of Google’s new products and services have been successful as programmers, salesperson and even executives are given enough space to be creative.
As any other company that managed to rise to fame, it was successful due to an exceptional organizational belief and value, Google company is no exception. Google Inc. practices a routine type of working condition for the scalability and its storage solution, managing the large scale application, as well as making a new platform. It is well known that a routine work is more stressful than any other work.
2009 was a negative period for the United States economy. A big recession hit the country, and the founders of Google were trying to make a plan in order to make to limit the damage caused by an economic decline. Brin and Page the two creators of the giant Google were shocked form the situation that was occurring. Their company was feeling the effect of the economic downturn. Google’s stock price dropped 51 percent. The two entrepreneurs were trying to figure out a way to keep the company from drowning. Google main problem was how to maintain the culture that made the company successful in the previous two years. Some consequences that the company had to face was eliminating products that
Employee focus (Google has a unique culture and policies to promote innovation. The company strives to employ the most qualified applicants and reward the greatest contributors, in order to promote good performance and facilitate hiring and retention)
Strategic renewal is another desired outcome of corporate entrepreneurship. The new economic order and business environment has created a pace of change which requires businesses to adapt more frequently and rapidly than ever before. The changes could involve corporate structure, mergers and acquisitions, addressing new market opportunities, changing product portfolios, repositioning, adapting infrastructure, or adopting new technology. Managers in an organization must be able to take stock of its situation under changing market conditions and agree on a coherent new strategy that will meet the challenges of the present as well as of the future.
Google will be successful in the future. In the meantime profits continue to soar and Google will continue to innovate, employing the high qualified experts in the field.