The Google Story - Book Review

Written by David A. Wise, 306 Pages
Reviewed by Oscar Manduku, for Innov8 Bookshop, Zimbabwe

The Google Story starts with extremely bold financial results, for a small start up. Founded in 1998, Google.com became the world's fastest growing Corporation to ever grace the earth, even before going public in August 2004. This book is not about Technology or America, but about how innovation, locked up in every individual, can be turned into a Money Machine within the shortest time frame, without changing one's personality. It is a book about how focus, vision, determination, and endurance can change the way people conduct business the world over.

Google was not started by the US Government as we “Techies” thought. It was started by two humble students, who chose to take on the world, by creating what everyone needs information access for all. The money behind the business is not as important as the vision behind the founders, who consider themselves to be in the infant stage of their “Google Story”.

Upon establishing the company, The Google founders sort to build an environment that was very conducive to productivity without having to be academic or industrial per se. They managed to fuse a good culture by employing certain individuals who influenced the culture they wanted. They were ready to make sacrificial decisions so as to ensure that the culture that best delivered the vision was enforced.

Google Products have managed to create what is now known as The Google Economy, where more than 10 billion web pages are affiliates of Google Advertising Programs. These products have re-shaped the Internet landscape, creating an undisputed advantage for Google. Google's objective is to make available ALL information to the ordinary web consumer. Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the founders, have personal ambitions to download, store, and make accessible the whole WEB. They offer products and services that normally other firms charge, for the sake of retaining a consumer. Their products also make serious assaults on their competitors, and recruit new ones in every new territory they move into.

Google Inc displays unique Team work, as it operates as an Academic Research Institute, with a Membership Club and Project Management Concept, where people are assigned certain projects new ideas, product development, etc, with a Project Leader. These teams are not more than 5 people to allow maximum innovation. They are goal driven, with specific time lines, and objectives, that have to be met, or else the whole ship will sink. This production structure allows maximum mind contribution by each member of staff and helps deliver Quality of Service, which competitors are failing to match.

Corporate Governance and Innovation have been fused well by the founders, who sort the guidance of the Industry's most successful man Eric Schmidt, to captain this small ship that had a cargo even lager than the titanic itself. Google has managed to stay innovative in corporate administration, product development, and service delivery. So often Corporate Governance, Product Development and Delivery are always pulled in different directions. Not so for Google; because Eric Schmidt, the founders choice, successfully turned the idea into a world in itself. The Google Story is also about guidance and stability.

Google is without competition, even from Microsoft, who woke up one day to find Google ahead of the technology race. Google went beyond competition when they invested in product development that lasted many years of losses, and recruited personnel whom they could not pay for a while, but ultimately managed to turn the company around into their destined place number one, even on the NASDAQ bourse. The Google Story is about Corporate Competitiveness in this Global Economy.

The Google Story is about involvement in the lives of consumers. Google did so in consumer communities with their generosity initiatives, as they seek to cooperate with every consumer in order to satisfy them. Their advertising and marketing costs are next to nothing as word of mouth is their strength. Because Google Cares, they are getting more and more users by the day, making them the best Online brand, if not Offline as well.