Innovation from Google’s Free Food Strategy
Introduction – Google
As mentioned on Google’s website (2016), two PhD students Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford university joined hands and founded this wonderful company called Google. It started based on the search engine they built in the year of 1996. The company was founded in 1998 in the month of September. Google was listed with NASDAQ in August 2004. The company’s mission statement is “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” (Google.com, 2016). Further they explain that what makes Google the kind of company it is are the kind of people who work there. Maximum emphasis is given on hiring people who are very determined, are smart and are able to do things differently. Experience is important however ability is what is valued more. Google lives with the idea of open culture and everybody’s voice and ideas a valued. There are weekly huge meetings called “all-hands” where ideas are shared. Employees at Google have access to the founders and top executives and can ask questions to them directly. Work life balance is also valued and the employees are able to pursue their hobbies ranging from mountaineering to beekeeping, technology inventions to music (Google.com, 2016).
As mentioned by Lawler (2015) in his article posted on Engadget, Google is restructured and as of October 10th 2015, is now called Alphabet. Alphabet is the main company now with all the shares of Google as its own and Google now is a subsidiary of Alphabet. Sundar Pichai is the CEO of “New Google” (Lawler, 2015).
Business Model of Google
Based on the case study published in Harvard Business Review by Edelman & Eisenman (2010), here is the summary or introduction to Google’s business model. Google is one of the leaders in technology space. The foremost, most famous and most used product or service is the search engine which is primarily based on a distributed system. It helps the internet users to search anything on internet quickly and accurately. Gmail is another most widely used service for personal and professional email systems. These services are free for the internet users. The revenue which Google generates is not from the end users of these applications however from the advertisers and businesses, who want to reach these end users with their product and service advertisements. The majority of this revenue comes based on ‘Adwords’ which is an auction based advertising program. Google lets the businesses post ads directly on search engine or on the partnering websites of these businesses. As very strong and intelligent analytics runs behind all this, the advertising companies are very effective and efficient for the business and they pay huge money to Google for the same with large return on investments.
Further, they have mentioned that Google developed an operating system for mobile called ‘Android’. This can be used by mobile manufacturers to install on their handheld devices and developers to create applications on top of this operating system. Now even televisions come with Android installed and work as smart devices at home. This is another major revenue generation for Google. Apart from this, Google keeps on acquiring innovative companies to broaden its business model and diversity. There is more revenue generating businesses like ‘Global sales and infrastructure’ which helps the customers for self-serviced campaigns.
In terms of cost centers, there are four primary divisions; “Research and Development which is the most invested and costly department for Google, data center, traffic acquisition and Sales & Marketing”. 96% of the Google’s revenue comes from Advertising and this is a fact since its inception (Edelman & Eisenman, 2010).
Figure 1: Snapshot of Google’s business model. This is adapted from business model generation.
People, Leaders and benefits at Google
As mentioned by the hiring site of Google (2016), there is not a typical ‘kind’ of employee who works at Google. Diversity is the key. People who work at Google are the people who bring new perspectives, new life experiences and new ideas on the table. People who are innovative, hardworking, smart, and want to do things differently are the kind of people who work at Google. Learning instinct is also one attribute which is very highly valued at Google. People who work at Google are very eager to learn and try new things with accepting touch challenges (Google Careers, 2016).
Google looks at leaders with a lot of focus. According to an article published by Murray (2015), the managers at Google qualify as good managers if their teams perform better, they have very low attrition and team members are happy. There are these eight qualities which are the core qualities of leaders at Google. These are being the best coach, never micromanage but empower the team, be genuinely interested in the well-being of the team members, always be productive with focus on the goals, listen to the team members with open communication, mentor the team members for their growth, be always clear with the vision and strategy, and have both technical and managerial skills so that the team can be lead and driven (Murray, 2015).
There are many perks which Google offers to its employees which make people very interested in working for this company. Good competitive salaries, work life balance, incentives, healthy environment are the common things which people look for and many companies try to provide however there are certain perks which not many companies provide as mentioned by Smith (2013) in Business Insider such as free rental cars, gymnasiums, daycare , free food, dry cleaning services, video games, massage therapy etc. Out of the many perks, the most cherished and loved perk is the free food to the employees (Smith, 2013).
Free Services and Amenities Create an Organizational Culture that fosters Creativity and Innovation
As rightly mentioned by He (2013) in her article in Forbes, the basic reason behind the success of Google is to keep innovation and creativity flowing which comes from the ideas of its employees. There are many ways in which the ideas are shared and worked upon however the most important attributes in this whole value chain is the channel and motivation for the employees to keep sharing and working on their ideas. Even though there are formal ways of doing it like all-hands meetings on every Friday and open email culture where employees can reach out to the top management however more effective way has been the perks which are offered. Google’s free food strategy has been the most successful idea behind this. People feel good and they talk openly while at one of the many café’s at Google and freely open the ideas which make the whole environment and the organization creative and let the people innovate with the chosen ideas. Other free services like dry cleaning, free car rentals at off hours, day care and likes give the employees more freedom mentally and give them more time to focus on the creativity and innovation which is not forced onto them however they feel so empowered to keep doing this (He, 2013).
Google’s Organizational Culture
Organizational culture can be defined as a well formed and cumulative system comprising of various values, norms, and attitudes, with evidence through the employees and environment. This is slowly and gradually developed and accepted by the employees of the organization which create a working environment to tell them how to behave and work. As mentioned by Caccamese (2012), Google is the best company to work for due to its culture. These points will very well define the culture of Google as an organization. The primary pillars are innovation and a change-prone environment. Google is a non-bureaucratic company which provides an open communication and healthy environment for its employees. Employees, their work, ideas and well-being are valued a lot. Everybody is encouraged to learn and grow. There are many facilities available which make the environment stress free and provide a very good work life balance that further enhances the efficiency, creativity and moral of the employees. Leaders lead by example and make sure the employees are not micromanaged or forced to do things.
Personal Choice to work at Google
If I get a chance to work at Goggle, I will choose to work without any doubt. Based on the research we did on the Google’s culture, people, environment, history and benefits it is like a dream company to work for. It makes the work enjoyable for the employees and there cannot be anything better for an employee. The open culture, value for the new ideas, a lot of learning and focus on well-being are just few of the factors which attracts me to work at Google. There is a very huge diversity of people and departments at Google which will give more freedom, learning and options to work based on my skills and interests. This will also give a lot of exposure in terms of new technologies, great innovation and will give a chance to work with great minds. I will be very satisfied with a respectable salary, all these benefits which Google provides, association with such a great brand, and working with a very healthy work life balance. I don’t have to worry about changing the organization due to any petty challenge and I can think of a very long term career stay at Google. I would specifically like to work in the Research and Development division of Google because the maximum innovation and creativity takes place there. With my learning so far, I will be able to apply very interesting new ideas and become an asset for the organization.
References
Edelman, B. & Eisenmann, T. (2010). Case Study – Google Inc. HBR. Retrieved April 26, 2016 from https://hbr.org/product/google-inc/910036-PDF-ENG
Google. (2016). About Google. Retrieved April 26, 2016 from https://www.google.com/about/
Google careers. (2016). Careers. Retrieved April 26, 2016 from https://www.google.com/about/careers/
He, L. (2013). Google's Secrets Of Innovation: Empowering Its Employees. Forbes. Retrieved April 26, 2016 from http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurahe/2013/03/29/googles-secrets-of-innovation-empowering-its-employees/#6073ae87eb39
Lawler, R. (2015). Google is now Alphabet, the owner of Google. Retrieved April 26, 2016 from http://www.engadget.com/2015/10/02/google-alphabet-restructuring/
Murray, S. (2011). The 8 Most Important Qualities of Leadership at Google. Retrieved April 26, 2016 from http://www.realtimeperformance.com/RealTimeLeadership/2011/the-8-most-important-qualities-of-leadership-at-google/
Smith, K. (2013). Google Employees Reveal Their Favorite Perks Working For The Company. Retrieved April 26, 2016 from http://www.businessinsider.in/Google-Employees-Reveal-Their-Favorite-Perks-Working-For-The-Company/articleshow/21288745.cms
