Google The Trouble With Success

Google has grown from nothing in 1998 to a multinational tech giant. We tell that story, we identify the drivers of succ... (more)

Google has grown from nothing in 1998 to a multinational tech giant. We tell that story, we identify the drivers of success. Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin didn’t want to sell advertising at first. Now Google search is a giant advertising cash cow...MODEL EMPLOYER We go inside the Googleplex near San Francisco to find the people and projects. Google prides itself on being a model employer, offering great pay and benefits to its staff whose average age is 29. Google encourages its staff to work on their own ideas, funding all kinds of futuristic projects with ‘the courage to fail’...MARKETING STRATEGY Google has used its enormous advertising revenue to develop into the online media and mobile phone markets – exploiting the converging technologies of internet, mobile phones and media – as well as exploring countless projects in the field of artificial intelligence. Google goes in for ‘semi-organic growth’, buying other businesses but to make them fit into existing product development teams...DON’T BE EVIL? Google says its focus is to make the world a better place. It supports worthy projects in the developing world. But critics say, in the areas that matter, Google acts like any other multinational – in its own interest. ..There have been attacks over tax, data privacy and abuse of dominance. Famously, the founders said ‘Don’t Be Evil’ but have they lived up to the early motto? (less)