Google

By: Chuck SalterThu Feb 14, 2008 at 6:35 PM

Andy Rubin | photo by Russ Quackenbush

The faces and voices of the world's most innovative company.

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Larry Brilliant | photo by Russ Quackenbush

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Marissa Mayer | photo by Russ Quackenbush

Bill Weihl

Green Energy Czar

"Some people go, 'Wait, Google, renewable energy--what?' Others say, 'Wow, that's the coolest job in the world.' The goal is developing renewable energy not only for our operations but also for the world. Until that costs less than electricity from fossil sources, those are going to be hard to displace. So we feel a sense of urgency. A lot of people are amazed that a company would choose to do this, outside the core business, but we think it's very relevant. And if we are successful, the energy business is a big business. Even if you don't always achieve 100% of audacious goals, you're probably doing better than if you set milder goals."

Niniane Wang

Engineering Manager

"The technical problems here are intense. The attitude is to pursue ideas that another company dismisses as outside the realm of possibility. When we have executive reviews, often people present an idea that is already slightly ridiculous and ambitious, and then our executives will ask us to make it more ambitious--but still launch it quickly."

David Glazer

Engineering Director

"When I was looking at the company from the outside, I said, 'I know for a fact you can't have a culture like Google's with more than 200 people. I've tried.' Yet here was a company with a zero or two beyond that, and it was clearly making it work. I wanted to see how that happens. And I wanted a piece of it.

Obviously, there's no magic bullet. First, Google is investing in brains. Every company has a bell curve, right? It's different here. The odds are pretty good that if you bump into someone in the cafeteria, they are world-class at something.

Google has a high tolerance for chaos and ambiguity. When we started OpenSocial [a universal platform for social-network applications], we didn't know what the outcome was going to be. We said, 'What's the easiest way to get third parties to build compelling applications for social networks that leverage Google's assets?' Then we started running a bunch of experiments. We set an operational tempo: When in doubt, do something. If you have two paths and you're not sure which is right, take the fastest path. What's true in physics about objects in motion is true when you're creating a product. It's easier to keep moving and change course than when you're sitting and thinking and thinking."

Josef Desimone

Executive Chef

"I've worked everywhere from family-style to Michelin-caliber restaurants, and I've never seen anything like Google. Nobody changes the menu daily on this scale. Seventeen cafés. Thousands of meals. It's unheard of.

My impression early on was, 'Wow, you hire a guy who's an expert in food and let him run with it! You don't get in his way or micromanage.' After a year or so, I realized this is the way everything works here.

We came up with a values system. We said we want local. Then it was local, fresh, and sustainable. Then it was local, fresh, sustainable, and organic. We don't want genetically modified organisms or nitrates. We're the first company to go global with cage-free eggs.

Other companies are always visiting. Top chefs too. Mario Batali. Sam Choy. Paul Prudhomme. Every table in our cafés has filtered water to keep you from using bottled water, along with a little sign that explains why. We're here to educate employees on why agave-based soda is better for you than Coca-Cola. Our nutritionist does TechTalks on things like the difference between natural and refined sweeteners.

I never wanted to be an astronaut or a rodeo clown. I only wanted to cook. For me, this is Disneyland. Google has exposed me to new cuisines, new ways of life, new ideas and life philosophies. Where do you go from here?"

Anne Driscoll

Human Resources Manager

"The majority of initiatives come from our Google population. It could be as simple as prayer and meditation rooms, or as ambitious as a companywide volunteer day. Someone had a friend who was an author whom they thought other Googlers would be interested in. That became the Google author series. We invited all the presidential candidates to speak here in a fireside-chat forum. We've had eight so far.

Our philosophy is providing all the great things you would have in a PhD or graduate program. That's how you're going to attract people who are interested in working in a collaborative environment."

From Issue 123 | March 2008

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Recent Comments | 55 Total

February 20, 2008 at 5:01pm by Richard Lipscombe

It is true Googlers tell great stories even though they are repetitive - but then they do have great achievements to talk about and so this thing is a feel good advertisement for Google. Nevertheless there is a real issue lurking for the future of innovation at Google - it is simply that the Googleplex has become a limiting factor for innovation. The C21st is all about networked or distributed models for business and their innovators. Let us hope therefore that Google projects in India, China, New York, Ireland, etc come to rapidly outpace and outstrip the innovations homegrown in Mountain View. By 2012 my innovation for Google would be to have the Googleplex concentrating on running and innovating passive revenue models while the engineering and product development is done in clusters offshore or out of the State of California...