Case Details:

Case :HROB041
Code

Case :11 Pages

Length

Period :1996 - 2004

Pub :2004
Date

Teachi :Available
ng
Note

Organi :Google Inc.

zation

Industr :IT
y

Countr :USA
ies

Themes

Organizational Culture Abstract:

A company's organizational culture plays a vital role in its success. A company's culture helps it
attract the best talent available in the industry. The case discusses the organizational culture at
Google Inc. Google was one of the few companies that successfully blended technological innovation
with strong organizational culture.

The case provides insight into the work environment, and recruitment process at Google. The case
also provides insight into how Google fostered innovation among employees. The case ends with a
critique of Google's organizational culture.

Issues:

» The role of organizational culture in attracting the best talent in the industry

» The role played by recruitment in the success of an organization

» How organizational culture can be a source of competitive advantage

Contents:

  Page No.

'So Far So Good' 1

Background Note 1

Google's Organizational Culture 4

Recruitment 5

Innovations at Google 6

A Critique of Google's Culture 7

Exhibits 8

Key Words:

Organizational culture, culture, best talent, industry, Google Inc., blended technological innovation,
work environment, recruitment process, employees

"We try to provide an environment where people are going to be happy. I think that's a much
better use of money than, say, hundred-million-dollar marketing campaigns or outrageously
inflated salaries."

- Sergey Brin, Google co-founder, in March 2003.1

'So Far So Good'

google Inc (Google) has been hailed as the one of the most
successful Internet start-up companies. In 2003, it was the most
preferred search engine the world over due to its precision and
speed in delivering search results. Apart from the technological
edge it had over its competitors, Google's success was also
attributed to its ability to attract the best talent and retain these
employees. And this was made possible by Google's
organizational culture. During the dotcom boom in the late
1990s, Google was the only company that did not experience any
employee turnover, while all other major tech companies
experienced employee turnover rates of around 20-25%.

Google's work culture became legendary in Silicon Valley. Google was an icon of success among
Internet companies. For many, the company represented the most successful blend of culture and
technology in Silicon Valley.

They felt that Google was successful because it had removed unnecessary managerial hierarchies
and gave its engineers a free hand to work. However, not everyone was impressed with Google's
culture. Some felt that Google would not be able to sustain its growth with its present culture.

They felt that Google had outgrown its informal culture, and that informality would, from now on,
only lead to confusion among both employees and customers. Further, Google was also criticized for
its recruitment system and its lack of unity of command at the top level.
1] Prather, Michelle, Ga-Ga for Google: Users are Fans of the Company's Highly Relevant Searches,
Entrepreneur, April 2002.

Background Note

The founders of Google, Larry Page (Larry) and Sergey Brin (Sergey) graduated in computer science
from Stanford University in 1995. In January 1996, Larry and Sergey began work to extend their
summer project work on a search engine.

They wanted to develop a technology that would retrieve appropriate information from the vast
amount of data available on the internet They named their search engine 'BackRub' because of its
ability to identify and analyze 'back links' that pointed to a given website.

By 1997, BackRub had gained a lot of popularity due to its unique approach to solving search
problems on the Internet. Throughout the first half of 1998, Larry and Sergey focused on perfecting
their technology.

To store huge amounts of data, they bought a terabyte of memory disks (one trillion bytes equal one
terabyte) at bargain prices.

Excerpts
Google's Organizational Culture
Google had an informal work culture at Googleplex (its headquarters). Both Larry and Sergey
wanted to make Google a fun place to work. Reflecting their beliefs, the Googleplex was
decorated with Lava Lamps and painted in the bright colors of the Google Logo (Refer
Figure I for Google Logo).

Googlers were allowed to bring their pets in to the workplace, and were themselves provided
with free snacks, lunch and dinner prepared by a celebrity chef Charlie Ayers. The
Googleplex had snack rooms offering Googlers cereals, gummi bears, cashew nuts and other
snacks along with fruit juices, soda and cappuccino...

Recruitment
Sergey and Larry also focused on recruiting people with the right frame of mind. They were
themselves personally involved in the recruitment process. In order to attract high performing
candidates, Google posted top ten reasons to work for Google on its website (Refer Table II).

Google recruited people with diverse skills and qualities (Refer Table III). While recruiting,
Google attached a lot of importance to academic excellence as revealed in grade scores in
SAT and other graduate exams. To get an interview call from Google, a person had to be
from a top-ranking university...

Innovations at Google
Google management also focused on encouraging innovation and creativity at the workplace. It realized
that to maintain its growth, the company had to come out with new products/features. However, the
company faced problems on how to tap ideas that could be turned into successful products. Said
Silverstein, "We always had great ideas, but we didn't have a good way of expressing them or capturing
them." To overcome the problem, Google set up an internal web page for tracking new ideas...

A Critique of Google's Culture

Many analysts feel that Google's zero per cent employee turnover rate during the dotcom
boom, was a testament to its salubrious organizational culture. But not everyone was
convinced that Google had got it right in terms of its work culture. They felt that company's
culture was not set to manage its growth. A 12-hour working day had become norm at the
company. Google's recruitment process was also criticized by analysts.

It was pointed out that Google had become too narrow in its recruitment by focusing only on
the academic records and graduate ranks of the applicants rather than on experience.
Commenting on the recruitment process, one Googler said, "If you've been at Cisco for 20
years, they don't want you." But the management defended the recruitment process saying
that they valued intelligence and brainpower more than experience...

Exhibits
Exhibit I: Google Features
Exhibit II: Awards & Recognitions Won by Google