Essay: Factors leading to Google’s success

In their founders’ IPO letter of 2004, Sergey Brin and Larry Page said: “Google is not a conventional company. We do not intend to become one” (citation). Today, unconventional company is one of the most enviable company culture (citation), which makes Google one of the best places to work in the world. Google has named as the number 1 “Best Company to Work For” by Fortune magazine in 2007 and number 4 in 2010 (citation). It is also regularly on Glassdoor’s annual “Best Places to Work” list (citation). Moreover, only after 12 years of establishment in 2010, Google was generating about $30 billion in annual revenue. By 2011, it was the world’s most valuable brand (The Telegraph, 2011).
What is most striking is that we don’t just search for something on Internet, rather we “google” it. Thus, Google has become a part of us, and no doubt that it has been an unchallenged market leader. From its mission to its unique work environment, Google’s successful company culture has become a blueprint for every organisation to keep in practice. Yet, the question is how so, and how/if other companies can learn from Google’s approach?
This paper argues three factors Google’s company built upon which contribute to its success. These three factors are Google’s emphasis on creativity and innovation, its change management strategy, and its leadership style. The paper also highlights the significant skills that other companies could adopt to grow themselves as well as addresses the potential shortages of these aspects.
“Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns” says Edward de Bono (De Bono, 1992). Expanding upon De Bono, creativity and innovation are crucial for any organisation’s progress through the ranks. Creativity can be defined as the generation of ideas that are original and useful; and innovation is a process (Higgins, 1996), and can be further understood as the ability to renew an organisation’s existing services and to develop products (Steiber & Alänge, 2013).
What makes creativity so important in business? Organisations that foster a workplace culture of creativity are likely to have motivated and more productive employees (Coleman, 2016). Thus, creativity is crucial to an organisation’s triumph because it plays a role not only in employee motivation but also in productivity.
Yet, despite the importance of creativity in the success of a business, history is full of stories of companies that were once innovative but with time lost their innovative ability (Christensen, 1997, as cited in Steiber & Alänge, 2013, pp. ). Google, in contrast, understands that the key behind a great idea, or a product, is creativity, and that innovation is key to competitiveness. As such, it has been able to maintain its innovative ability because the element of creativity is embedded in the company’s culture from the start. Google’s organisational culture adopts elements that foster creativity as its core values while avoiding factors that might kill creativity. As a result, the factors that Google both espouses and avoids have allowed Google to lead the way for years.
The “Intrinsic Motivation Principle of Creativity” suggests that people will be most creative when they feel motivated primarily by interest, satisfaction and challenge of the work itself, and not by external pressures (Amabile, 1997). Thus, it is important to build an environment where everyone can generate in the absence of external pressures. Amabile (1997) further provides three factors from which creativity arises. Among those creative values, motivation is accepted as key to creative production. Specifically, intrinsic passion and interest in the work itself are the most important motivators (Amabile, 1992, as cited in Adams, 2005, p. ). Similarly, Google believes that its values should be challenging to create a working environment in which Googlers can relax by getting rid of all the unnecessary formalities (Bock, 2015).