If one needs a good example of creative genius, after reading this example, I am confident that Google is it. Even though the article goes into describing the sour spots in the company, in the end all goes back to the exceptional administration and sheer luck the developers have, especially in this current economy. What blows my mind is how innovation leads to instant gratification. Google went from making 0 dollars to being a 20 billion dollar money machine. What this article say and must be clear to anyone brave enough to venture in this kind of risky business is the fact that everyone is out to get you. Basically its all or nothing. For Google it started with the search engine but with time they branched out to other fields that overlapped with already existing services and companies like 'digitalizing' books and applications for mobile phone companies. By this time even the government has been asked by media companies to monitor Google's moves. With all of the different services Google has to offer, there is no doubt that they have created a monopoly that is only starting.
What is even more interesting is to hear about the lack of organization in a company such as this one. "Last, year, a senior Google executive, who has since left the company, observed that until late that year Google never had a systematic process for developing an annual budget or allocating capital across businesses; insted, budgeting was merely a simple forecast for each of the products."(Auletta 52). I mean, when you have a 20 billion plus company....why even bother with accounting. Google is not just another web browser[although it does "account for almost seventy percent of the world's Internet searches"(Auletta 55)], it is a lifestyle, a verb, a movement that identifies a whole generation and I am pretty sure that it is not going anywhere anytime soon.
I leave you with the most valuable thing I got out of this reading is more of a question that Page and Brin, Google engineers ask themselves: "Why must we do things the way they've always been done?" (Auletta 48).
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I completely agree. I think people are waiting for them to fail or to have something horrible happen because it would make the failing companies feel better. They created something completely genius and now they are successful.. without spending years on a tedious business plan. Good for them. THey should inspire people... And I love that last quote.
ReplyDeleteYes, Google is amazing in that they were able to become so successful so quickly. And yes, I love Googling things. However, the results they have acheived are not standard or ordinary. The average company could never do what Google does so if and when another company does come along and outsmart Google, we should be even more impressed than we are with what Google has done today.
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