Making Sense of Google’s Innovative Culture
Everyone acknowledges that Google is an innovative company, but not everyone agrees that its innovative research culture makes sense from a business point of view. A recent BusinessWeek article “So Much Fanfar, So Few Hits” presents Google as a company that is extremely good at creating new web applications for different markets, but at the same time it’s unable to compete in markets other than “search”.
Consider just a few examples: Google Talk, an instant-messaging service launched last August, now ranks No. 10, garnering just 2% of the number of users for market leader MSN Messenger, according to comScore Media Metrix. Three-month-old Google Finance, heralded as a competitor to market leader Yahoo! Finance, has settled in as the 40th-most-visited finance site, according to data from Hitwise, a competitive intelligence firm. Gmail, the e-mail service that was lauded at its 2004 launch for offering 500 times as much storage space as some rivals (they quickly closed the gap), today is the system of choice for only about one-quarter the number of people who use MSN and Yahoo e-mail.
Does this mean Google’s innovative culture is bad for business? I don’t’ think so. The truth is that innovation is not a silver bullet that always guarantee successful business. There are too many stories about past companies with amazing innovations, and none of their business really succeed.
Sound business management is not substitutable, at least not by innovation alone. In order for Google to succeed, its innovation must be combined with great management leadership and a sound business model. Though I don’t know much about Google’s managements, but it seems like they are doing a good job. At least they got some approval from Bill Gates.
