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Innovation from Google’s Free Food Strategy

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Assignment 1: Innovation from Google’s Free Food Strategy

Management Concepts
Professor:
February 1, 2015 Google is a multinational search engine that reaches a vast amount of people. Google’s other business include Internet analytics, cloud computing, advertising technologies, Web app, browser and operating system development. Google was invented by two 1995 graduate students from Stanford University, Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Brin and Page submitted a research paper that eventually launched, BackRub. They were initially turned away because the CEO didn’t care about search engines. In 1998, the founders used their own funding and landed on Top 100 Web Sites and Search Engines for 1998 (Google, 16).
Google’s Mission is "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful". Google has 8 billion Web pages that can return results as fast as you can query them¬¬. Google’s pace of innovation is breathtakingly fast. Its data warehouse stores and dissects personal information (Iyer & Davenport, 61). Google has a history of protecting the user’s information with respect. Just about every service can be disabled, if preferred. All companies’ policies are easy to read and to understand. Google has continued to become the one-stop online, multi-purpose warehouse of information (Garvin, 82).
Google provides its services for free to the Internet users. Google makes their money from Advertisers, who use sometimes pesky ad to online users. Most advertisers pay Google using a Cost per Click basis. Google has developed Android, which allows users to use Google on their mobile devices. Google also developed Chrome browsing for web browsing. Google business has 4 key costs elements: R&D, Data center operations, Traffic Acquisition, and Sales & Marketing. Google invests consistently into R&D to invent new products and enhance existing products (McCracken, 17). Google generates over 96% of its revenues from advertising and this has remained true for last several years. Google serves the Enterprise market through hosted web-based applications called Google Apps: Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar, and Google Sites (Strickland). There are 40,000 Googlers behind the tools that we use daily. Google believes in building a great product that depends solely on great people. All employees share the same dream at Google. They speak all different languages and come from all walks in life (Helf, 140). There is no set prototype of people that work for Google. The culture remains open so that everyone feels like they are part of the team. This method allows everyone to feel comfortable sharing ideas and their opinions. Google offices and café invites feedback to ensure that conversations include work, as well as play topics. The culture at Google promotes a diverse work place. It’s a great workplace for women to feel equally important. At Google, women are empowered to succeed by providing academic scholarships to future hardworking leaders in technology. They also support employee resource groups like Women@Google (Strickland). A good leader at Google has similar characteristics as many Fortune 500 businesses. What ranks highest is, being a coach and empowering your team versus micromanaging them. Being a great coach is important to leading a diverse group to one specific company’s goal. Empowering the team members ensures that the quality of life is just as important as the quality of the product. Allowing team members to be themselves, helps bring new ideas to the table. There are many other characteristics that make leaders at Google special, however these two leadership traits are the most vital in fostering new, creative ideas. “Don’t be evil” is a slogan that corporate uses to foster a happy atmosphere (Google, 17). A typical background of an employee includes an Engineer, IT and Operation and Support functions. Included with the IT department is System Administrators and Help Desk Technicians. Google aggressively recruits college graduates. Google offers internship and full time jobs on their student recruitment pages. Google has offices throughout the United States and internationally. There are currently a lot of openings for inspiring Googlers (Strickland).
It might be long hours ahead but there are free delicious meals in the café, daily. This great perk is available to thousands of employees. Senior executives make no disguise that they are trying to keep their employees on site. This ensures that employees devote their work day on campus. All employees are offered a top-notch breakfast, lunch and dinner; at no additional cost. This allows the employees to mingle and discuss new ideas (Garvin, 80). This is a creative way to innovate products, technology, services and business models. Breaking bread together and brainstorming is a common perk for fast growing technology companies. This allows a diverse group of employees to strive to bring something new and something fresh daily to Google. With a healthy, wide-spread of food, on campus employees can save time and money. In return, Executives receive though- out maximum efforts and results to give to their customers (Helft, 140). Fathers have had to petition to receive paternal leave in other businesses. At Google, the bar is raised and new dads receive an astounding six weeks of paid leave. An unheard perk, that gives new dad’s time to take care of their families. Upon the return of a paid six paternal leave, dads come back with a fresh creative mind. Dads can now continue to contribute to new ideas to their department. Mother’s receive up to 18 weeks of maternal care. Google surely knows what is most important, family is the key to happiness. “Baby Bonding Bucks” is a great perk that allows employees to focus on providing new ideas. Instead employees don’t need to look for a second job to provide pampers, take-out or formula to their families. This perk allows the employees to still remain productive to the company before and after birth of their newborn (Google, 17). Employees still continue to receive their bonuses while on paid leave. Googlers stocks also continue to vest. Executives welcome this opportunity of rest, they understand they can’t compete with family. It’s very hard to be creative if you are worrying about financials. This perk keeps wandering minds at bay and focuses on putting out the best product (McCracken, 17). Page believed in regular evolution in Google’s organizational structure. His management structure included a mindset of an experienced engineer. He was not a profound public speaker and lacked “people skills”. Page trusted, instead of micromanaged, his sources to implement a solid organizational structure (Strickland). Google has adopted an unusual organizational culture, where employees follow the 70/20/10 rule. Employees devote 70 percent of time to work every day to management assigned projects. 20 percent of each day goes to new ideas or projects. 10 percent of their time allows employees to work on any new ideas. This unorthodox structure is the driving force to the new ideas that Google has showcased over the years. At the meetings, employees can pitch their ideas straight to the top of the food chain (Garvin, 76). I truly believe that I could work for a company that was so many incentives. There are a number of perks that drive me to want to work for Google. From Considerable Death Benefits to Adoption Services, Google wants what is best for their diverse employees. I would love to have a state of the art gym available to attend (Iyer & Davenport, 68). I can only imagine how a healthy meal can promote a healthy mind. The onsite daycare is a perk that is normally a deciding factor in accepting a job offer. I disliked the search for childcare. To know that my children were on campus with me receiving state of the art care, would allow me to focus on my job. High risk-reward ratio is very sustainable and makes it easy to stay on a job for a longer time. If I was offered these amazing perks, I would come to work daily with a smile on face. I would be ready to put my best foot forward because I know I would be compensated for it, in many areas. Sometimes my “good ideas” went unnoticed because the Top Executive wasn’t interested in hearing from the “bottom feeder”. At Google I can only imagine the Top Executive implementing my new creative ideas. It would be a proud moment to see my ideas to come to realization. I wish more companies would model themselves after Google. They foster a caring and healthy atmosphere.

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References

Garvin, D. A. (2013). How Google Sold Its Engineers on Management. Harvard Business Review, 91(12), 74-82.
Google: What It Is and What It Is Not. (2005). Communications of the ACM, 48(2), 15-17.
Helft, M. (2014). THE MOST AMBITIOUS CEO IN THE UNIVERSE. (cover story). Fortune, 170(8), 140-150.
Iyer, B., & Davenport, T. H. (2008). Reverse Engineering Google's Innovation Machine. (cover story). Harvard Business Review, 86(4), 58-68.
McCracken, H. (2005). A Google, Google, Google, Google World. PC World, 23(8), 17.
Strickland, Jonathan. "How the Googleplex Works" 04 August 2008. HowStuffWorks.com. 31 January 2015.

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