Google’s unanswered question

The answer to your question is *in* your question: planning. We have all of today to plan, and all of history to guide us.

Major HICCUP?

They have several already out there and they are named Google Groups, lack of support and extremely confused users herded like cattle without the “food” to survive or grow. The notorious ad linkage engine that link as much to spam and porn and can’t be controlled by family oriented groups, more spam on the USENET groups than USENET and ISP servers even pass. No security that can prevent flooding of personal and private groups and owners constantly locked out of their own groups, and worst of all, groups help forum overloaded by people asking questions that are not even about groups but they have been sent there blindly to the weariness of increasingly upset and frustrated PEER VOLUNTEERS trying to help and getting litle themselves. 2 anonymous Google employees. GGG1 and GGG2 who are berated to answer them as to why nobody HAS an answer.

Google is the ultimate hiccup.

Google is fundamentally a single product company. The industry as they know it will change and they will either change with it or because of it.

History has proven that no organization (or government!) survives without an ability to manage change - or - in current business buzzwords - an ability to re-invent themselves. I think it IS possible to do this - but only if they can keep the passion of the founders, and not promote the usual executive incompetents to the top.

Google may be a good company to work for, but they’re a terrible company to work with. As a customer who spends almost a million dollars a year in advertising with Google, it’s amazing how hard it is to talk to anyone and how slow they are to reply. They have a “our sh*t don’t stink” attitude, even with their paying customers. Maybe I’m just a small fish to Google, but I’d think a million a year is well above average, and someone who they would like provide a good relationship with. Yahoo!, for example, goes out of their way to help and you can get them on the phone right away with any kind of issue. Yahoo! also contacts me with suggestions and assistance, instead of only the other way around. In 6 years, I think Google has called me twice. The positive about Google? They send out nice Christmas gifts.

Sergey Brin’s answer was the best: “… everything Google does fo employees will serve it well in tough times.” I know, I’ve been in the position of heading an entrepreneurial company, alyhough infinitely smaller than Google; but, the lessen learned is the same–THE most valuable assets to an innovative company are employee vitality and employee loyalty. Google treats them right and they in turn provide enormous value to Google stockholders and customers. If times got tough, no doubt Segey and Larry would eliminate any compensation they receive, and most if not all employees would gladly take severe temporary pay cuts in order to weather the storm yet still work for the best employer in America. As a Google shareholder, I take great comfort in that and know that my shares, despite periodic ups and downs, are just about one of the best investments in America’s long-term business growth.

Google may be a wonderful company to work with, but when times get tough, which they will, are these employees going to be so loyal to google? Or will they hit the road? And is Google worth its market cap?

If they had an ace in the hole, they wouldn’t tell YOU about it, would they? Invincible companies find themselves at the right place/time for what they are as a company; once the place/times change, another company will be a more perfect fit and dominate. Simple, really. Few (any?) dominate under distinctly different circumstances, no matter how great they once were.

I do like your article. I am always wondering about Google. When I read what they provide daily for their employees I wonder if that does not breed laziness. It is so very human to start taking things for granted and I don’t think that appreciaton of employess is far greater than when here and there somebody brings to the office box of bagels and coffee. I like them much better than Microsoft, but they need to colaborate with big competitors like Ebay and smaller players. This was downfall of Microsoft. Google need to nurture a little uneasy feeling about their own service and watch for demands, companies that provide similar or better service. That’s the only way they will weather slowdown. It is not just people within company. It is collaboration of companies that win together and will not be despised like MSFT for their relentless fight for domination.

They will not be able to google the answer.

Google likely prepares for many contingencies, but you’re probably referring to hitting a wall for market demand for their products. They are working on that all the time, as they seek to diversify into new markets with new products. But when it does happen, will they be in danger of going under like Dell or IBM was? Not likely, given that they are not in the hardware business. Was MSFT ever in danger of going under? The anti-trust case was the worst of that, not shrinking markets. Google’s biggest risk is probably losing search engine market share, which doesn;t seem likely to happen for at least a few years.

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