Google Case Study

History Google was officially founded in 1998 however the development of what is now Google started two years prior, in 1996 at Stanford University. Sergey Brin and Lawrence (Larry) Page met in 1995 when Page when an incoming graduate student at Stanford University. Brin, who had already spent a year at the university, was in charge of showing Page around. Brin and Page quickly became friends and started to work on a graduate project in 2006. Page came up with the concept for google after deciding to give website ranking by how many links or visits a site has gotten. The concept, according to Janet Lowe (2009), is Page 's "brainchild" (p. 56). The first version of Google was posted on the Stanford University website in 1996 however was taken

Page 's subdued personality does not stop him from his ambitions. He is constantly encouraging his employees to think big and act on seemingly crazy ideas. Elmer (2011) quoted Page as saying "When no one else is crazy enough to do it, you have little competition" (p. 3). Page created an empire out of an idea he had from his undergraduate years, showing his courage and inability to back down from a challenge. Page acted on his concept of using a search engine to link websites and now, close to 20 years after entering Stanford with this notion and partnering with Brin, he is the CEO of a multi-billion dollar enterprise, something most only dream

The team is constantly doing research on who and why employees are leaving Google. The bigger problem Google has is that it hires the best of the best. When a person is top of the line, there is more demand for them and other opportunities come. Google is trying to reduce the turnover rate by keeping current employees loyal and increasing quality of life. For example, In 2007 Google found that women were leaving Google at higher than average exit rate. Further examination showed that the rates were specific to women who had recently given birth. At the time, Google had standard maternity leave policies of twelve weeks of paid maternity leave. In response to the higher number of mothers leaving, Bock extended maternity leave to five months with the opportunity for new mothers to allocate the time as they needed, whether it be working part time or serving the full five months at