HOW ‘GOOGLE’ SOLD ITS

ENGINEERS ON MANAGEMENT
A CASE STUDY

- BY GROUP 2
1. Lt Col Amit Kumar Singhal
2. Cdr Anand Kumar
3. Gp Capt Anil Chauhan
4. Lt Cdr Ankit Baid
5. Lt Cdr Anoop Krishnan
6. Maj Aravindh Vikash G
 SCOPE
Takeaways

Project ‘Oxygen’

Implementation

Introduction The challenge

2
 INTRODUCTION

Google American company

• Subsidiary of Alphabet
• Operates as an umbrella to its Internet interests

CEO
• Sundar Pichai-Google
• Larry Page-Alphabet

Founded in 1996- Sergey Brin and Larry Page

• Students at Stanford University, California

Famous as ‘search engine’

• Income-Advertising
• Branched out into areas-cloud computing, software and hardware
INTRODUCTION – INSIDE GOOGLE !!
 DO WE NEED MANAGERS ?

Wondered whether
People at Google Google needed any
managers at all !!!
• Questioned the value of managers

Skepticism

• Stems from highly technocratic culture

• Company built by engineers for engineers

Management is more destructive than beneficial

Larry Page and Sergey Brin

• Distraction from ‘real work’ & goal-directed tasks
 DO WE NEED MANAGERS ?

Completely flat organization-2002 100-

VPs

• Nil barriers-rapid idea development 1,000-Directors

5,000-Managers
Experiment lasted only a few months

37,000-employees (As on 2013)

• Too many people-direct interaction with Page

• Professional and personal issues
 THE CHALLENGE

Google downplays hierarchy

• Importance on cultural fit

Rigorous data-driven hiring

• Young, ambitious, self-starters, original thinkers

Highly skilled, handpicked, self-starters,

ambitious

• If they don’t value management

• How to run effectively
• How to turn doubters into believers?
 WHAT TO DO ?

Play the same game by same rules

• Applying same analytical rigour and tools
• Which were used to hire

Use data to test

• Assumptions about management’s merit

Google set out to prove manager’s worth

(2006)-Project ‘Oxygen’
• Called ‘People Operation’
• Included 360-degree assessment

Hypothesis driven
• Do managers matter? (2009)
• Managers don’t matter
 THE PLUNGE

Finding the ‘right fit’

• Project ‘Oxygen’
• High standards of proof-even for obvious truths

Reviewed Exit interviews data

• To check if turnover due to management issues
• Low significance due to low attrition

Examined Googliest ratings and semi-annual reviews

• Compared managers
• Satisfaction and performance
• Low scoring and high scoring

Applied multivariate statistical techniques

 THE PLUNGE

High scoring managers-reported less turnover (2008)

• Retention related more strongly to manager quality than to seniority, performance, tenure, or
promotions

Strong correlation

• Managers’ quality and workers’ happiness

Employees with high-scoring bosses consistently reported

• Greater satisfaction in multiple areas

• Innovation, work-life balance
• Career development
 THE PLUNGE

Double-blind qualitative interview

• Studied thousands of qualitative comments

• Google surveys, performance reviews and Star-performers (Great managers award)

s is ’ t
Oxygen identified 08 common behaviours shared by high scoring managers
the on
p o rs d
Hy age er ’
a n att
Behaviours were not very different from other companies ‘M m

The finding

• Project ‘Oxygen’ concluded- ‘managers indeed mattered’

• To act on the finding, Google conducted ‘Double-blind’ qualitative interview done
 IMPLEMENTATION

Finalized the list behaviour

• Common vocabulary
• Straight forward guidelines
• Encapsulated full range of management responsibilities

08 key behaviour (will be discussed subsequently)

Managers are required to practice

The feedback-customized survey instrument

• Upward Feedback Survey (UFS)-for administrative function and global businesspeople

• Tech Managers Survey (TMS)-for engineers
 IMPLEMENTATION

First survey-Jun 2010

• Out of sync with performance review (Apr & Sep)

Project ‘Oxygen’ meant to be a developmental tool & not

performance metric

People ops designed ‘training’

• In ‘vision’ class, participated writing vision statement for respective departments

• Coaching

Google started ‘start right’ in 2011

• A two-hour module over six months

• Piloted online Google Hangout classes-for worldwide participation
 IMPLEMENTATION

Training was complemented with panel discussion

• Featuring high scoring managers from each function
• Employees get advice from colleagues they respect

People ops sent new managers-automated email

reminders
• With tips on how to succeed at Google

Revamped its selection criteria for the Great Manager

Award
• Employees refer to behaviours and cite specific examples when submitting
nominations

Oxygen’s impact were measured by aggregating

• Survey data
• Qualitative input from individuals
 IMPLEMENTATION

In surveys

• Employees don’t assess managers’ motivations, values or beliefs

• They evaluate the extent to which their managers demonstrate each
behaviour

Google convinced skeptical audience

• That managers matter

Also identified, described, and institutionalized their most

essential behaviour

Google applied the concept

Google office in New York City office
• Of data driven continuous improvement directly and successfully
• To soft skills of management
 IMPLEMENTATION

Staff consists mostly of ‘A’ type personality

• Providing smart, steady feedback to guide people to greater levels of
achievement
• Judicious intervention with light touch

High performing knowledge workers-place premium on

autonomy
• Delicate balance-keep happy and motivated

What drives people to go from good to great

Analyzing managers assessment scores by personality

types
• Use of ethnographic approach
• Deploying data collection and rigorous analysis-tools of science-to Google office in India
uncover deeper insights into the art and craft of management
 WHAT GOOGLE’S BEST MANAGERS DO ?
A good
Coach By examining data from employee
Has key technical surveys and performance reviews,
Empowers the Google’s people analytics team
skills that help him
team & does not
or her advise the identified 08 key behaviours
micromanage
team demonstrated by the company’s
most effective managers
Expresses interest in
Has a clear & concern for team
vision & strategy members success &
for the team personal well-being

Helps with Is productive

career & results-
development oriented
Is good
communicator-
listens & shares
information
SAMPLE – DEFINITION OF ONE KEY BEHAVIOUR @
GOOGLE

The Challenge
*Knowledge workers often doubt
managers’ contributions, especially
in a technical environment
*Until recently, that was the case at
Google, a company filled with “A”
players who considered
management a distraction from the
designing and debugging they loved
to do
IN BRIEF
The Solution
*Google’s people analytics team
persuaded the skeptics with data
*Applying the same rigor the
company uses in hiring and
operations, the team examined
employee surveys, performance
reviews
*Double-blind interview responses
to verify that management indeed
mattered and to gather evidence of
success
The Outcome
*People at Google now value
management
*The company has incorporated its
finding into feedback reports,
concrete guidelines, and hands-on
training to help managers hone
essential skills in eight key areas
*Managers are improving as a
result, and their direct reports are
more satisfied
 TAKEAWAYS

Change management

• Understand the company culture

• Overlapping concepts
• Small team concept

Employee confidence

• Engineers hate being micromanaged on the tech side but love being closely managed on the
career side
• It’s all about the data
• Outreach-socializing the finding, hired change agents
 TAKEAWAYS

Clear and measurable attributes

• List the attributes-crisp and clear wordings

• Credibility-because of own organic data
• Helps in getting detailed and granular information

Whole of organisation training

• Feedback forms-clear and concise

• Encourage engaged participation-for meaningful feedbacks
• Wholesome involvement-from top to bottom of the chain