Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG, NYSE: GOOG, FWB: GGQ1) is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products,[4] and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program.[5][6] The company was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, often dubbed the "Google Guys",[7][8][9] while the two were attending Stanford University as Ph.D. candidates. It was first incorporated as a privately held company on September 4, 1998, and its initial public offering followed on August 19, 2004. At that time Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Eric Schmidt agreed to work together at Google for twenty years, until the year 2024.[10] The company's mission statement from the outset was "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful",[11] and the company's unofficial slogan – coined by Google engineer Paul Buchheit – is "Don't be evil".[12][13] In 2006, the company moved to its current headquarters in Mountain View, California.
Google runs over one million servers in data centers around the world,[14] and processes over one billion search requests[15] and about twenty-four petabytes of user-generated data every day.[16][17][18][19] Google's rapid growth since its incorporation has triggered a chain of products, acquisitions, and partnerships beyond the company's core web search engine. The company offers online productivity software, such as its Gmail email service, and social networking tools, including Orkut and, more recently, Google Buzz. Google's products extend to the desktop as well, with applications such as the web browser Google Chrome, the Picasa photo organization and editing software, and the Google Talk instant messaging application. Notably, Google leads the development of the Android mobile operating system, used on a number of phones such as the Nexus One and Motorola Droid. Alexa lists the main U.S.-focused google.com site as the Internet's most visited website, and numerous international Google sites (google.co.in, google.co.uk etc.) are in the top hundred, as are several other Google-owned sites such as YouTube, Blogger, and Orkut.[20] Google is also BrandZ's most powerful brand in the world.[21] The dominant market position of Google's services has led to criticism of the company over issues including privacy, copyright, and censorship.
There’s a famous B.B. King blues tune called “The Thrill Is Gone.” I was recently on the phone with a Google employee (director level) who was expressing that very sentiment about his experience there. I was surprised to hear that from this particular individual. However, Google has seen some high profile departures and, dare I say it, “defections” to Facebook.
Now Fortune takes a long look at Google in what might be called “Act 2.” Where does Google Go Next? interviews former Google employees and examines the state of all things Google, amid some indications that the company’s ability to continue unimpeded growth and maintain the excitement of its culture are under pressure.
Google was a media darling on the way up. Now, the skeptical tone of the Fortune piece is becoming more typical of coverage as the company matures. “How can it possibly keep this up?” is the not-so-subtextual message of the article.
Microsoft and Yahoo have seen their share of departures and spawned their share of startups from the ranks of former employees. But the incredulity of the Fortune article is based on the formerly pervasive media view that Google could defy the laws of corporate physics. Google’s incredible growth created expectations that it wasn’t an ordinary company. But, generally speaking, it is and people are now coming to terms with that.
Google’s challenge is to maintain employee excitement, and innovation is a very large organization that is inevitably more bureaucratic today than it was in 2004. It can be done, but it’s much harder than running a startup.
Google, which prides itself on keeping a happy, tight-knit workforce, takes the loss of its early employees seriously. In addition to creating a hassle to refill the position, the departures erode the company's culture and institutional knowledge, Sullivan said.
Around 100 of the first 300 employees have resigned, according to Sullivan. Her job is to help keep those who remain motivated, even though she acknowledges that many of them probably don't need to work another day in their lives.
In a regulatory filing before its initial public offering, Google listed the departure of key employees who reaped a windfall as a potential risk to its business. Early workers, the company said, would have less incentive to stay.
Stock options awarded during Google first few years were like gold. They gave employees the right to buy shares, now valued at $487.19, for less than $1.
But today, the options are priced less favorably and a giant payday is much less likely.
However, Sullivan said Google's annual staff attrition remains "extraordinarily low" at 4 percent. The national average was 29.3 percent in 2005 for companies in the information industry, which includes the Internet, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
"It's not the money, it's not our bonuses and stock, the work environment is awesome," said Sullivan, one of Google's first 50 employees.
Her selling points for Google are that workers can put big ideas into action, alongside colleagues she called some of the brightest around. Up to three months of unpaid leave, commuter bus service and, for engineers, freedom to spend 20 percent of their time on whatever they want are just some of the benefits.
To be sure, a large number of the early employees remain, and the executive ranks, in particular, are filled with veterans.
Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the two Stanford University students who co-founded Google in 1998, continue to play major roles. Supporting them are managers who joined early on such as Marissa Mayer, a vice president for search and user experience, and Omid Kordestani, senior vice president of global sales and business development.
Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive, emphasized in an October interview that departures by original employees are few rather than a rush to the exits. Much of the early staff is still young, he said, and not ready to relax on the beach for the rest of their lives.
"There have been a couple who left, but I think that the people who are here now are the ones enjoying themselves," Schmidt said. "They clearly don't have to work. They made plenty of money."
Whatever the case, resignations at Google are easily offset by new hiring. More than 100 new employees join every week, a torrid pace for any company.
Google had 9,378 workers at the end of September, up nearly 90 percent from a year earlier.
In exit interviews before resigning, Googlers say how hard it is to break away from the company, Sullivan said. Many still want to maintain ties to Google during the next chapter of their lives.
An alumni program planned this year is one way, Sullivan said. Former Googlers would be invited to the headquarters for parties, so they could stay in touch with their friends and keep abreast -- to a point -- of what is happening at the left behind
Google said that they are able to figure out which of their 20,000 employees will most likely leave. The algorithm crunches data from employee reviews, promotion dollars involved, and previous pay histories.
Laszlo Bock, the VP of People Operations at the search engine company said that the algorithm helps “get inside people’s heads even before they know they might leave [WSJ].”
Omid Kordestani, Senior Advisor of the Office of the CEO and Founders at Google recently received $5.12 million when he exchanged 36,000 stock options at a price of $448.23. Omid led the first group of employees that sold contextual ads for Google [BI].
Recently Tim Armstrong, the former COO at Google became the CEO and Chairman of AOL. Since then he has been stealing some Google employees.
Google has been growing at a rapid pace. Many of the employees that leave do so because they feel that they aren’t making a difference at the company. The employees at Google are drifting to startup companies like Twitter and Facebook.
Google is taking steps to improve its employee retention by implementing a mathematical formula that calculates when staff are likely to leave the company.
The algorithm works by taking data from staff pay history, promotion history and employee reviews and appraisals of its 20,000 staff worldwide.
The programme is still in the test phases, so the company is not ready to share information about the technical workings of the system, but a spokesman told HR magazine: "As anyone who has observed Google over the years knows, we are serious about keeping our employees happy.
"The work we do in predictive attrition helps us find situations that may increase the likelihood of some ‘Googlers' leaving the company so that managers and HR staff can work on avoiding those very situations.
"These efforts don't identify specific people at risk of leaving but instead focus on the less obvious factors that may contribute to the decision to leave the company."
Google does not intend to use the algorithm to prevent employees who wish to leave the company from doing so, but hopes to find out which employees are feeling demotivated so training and recognition can be used more strategically.
Google runs over one million servers in data centers around the world,[14] and processes over one billion search requests[15] and about twenty-four petabytes of user-generated data every day.[16][17][18][19] Google's rapid growth since its incorporation has triggered a chain of products, acquisitions, and partnerships beyond the company's core web search engine. The company offers online productivity software, such as its Gmail email service, and social networking tools, including Orkut and, more recently, Google Buzz. Google's products extend to the desktop as well, with applications such as the web browser Google Chrome, the Picasa photo organization and editing software, and the Google Talk instant messaging application. Notably, Google leads the development of the Android mobile operating system, used on a number of phones such as the Nexus One and Motorola Droid. Alexa lists the main U.S.-focused google.com site as the Internet's most visited website, and numerous international Google sites (google.co.in, google.co.uk etc.) are in the top hundred, as are several other Google-owned sites such as YouTube, Blogger, and Orkut.[20] Google is also BrandZ's most powerful brand in the world.[21] The dominant market position of Google's services has led to criticism of the company over issues including privacy, copyright, and censorship.
There’s a famous B.B. King blues tune called “The Thrill Is Gone.” I was recently on the phone with a Google employee (director level) who was expressing that very sentiment about his experience there. I was surprised to hear that from this particular individual. However, Google has seen some high profile departures and, dare I say it, “defections” to Facebook.
Now Fortune takes a long look at Google in what might be called “Act 2.” Where does Google Go Next? interviews former Google employees and examines the state of all things Google, amid some indications that the company’s ability to continue unimpeded growth and maintain the excitement of its culture are under pressure.
Google was a media darling on the way up. Now, the skeptical tone of the Fortune piece is becoming more typical of coverage as the company matures. “How can it possibly keep this up?” is the not-so-subtextual message of the article.
Microsoft and Yahoo have seen their share of departures and spawned their share of startups from the ranks of former employees. But the incredulity of the Fortune article is based on the formerly pervasive media view that Google could defy the laws of corporate physics. Google’s incredible growth created expectations that it wasn’t an ordinary company. But, generally speaking, it is and people are now coming to terms with that.
Google’s challenge is to maintain employee excitement, and innovation is a very large organization that is inevitably more bureaucratic today than it was in 2004. It can be done, but it’s much harder than running a startup.
Google, which prides itself on keeping a happy, tight-knit workforce, takes the loss of its early employees seriously. In addition to creating a hassle to refill the position, the departures erode the company's culture and institutional knowledge, Sullivan said.
Around 100 of the first 300 employees have resigned, according to Sullivan. Her job is to help keep those who remain motivated, even though she acknowledges that many of them probably don't need to work another day in their lives.
In a regulatory filing before its initial public offering, Google listed the departure of key employees who reaped a windfall as a potential risk to its business. Early workers, the company said, would have less incentive to stay.
Stock options awarded during Google first few years were like gold. They gave employees the right to buy shares, now valued at $487.19, for less than $1.
But today, the options are priced less favorably and a giant payday is much less likely.
However, Sullivan said Google's annual staff attrition remains "extraordinarily low" at 4 percent. The national average was 29.3 percent in 2005 for companies in the information industry, which includes the Internet, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
"It's not the money, it's not our bonuses and stock, the work environment is awesome," said Sullivan, one of Google's first 50 employees.
Her selling points for Google are that workers can put big ideas into action, alongside colleagues she called some of the brightest around. Up to three months of unpaid leave, commuter bus service and, for engineers, freedom to spend 20 percent of their time on whatever they want are just some of the benefits.
To be sure, a large number of the early employees remain, and the executive ranks, in particular, are filled with veterans.
Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the two Stanford University students who co-founded Google in 1998, continue to play major roles. Supporting them are managers who joined early on such as Marissa Mayer, a vice president for search and user experience, and Omid Kordestani, senior vice president of global sales and business development.
Eric Schmidt, Google's chief executive, emphasized in an October interview that departures by original employees are few rather than a rush to the exits. Much of the early staff is still young, he said, and not ready to relax on the beach for the rest of their lives.
"There have been a couple who left, but I think that the people who are here now are the ones enjoying themselves," Schmidt said. "They clearly don't have to work. They made plenty of money."
Whatever the case, resignations at Google are easily offset by new hiring. More than 100 new employees join every week, a torrid pace for any company.
Google had 9,378 workers at the end of September, up nearly 90 percent from a year earlier.
In exit interviews before resigning, Googlers say how hard it is to break away from the company, Sullivan said. Many still want to maintain ties to Google during the next chapter of their lives.
An alumni program planned this year is one way, Sullivan said. Former Googlers would be invited to the headquarters for parties, so they could stay in touch with their friends and keep abreast -- to a point -- of what is happening at the left behind
Google said that they are able to figure out which of their 20,000 employees will most likely leave. The algorithm crunches data from employee reviews, promotion dollars involved, and previous pay histories.
Laszlo Bock, the VP of People Operations at the search engine company said that the algorithm helps “get inside people’s heads even before they know they might leave [WSJ].”
Omid Kordestani, Senior Advisor of the Office of the CEO and Founders at Google recently received $5.12 million when he exchanged 36,000 stock options at a price of $448.23. Omid led the first group of employees that sold contextual ads for Google [BI].
Recently Tim Armstrong, the former COO at Google became the CEO and Chairman of AOL. Since then he has been stealing some Google employees.
Google has been growing at a rapid pace. Many of the employees that leave do so because they feel that they aren’t making a difference at the company. The employees at Google are drifting to startup companies like Twitter and Facebook.
Google is taking steps to improve its employee retention by implementing a mathematical formula that calculates when staff are likely to leave the company.
The algorithm works by taking data from staff pay history, promotion history and employee reviews and appraisals of its 20,000 staff worldwide.
The programme is still in the test phases, so the company is not ready to share information about the technical workings of the system, but a spokesman told HR magazine: "As anyone who has observed Google over the years knows, we are serious about keeping our employees happy.
"The work we do in predictive attrition helps us find situations that may increase the likelihood of some ‘Googlers' leaving the company so that managers and HR staff can work on avoiding those very situations.
"These efforts don't identify specific people at risk of leaving but instead focus on the less obvious factors that may contribute to the decision to leave the company."
Google does not intend to use the algorithm to prevent employees who wish to leave the company from doing so, but hopes to find out which employees are feeling demotivated so training and recognition can be used more strategically.
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