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WWYD Google Founded in 1998, Google Just Had Its Most

question 37

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WWYD Google Founded in 1998, Google just had its most dominant year ever, with its search market share rising and revenues jumping 25 percent. Still, Microsoft's Bing search engine and Facebook, which passed Google as the most popular website in the world, pose threats as people desire more personalized and social media-related search information. Searches for local information, such as restaurant reviews or directions, are 20 percent of all Google searches and half of all mobile or smartphone searches. Google trails Apple and Amazon in the number of publishers that use its software, devices, and online stores to sell electronic versions of newspapers, magazines, books, music, TV shows, and movies. Finally, Google's Chrome Web browser (13 percent market share) competes with Microsoft's Internet Explorer (55 percent) , Mozilla's Firefox (22 percent) , and Apple's Safari (7 percent) . In this environment, cofounder Larry Page, who had been Google's CEO for three years at startup, returned to the CEO position. An admitted introvert, Page is taking steps to combat paralyzing bureaucracy and change how Google communicates as it begins to diversify and face intense competition. As Google grew, CEO Larry Page became frustrated with the difficulty that product managers and engineers had trying to launch new products and services. Page would give mid-level engineers approval to make changes to improve Google's search engine, but Google's internal processes took weeks before the changes were even considered or approved by other parts of the management structure.
One of the ways in which Page hopes to jump-start decision making at Google is through a commitment to improving communications. When Google was a start-up, access to founders and top managers was easy to come by because Google was small. Furthermore, until it reached 10,000 employees, Google relied heavily on self-designing and self-managing teams that would coalesce around interesting product ideas and then develop them on their own. While chaotic, this worked well until Google tripled in size.
Today, Google's top management suffers from the same communication problems found at similar sized companies, namely, that it infrequently interacts with lower level managers. As the number of managers and levels increase, it becomes difficult to communicate directly with those in the lower and middle ranks. To overcome this problem, and to unfreeze Google's paralyzed decision making, CEO Larry Page e-mailed Google's engineering and product managers asking them to write to him, in 60 words or less, about the projects they're working on. The idea, according to Page, was for them to "pitch" their project ideas to him. This doesn't mean, however, that Page will support every project idea sent his way. In fact, he's likely to eliminate or reduce resources for projects that he considers less important, such as Google Health, which lets people securely store medical records online.
Page has also established a "bullpen" session every afternoon during which he and Google's other top executives sit in a public area outside the board room in Building 43. The idea is that employees know they'll be there at the same time every day and that they can approach them directly to discuss any issue. Page also expects the bullpen sessions to improve communication among Google's top executives.
Finally, Page has begun an internal "tour" at Google in which he visits with people and departments throughout the company to hear directly about the problems they face. Page is also trying to push more effective communication practices down to lower levels at Google, advising managers and employees to better manage their meetings by designating who is responsible for carrying out decisions. He's also encouraging them to communicate more effectively together during meetings by not working on their laptops or reading their smart phones. Refer to WWYD Google. The paralyzing bureaucracy of Google's product approval process was a type of _____ in the company's communication.

Definitions:

Socially Efficient

A situation in which an outcome benefits society as a whole and resources are allocated in the most beneficial manner from a societal perspective.

Marginal Cost

The increase in total cost that arises from producing one extra unit of a good or service.

Competitive Market

A market structure characterized by a large number of buyers and sellers, free entry and exit, and products that are close substitutes, leading to price competition and efficiency.

Utility Functions

Represent mathematical models that quantify an individual's preference for certain bundles of goods or services under conditions of scarcity.