The Leadership and Creativity of Google - Case Study Example

INNOVATION? JUST GOOGLE IT

Abstract

If one takes a close look at the contemporary business world, one will be able to see that the most successful companies are those that are also quite innovative. It would not be an exaggeration to suggest that Google should be regarded as one of the most successful and innovative companies in history which is something that has been acknowledged by numerous scholars (George 2015). A careful examination of its mission, vision, values, and slogan reveals that the entire corporate culture is tailored in a way that supports and promoted creativity and innovation. Given the current state of affair and the desire of Google to advance even further, one might give the following recommendations. First, it is important to integrate the new products in a universally compatible framework that allows users to rely on Google products for the majority of their tasks. Secondly, it is essential to explore new horizons of innovation, pushing the boundaries even further with new products.

Introduction

The history of the business world knows several examples when companies were able to create such a perfect and a successful product that the actual name of the product is forgotten and the name of the company used instead. "Xerocopy" comes from Xerox – the company that creates a machine that revolutionised the way information is copied; "to tazer" comes from Tazer International – the company that has developed nonlethal electrical weapons; the same can be said about "to google". The latter is a word which is included in the dictionary of Modern English, but even without official recognition, it is a verb that people use every day. This might be perceived as the best recognition of achievement of eponymous company, the very name of each stand for innovation.

Strategic vocabulary

It may be particularly helpful to take a look at fundamental elements of Google as a company to understand its appreciation of innovation. Thus, the mission statement is formulated in the following manner: "to organise the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful" ("About Google" 2016). One would make no mistake suggesting that "organising the world's information" is a tremendously big and responsible task, but there is no doubt that Google will handle it with the help of its innovative approach to information. Speaking of vision of the company, it may be summarised as follows: "to provide access to the world's information in one click" (Covey 2012). Once again, this is a rather difficult task that could not have been achieved decades ago, but today due to technological advancement Google has a high chance of achieving the goal.

Another point that should be mentioned is that values that guide Google in its work also pay particular attention to innovation. For example, it is explicitly mentioned that “through innovation and iteration, we aim to take things that work well and improve upon them in unexpected ways” ("Ten things we know to be true" 2016). Therefore, it is officially recognised that innovation is one of the fundamental elements of the corporate culture. Moreover, the company applies the same principle to its most sacred asset – the source code: “we are active in open source software development, where innovation takes place through the collective effort of many programmers” ("Ten things we know to be true" 2016). As for the slogan, one should note that it used to be “Don’t Be Evil”, but as the company was restructured recently, it became “Do the Right Thing” (Moyer 2015). While there is no clear indication of innovation in the slogan, it is obvious that “doing the right thing” for Google mean being creative.

Culture

Now, it may be logical to provide a brief overview of corporate culture and see how its supports innovation. Lorraine Twohill who is Google VP of Global Marketing said: “from opening up our brand to opening up museums, we see creativity as a way to solve problems - large and small” ("Think with Google" 2016). Indeed, while other companies perceive innovation as an important addition to their business strategy, Google calls innovation its business strategy. This is manifested in many forms. For example, He (2013) suggests that innovation allows Google to empower its employees and allows them to do their best to generate new ideas. In other words, when the developers are provided with a lot of freedom, they do not limit their creating thinking.

One would make no mistake suggesting that innovation that is promoted and supported by the corporate culture of Google would have meant nothing it people had not adopted it. All this can be explained by the theory of diffusion of innovation which states that achievement of the late majority of the users ensures that innovation is accepted by the society (Rogers 2010). Indeed, Google would have never become so successful if people did not appreciate what the company developed. That is why Tidd (2010) suggests that the corporate culture of Google is designed in a way that reflects diffusion of innovation in that sense that it expects people to adopt something new and relies on public support. In other words, the company creates products so that they will be useful and helpful for the people.

New Product Development

George (2015) suggests that Google is one of the most innovative companies of the present time. That is why it is extremely easy to identify new products and examine the manner in which they are developed. Burnham (2012) holds that during its history Google has initiated many groundbreaking projects, but Google Books may be one of the most interesting ones. Thus, the company has revitalised the image of a book, showing that paper carriers may be compatible with the technology. Indeed, today, people can browse through numerous books available online and familiarise themselves with books previews of which are free to read. It is obvious that it took Google a tremendous effort to scan and recognise the characters, but the outcome was outstanding: people know to use the Internet to find information which is featured in printed materials.

Various NPD model can explain the success of Google Books. For example, Rainey (2008) believe that BAH model can be most useful in this case.

Rainey, 2008

Thus, after the idea of recognising the character in books was generated, a corresponding product was developed which appeared to be successful in terms of marking and Google was able to commercialise on it since if a person liked a book, one could buy it using the interface of Google Books.

The IDEO process can also be used to explain the success of the product in question. Thus, at first, the company understood the need of the consumers. Google synthesised information that it received through observation and visualised the idea: people needed a way to browse through books the electronic version of which is not available yet. The prototype of the concept was created and it was gradually improved until it was implemented and the company was able to make a profit on it.

Innovation strategy

If one takes a close look at the innovation strategy that is currently employed by Google, one will be able to see that it is constantly changing. Steiber (2014) suggests that this may have been the key element to the success of the company: every new product that it developed changed the range of services offered by it. As a result, the old innovation strategy that was used before no longer made sense and needed to be updated. Consider the following: in 2004 when Gmail was developed this was only yet another mail service, but today a person is able to access YouTube videos from it or save files to one's Google Drive. These features would not have been possible at the time of creation of Gmail since they did not exist. So, the best strategy for innovation is to adapt to the changing conditions and make the most out of what is available.

It has already been mentioned that the model of diffusion of innovation plays a considerably important role in Google. However, one should point out that there are some other concepts that can be employed to understand its strategy. Thus, Chesbrough (2006) argues that the idea of Open Innovation is something that can because the characteristic feature of the contemporary world. This falls in line with what Google has been doing perfectly, since the company is a champion of open source software and encourages the users to share their ideas about how they can improve the code together. Therefore, the products of Google are open for revision and everyone who has the sufficient knowledge is able to introduce changes into them. This is something that sets Google from its competitors, who protect their secrets.

Risk taking

Risk taking is an irreplaceable element of doing business and since Google has been so successful, one might suggest that its approach towards taking risks may be quite effective. Thus, not every product that the company in question has developed is popular (consider Google Keep – a service few people know of). However, even if one product out of many takes off, Google is able to develop it almost to perfection. Nandram (2014) suggests that there are different models that can describe such behaviour, but the best one would refer to Google as innovator – a company that possesses a considerable amount of creativity and is not afraid to take the risk. That is why the company will score high on both these characteristics.

It is quite understandable that this approach towards risk taking has a significant impact on innovation. Thus, this shows that new products that are created by Google have an equal chance of becoming popular and it is the public that ultimately decides whether a new service will be successful of not. Think about Google+: this social network was developed according to careful considerations, but it was not able to compete with Facebook. Murray (2015) suggests that the readiness to take risks and innovate despite failures is something that makes Google unique. Unlike other companies the latter is not afraid to be creative, even if the outcome is not the one which was hoped for. That is why it is quite obvious that the company in question will carry on creating new services and some of them will become extremely popular, contributing to the success of it.

Recommendation

There are certain recommendations that can be given to Google based on its innovation strategy as well as risk taking. First of all, the company should pay particular attention to the integration of its service. One of the direction that is being currently developed calls for creative of a single account that can be used by a person it identifies oneself in all services by Google, as well as services, provides by other companies ("Google Identity Platform" 2016). This may be extremely useful since it will take the concept of integration to a completely new level, showing that a Google account can be compatible with other services. As a result, the importance of one's account will increase significantly ultimately becoming one's true virtual representation. There are numerous issues that must be taken care of before this can be achieved, but this direction seems to be quite promising and Google will benefit from it greatly if it becomes the first company to implement it.

Secondly, one should point out that the perception of innovation should evolve together with the products. The company seems to be acknowledging this, suggesting that it is essential to deliver products that present new perspectives ("The Eight Pillars of Innovation" 2016). That is why the success of the company will be reinforced by a product that creates a new market or is able to re-define a traditional activity. It is not advisable for Google to create products that would not be groundbreaking. Of course, it may compete with other companies, but revolutionary innovation is something that expected from Google; that is why should deliver products that provide people with new opportunities. All in all, the company in question has set the bar for itself extremely high and can stay successful only if it is able to live up to the expectations.