MBA Knowledge Base

Business • Management • Technology

Home » Management Case Studies » Case Study: Analysis of Organizational Culture at Google

Case Study: Analysis of Organizational Culture at Google

Google Inc came to life with the two brilliant people as the founder of the company. Those two were Larry Page and Sergey Brin . Both of them are a PhDs holder in computer science in Stanford University California. In their research project, they came out with a plan to make a search engine that ranked websites according to the number of other websites that linked to that site. Before Google was established, search engines had ranked site simply by the number of times the search term searched for appeared on the webpage. By the brilliant mind of Larry and Sergey, they develop the technology called PageRank algorithm . PageRank is a link analysis algorithm that assigns a numerical weighting to each element of a hyperlinked set of document, such as the World Wide Web, with the purpose of measuring its relative importance within the set. All this in-depth research leads to a glorious day which is on September 15, 1997 where Google.com domain was registered. Soon after that, on September 4, 1998, they formally incorporated their company, Google Inc, at a friend’s garage in Menlo Park California. The name Google originates from “Googol” which refers to the mathematical equivalent of the number one followed by a hundred zeros. In March 1999, the company moved into offices at 165 University Avenue in Palo Alto. After that, the company leased a complex of buildings in Mountain View. Ever since then, the location of the headquarter remain unchanged.

Google’s core business is to provide a search engine for the cyber user who would like to go to their desire site. The Google search engine attracted a number of internet users by its sleek and simple design but result in amazing search result. After the initial stage of Google establishing itself in the world, it began selling advertisements associated with the search keywords. The advertisements were text-based in order to maximize the page loading speed. Most of the Google Inc revenue relies on the advertisement and they had been successfully with the help of AdWords and AdSense in their system. After having some experience in the industry, Google itself launched its own free web-based email service, known as Gmail in 2004. This service is established to meet the need of the cyber user in order to store and send their document through online. In the same year, one of the most captivating technologies that Google had launched is the Google Earth. Google Earth is an amazing creation that is a map of the earth based on the satellite image. It requires you to type the desire location that you want to view and it will process the image for you. Furthermore, Google Inc made a new partnership with NASA with even enhances the Google technologies. Google also had its own Google Video which allows user to search the internet for videos. One of the most important things in the Google Inc is that they have a strong organizational culture which brings them closer and stronger compare with other firms. The values that they emphasis on are creativity, simplicity and innovation in order to gain competitive advantage against their competitor.

The Google Culture

Google is well known for their organizational cultures distinctiveness and uniqueness compared to their immediate competitors. On the Google corporate website, they have listed down 10 core principles that guide the actions of the entire organization. These are the values and assumptions shared within the organization. These values are also termed as ‘espoused values’, where it is not necessarily what the organization actually values even though the top executives of the company embrace them.

In Google, the daily organizational life is distinctive and is one that thrives on informal culture. The rituals that portray the organization’s culture as unique and possesses a small-company feel are portrayed daily at lunchtime, where almost all employees eat together at the many various office cafes while at the same time having an open, relaxed conversations with fellow Googlers that come from different teams. Also, because one of the Google culture’s main pillars are the pillar of innovation, every Googler are very comfortable at sharing ideas, thoughts, and opinions with one another in a very informal working environment. Every employee is a hands-on contributor and everyone wears several hats. Sergey and Brin also plays a big part of laying the foundation on what the Google culture is and the founders have continued to maintain the Google Way by organizing a weekly all-hands “TGIF” meetings for employees to pose questions directly at them.

The Google Culture

Here are some of a few of their core principles which will provide a look into Google’s management philosophy and the type of culture they want to possess:

In Google, the motivated employees who ‘live’ the Google brand and are aligned to the company call themselves ‘Googlers’. Even former employees of Google have a name which they refer to themselves as ‘Xooglers’. This shows that in Google, their employees are so involved in the organization that they have their own symbolic name that mirrors the organization’s name and image, which is a sure sign of existing strong cultural values that are present within the company.

After tremendous growth in Google, the organization moved from a humble office building in Palo Alto, California back in its early days to its current office complex bought over from Silicon Graphics. The complex is popularly known as the Googleplex, which is a blend of the word ‘Google’ and ‘complex’. Googleplex is the result of a careful selection that serves to establish Google’s unique and individualistic culture in the eyes of the employees and the public. The corporate campus is built to provide a very fun, relaxed and colorful environment both inside and outside. Innovative design decisions provides Google employees 2000 car lots underground so that open spaces above and surrounding the building are filled with unique and interesting architectures that includes an on-site organic garden that supplies produces for Google’s various cafes, a bronze casting of a dinosaur fossil, a sand volleyball court, heated “endless pools” and also electric scooters along with hundreds of bikes scattered throughout the complex for Googlers to get to meetings across campuses. Googleplex is a significant departure from typical corporate campuses, challenging conventional thinking about private and public space. This also points out the alignment of values that are present in Google’s culture such as innovation, fun, laid-back, creativity and uniqueness that clearly shows that their organizational culture is truly unique and different from that of their competitors and other organizations.

Within the Googleplex, a truly attractive, fun and extraordinary workplace environment exists for Google employees. The interior of the headquarters is furnished with items like lava lamps and giant rubber balls while sofas, Google color coded chairs, and pool tables can be found at lounges and bar counters to express Google’s laid-back working atmosphere. The lobby contains a grand piano and a projection of current live Google search queries. The employees’ various needs are also taken care of by facilities such as the 19 cafes on campus which serves a variety of food choices for their diverse workforce, a gym, massage parlor, laundromats, and even micro kitchens, which provides snacks for employees who want a quick bite. This ensures that employees can be more productive and happy without ever leaving the workplace. A manifestation of Google’s creative and innovative culture is shown by the unconventional building design with high ceilings to let natural light in, durable floors made of tiny quartz stones, working British phone booths splashed in Google colors, and lounges that also serve as DIY libraries with cleverly placed low-reach book racks adorned with colorful Lego sets and cubes. All these innovative, creative and colorful designs are symbols of Google’s unique organizational culture that emphasizes on continuous innovation.

Google engages their employees by applying adaptive culture in the organization. From their core competency in search engine technology, Google has responded to customers change in needs by expanding onto the mobile market. The employees analyze, anticipate and seek out the opportunities to improve the organization’s performance by being proactive and quick in coming out with new technologies and solutions for mobile services. It aims to help people all over the world to do more tasks on their phone, not to mention the several different ways to access their Google search engine on a mobile phone. In addition, Google recently entered the smartphone market by launching the Google Nexus One smartphone in response to customer’s increasing need for smartphones, which is gaining ground on popularity because everyone is going mobile in the Information Age. This is the result of Google employees’ common mental model that the organization’s success depends on continuous change to support the stakeholders and also that they are solely responsible for the organization’s performance. The employees also believe that by entering into other markets beyond their core competency, the change is necessary and inevitable to keep pace with an ever changing and volatile technological market.

Google’s organizational culture places a huge importance of trust and transparency by having an informal corporate motto namely “Don’t be evil”. This slogan has become a central pillar to their identity and a part of their self-proclaimed core principles. It also forms the ethical codes of the organization where Google establishes a foundation for honest decision-making that disassociates Google from any and all cheating. Its ethical principles means that Google sets guiding principles for their advertising programs and practices, which is where most of their revenues come from. Google doesn’t breach the trust of its users so it doesn’t accept pop-up advertising, which is a disruptive form of advertisement that hinders with the user’s ability to see the content that they searched. And because they don’t manipulate rankings to put any of their partners higher in their search results or allow anyone to buy their way up the PageRank, the integrity of their search results are not compromised. This way, users trust Google’s objectivity and their ethical principles is one of the reasons why Google’s ad business had become so successful. The founders of Google believe strongly that ‘in the long term we will be better served, as shareholders and in all other ways, by a company that does good things for the world even if we forgo some short term gains.’

Analysis of Google Culture

Satisfied employees not only increase productivity and reduce turnover, but also enhance creativity and commitment. Google is already having a playful variation culture in the organization for the employees. This can enable the employees to have an enjoyment environment and this will be able enhance the relationship between the employees and strengthen their bond to work as a team. An enjoyment environment definitely can let the employees to feel satisfied and subsequently will increase productivity. Apart from that, this will shape a convenient work process for the employees that will smoothen the decision making process for the management team. Google already identified the employees are the organization’s internal customers and this is the reason why it has been constantly giving employees a sense of purpose, enhancing their self-esteem and sense of belonging for being a part of the organization. The company was reorganized into small teams that attacked hundreds of projects all at once. The founders give the employees great latitude, and they take the same latitude for themselves. Eric Schmidt says that Google merely appears to be disorganized. “We say we run the company chaotically. We run it at the edge. This can adapt the culture Google and therefore they can individually to generate the ideas on their own.

On the other hand, Google hires employees that have good academic results but without practical experience and this will be a threat to Google in terms of their organization’s operation. Google is a results-driven organization and if employees with only creative ideas but lacking of skills to realize the ideas they have initially planned, this will absolutely reduce the productivity of the organizations. Google had been public listed on year 2004 and therefore Google had to take the shareholders’ views into consideration before making any decision. The shareholders had been strongly emphasizing on reducing the employee benefits due to the high cost invested on it. This leads to the organizational culture would be degraded and the employees would feel less satisfied and affect their produced results. Employees are very important asset the Google while the shareholders also the contributor of funds for Google. The management team has to weight the importance of both of the stakeholders for the Google as this will create a different organizational culture .

Related Posts:

  • Case Study: Competitive Advantage of Boeing
  • Case Study: Dell Social Business Strategy
  • Case Study: How IBM Championing Social Media Adoption in Business?
  • Case Study: Success of Amazon's Kindle Fire
  • Case Study: “Dude, You're Getting a Dell” Ad Campaign by Dell
  • Case Study on Entrepreneurship: Bill Gates
  • Case Study: Success Story of Google Search Engine
  • Case Study: The Meteoric Rise and Fall of Uber's Founder Travis Kalanick
  • Case Study of Apple: Strategic Enablers and Barriers to Innovation
  • Case Study: Business Model of Napster

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Harvard Business School →
  • Faculty & Research →
  • March 2020 (Revised August 2020)
  • HBS Case Collection

Culture at Google

  • Format: Print
  • | Language: English
  • | Pages: 34

About The Author

google company culture case study

Nien-he Hsieh

Related work.

  • Faculty Research
  • Culture at Google  By: Nien-hê Hsieh, Amy Klopfenstein and Sarah Mehta

Panmore Institute

  • About / Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Alphabetical List of Companies
  • Business Analysis Topics

Google’s (Alphabet’s) Organizational Structure & Culture – An Analysis

Alphabet Google organizational structure culture, company corporate work culture structure, online advertising business organizational design analysis

Google’s (Alphabet’s) success depicts the effectiveness of its organizational structure and organizational culture in supporting excellence in innovation. A company’s organizational or corporate structure is the arrangement of organizational components and resources based on its organizational design. Google’s organizational structure is not conventional because of its emphasis on flatness. On the other hand, a company’s organizational or corporate culture is the set of beliefs, values, behavioral tendencies, and expectations among employees. Google’s organizational culture emphasizes change and direct social links within the firm, in support of the organizational structure’s flatness. Theoretically, such an alignment between the technology company’s corporate structure and corporate culture contributes to higher chances of success. This success manifests in Google’s profitability and stability. The company remains a major influence in the global information technology, consumer electronics, and Internet services market. Google’s dominant position is attributable to the synergistic benefits of its organizational structure and organizational culture in supporting industry leadership.

Google’s organizational structure and company culture align to maximize innovation. Innovation contributes to the brand image, which is an essential strength identified in the SWOT analysis of Google (Alphabet) . The alignment between the work culture and corporate structure helps develop the company’s competitive advantages to address strategic challenges linked to multinational competitors, like the consumer electronics and online services of Apple , Amazon , Microsoft , Sony , and Samsung ; the Internet advertising services of Facebook , eBay , and other companies; the movie streaming services of Netflix and Disney ; and the Internet connectivity services of Verizon . Google is an example of aligning and effectively using corporate structure and corporate culture to achieve strategic objectives in developing competencies for business growth. This structure-culture alignment promotes human resource competencies that are essential to business development toward the fulfillment of the mission and vision of Google (Alphabet) .

Google’s Structure

Google has a cross-functional organizational structure , which is technically a matrix company structure with a considerable degree of flatness. This flatness is a defining structural feature that supports the growth and competitiveness of Alphabet’s technology business. The main characteristics of Google’s corporate structure are as follows:

  • Function-based definition
  • Product-based definition

Google’s corporate structure uses business functions as a basis for grouping employees. For example, the company has a Marketing group. The business also uses product type as a basis for grouping employees, i.e., human resource groups for developing Pixel devices. In addition, Google’s business structure has considerable flatness. The flat organizational structure means that Alphabet limits the degree of hierarchy in its organizational design and facilitates productive vertical communications that connect managers with employees, teams, or groups. Because of the flatness of the corporate structure, Google’s employees can efficiently meet and share information among teams.

Google’s Culture

Google’s organizational culture is not typical among large businesses, partly because of the effects of the company’s organizational structure. The corporate structure interacts with the company culture to influence the organizational capabilities and human resource characteristics of Alphabet’s technology business. Google’s corporate culture has the following primary characteristics:

  • Smart, with emphasis on excellence
  • Supports small-company-family rapport

Openness involves sharing information to improve Google’s business processes. This cultural characteristic is achieved through the matrix organizational structure. With this corporate structure and in the context of Google’s organizational culture, employees feel free to share their ideas and opinions, such as in communications during meetings with managers. Also, innovation is at the heart of the technology business. Every employee is encouraged to contribute innovative ideas, which are essential to supporting Google’s (Alphabet’s) generic strategy for competitive advantage and strategies for intensive growth . In addition, this corporate culture pushes for smartness, with the aim of motivating workers to strive for excellence, such as in developing new designs for consumer electronics and online services. In relation, Google supports employees’ hands-on involvement in projects and experiments, which are implemented for testing new ideas.

Google’s organizational culture creates a warm social ambiance. Warmth is a factor that facilitates information sharing and employee satisfaction in working for the multinational technology business. The organizational culture maintains a small-company-family ambiance, where people can easily share ideas with each other, including Google and Alphabet executives like Larry Page. Thus, Google’s business culture supports excellence in innovation through the sharing of ideas and the capability to effectively respond to the global market for information technology, cloud computing and Internet services, digital content distribution, and consumer electronics.

  • Alphabet Inc. – Form 10-K .
  • Artsidakis, S., Thalassinos, Y., Petropoulos, T., & Liapis, K. (2022). Optimum structure of corporate groups. Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 15 (2), 88.
  • Fu, Q., Abdul Rahman, A. A., Jiang, H., Abbas, J., & Comite, U. (2022). Sustainable supply chain and business performance: The impact of strategy, network design, information systems, and organizational structure. Sustainability, 14 (3), 1080.
  • Gonzalez, R. V. D. (2022). Innovative performance of project teams: The role of organizational structure and knowledge-based dynamic capability. Journal of Knowledge Management, 26 (5), 1164-1186.
  • Google Careers – Teams .
  • Google Products .
  • Kasperson, J. X., & Kasperson, R. E. (2022). Corporate culture and technology transfer. In The Social Contours of Risk (pp. 118-143). Routledge.
  • Shamsudin, S., & Velmurugan, V. P. (2023). A study on the drivers of corporate culture impacting employee performance in IT industry. International Journal of Professional Business Review, 8 (2), 13.
  • U.S. Department of Commerce – International Trade Administration – Software and Information Technology Industry .
  • Copyright by Panmore Institute - All rights reserved.
  • This article may not be reproduced, distributed, or mirrored without written permission from Panmore Institute and its author/s.
  • Educators, Researchers, and Students: You are permitted to quote or paraphrase parts of this article (not the entire article) for educational or research purposes, as long as the article is properly cited and referenced together with its URL/link.

Logo for M Libraries Publishing

Want to create or adapt books like this? Learn more about how Pressbooks supports open publishing practices.

11.1 Decision-Making Culture: The Case of Google

Figure 11.1

Googleplex Welcome Sign

Wikimedia Commons – public domain.

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) is one of the best-known and most admired companies around the world, so much so that “googling” is the term many use to refer to searching information on the Web. What started out as a student project by two Stanford University graduates—Larry Page and Sergey Brin—in 1996, Google became the most frequently used Web search engine on the Internet with 1 billion searches per day in 2009, as well as other innovative applications such as Gmail, Google Earth, Google Maps, and Picasa. Google grew from 10 employees working in a garage in Palo Alto to 10,000 employees operating around the world by 2009. What is the formula behind this success?

Google strives to operate based on solid principles that may be traced back to its founders. In a world crowded with search engines, they were probably the first company that put users first. Their mission statement summarizes their commitment to end-user needs: “To organize the world’s information and to make it universally accessible and useful.” While other companies were focused on marketing their sites and increasing advertising revenues, Google stripped the search page of all distractions and presented users with a blank page consisting only of a company logo and a search box. Google resisted pop-up advertising, because the company felt that it was annoying to end-users. They insisted that all their advertisements would be clearly marked as “sponsored links.” This emphasis on improving user experience and always putting it before making more money in the short term seems to have been critical to their success.

Keeping their employees happy is also a value they take to heart. Google created a unique work environment that attracts, motivates, and retains the best players in the field. Google was ranked as the number 1 “Best Place to Work For” by Fortune magazine in 2007 and number 4 in 2010. This is not surprising if one looks closer to how Google treats employees. On their Mountain View, California, campus called the “Googleplex,” employees are treated to free gourmet food options including sushi bars and espresso stations. In fact, many employees complain that once they started working for Google, they tend to gain 10 to 15 pounds! Employees have access to gyms, shower facilities, video games, on-site child care, and doctors. Google provides 4 months of paternal leave with 75% of full pay and offers $500 for take-out meals for families with a newborn. These perks create a place where employees feel that they are treated well and their needs are taken care of. Moreover, they contribute to the feeling that they are working at a unique and cool place that is different from everywhere else they may have worked.

In addition, Google encourages employee risk taking and innovation. How is this done? When a vice president in charge of the company’s advertising system made a mistake costing the company millions of dollars and apologized for the mistake, she was commended by Larry Page, who congratulated her for making the mistake and noting that he would rather run a company where they are moving quickly and doing too much, as opposed to being too cautious and doing too little. This attitude toward acting fast and accepting the cost of resulting mistakes as a natural consequence of working on the cutting edge may explain why the company is performing much ahead of competitors such as Microsoft and Yahoo! One of the current challenges for Google is to expand to new fields outside of their Web search engine business. To promote new ideas, Google encourages all engineers to spend 20% of their time working on their own ideas.

Google’s culture is reflected in their decision making as well. Decisions at Google are made in teams. Even the company management is in the hands of a triad: Larry Page and Sergey Brin hired Eric Schmidt to act as the CEO of the company, and they are reportedly leading the company by consensus. In other words, this is not a company where decisions are made by the senior person in charge and then implemented top down. It is common for several small teams to attack each problem and for employees to try to influence each other using rational persuasion and data. Gut feeling has little impact on how decisions are made. In some meetings, people reportedly are not allowed to say “I think…” but instead must say “the data suggest….” To facilitate teamwork, employees work in open office environments where private offices are assigned only to a select few. Even Kai-Fu Lee, the famous employee whose defection from Microsoft was the target of a lawsuit, did not get his own office and shared a cubicle with two other employees.

How do they maintain these unique values? In a company emphasizing hiring the smartest people, it is very likely that they will attract big egos that may be difficult to work with. Google realizes that its strength comes from its “small company” values that emphasize risk taking, agility, and cooperation. Therefore, they take their hiring process very seriously. Hiring is extremely competitive and getting to work at Google is not unlike applying to a college. Candidates may be asked to write essays about how they will perform their future jobs. Recently, they targeted potential new employees using billboards featuring brain teasers directing potential candidates to a Web site where they were subjected to more brain teasers. Each candidate may be interviewed by as many as eight people on several occasions. Through this scrutiny, they are trying to select “Googley” employees who will share the company’s values, perform at high levels, and be liked by others within the company.

Will this culture survive in the long run? It may be too early to tell, given that the company was only founded in 1998. The founders emphasized that their initial public offering (IPO) would not change their culture and they would not introduce more rules or change the way things are done in Google to please Wall Street. But can a public corporation really act like a start-up? Can a global giant facing scrutiny on issues including privacy, copyright, and censorship maintain its culture rooted in its days in a Palo Alto garage? Larry Page is quoted as saying, “We have a mantra: don’t be evil, which is to do the best things we know how for our users, for our customers, for everyone. So I think if we were known for that, it would be a wonderful thing.”

Based on information from Elgin, B., Hof, R. D., & Greene, J. (2005, August 8). Revenge of the nerds—again. BusinessWeek . Retrieved April 30, 2010, from http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jul2005/tc20050728 _5127_tc024.htm ; Hardy, Q. (2005, November 14). Google thinks small. Forbes, 176 (10); Lashinky, A. (2006, October 2). Chaos by design. Fortune , 154 (7); Mangalindan, M. (2004, March 29). The grownup at Google: How Eric Schmidt imposed better management tactics but didn’t stifle search giant. Wall Street Journal , p. B1; Lohr, S. (2005, December 5). At Google, cube culture has new rules. New York Times . Retrieved April 30, 2010, from http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/05/technology/05google.html ; Schoeneman, D. (2006, December 31). Can Google come out to play? New York Times . Retrieved April 30, 2010, from http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/31/fashion/31google.html ; Warner, M. (2004, June). What your company can learn from Google. Business 2.0, 5 (5).

Discussion Questions

  • Do you think Google’s decision-making culture will help or hurt Google in the long run?
  • What are the factors responsible for the specific culture that exists in Google?
  • What type of decision-making approach has Google taken? Do you think this will remain the same over time? Why or why not?
  • Do you see any challenges Google may face in the future because of its emphasis on risk taking?

Organizational Behavior Copyright © 2017 by University of Minnesota is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book

Library homepage

  • school Campus Bookshelves
  • menu_book Bookshelves
  • perm_media Learning Objects
  • login Login
  • how_to_reg Request Instructor Account
  • hub Instructor Commons
  • Download Page (PDF)
  • Download Full Book (PDF)
  • Periodic Table
  • Physics Constants
  • Scientific Calculator
  • Reference & Cite
  • Tools expand_more
  • Readability

selected template will load here

This action is not available.

Business LibreTexts

11.1: Decision-Making Culture: The Case of Google

  • Last updated
  • Save as PDF
  • Page ID 34536

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) is one of the best-known and most admired companies around the world, so much so that “googling” is the term many use to refer to searching information on the Web. What started out as a student project by two Stanford University graduates—Larry Page and Sergey Brin—in 1996, Google became the most frequently used Web search engine on the Internet with 1 billion searches per day in 2009, as well as other innovative applications such as Gmail, Google Earth, Google Maps, and Picasa. Google grew from 10 employees working in a garage in Palo Alto to 10,000 employees operating around the world by 2009. What is the formula behind this success?

e61442b5bf48d5408389a00590cfe261.jpg

Google strives to operate based on solid principles that may be traced back to its founders. In a world crowded with search engines, they were probably the first company that put users first. Their mission statement summarizes their commitment to end-user needs: “To organize the world’s information and to make it universally accessible and useful.” While other companies were focused on marketing their sites and increasing advertising revenues, Google stripped the search page of all distractions and presented users with a blank page consisting only of a company logo and a search box. Google resisted pop-up advertising, because the company felt that it was annoying to end-users. They insisted that all their advertisements would be clearly marked as “sponsored links.” This emphasis on improving user experience and always putting it before making more money in the short term seems to have been critical to their success.

Keeping their employees happy is also a value they take to heart. Google created a unique work environment that attracts, motivates, and retains the best players in the field. Google was ranked as the number 1 “Best Place to Work For” by Fortune magazine in 2007 and number 4 in 2010. This is not surprising if one looks closer to how Google treats employees. On their Mountain View, California, campus called the “Googleplex,” employees are treated to free gourmet food options including sushi bars and espresso stations. In fact, many employees complain that once they started working for Google, they tend to gain 10 to 15 pounds! Employees have access to gyms, shower facilities, video games, on-site child care, and doctors. Google provides 4 months of paternal leave with 75% of full pay and offers $500 for take-out meals for families with a newborn. These perks create a place where employees feel that they are treated well and their needs are taken care of. Moreover, they contribute to the feeling that they are working at a unique and cool place that is different from everywhere else they may have worked.

In addition, Google encourages employee risk taking and innovation. How is this done? When a vice president in charge of the company’s advertising system made a mistake costing the company millions of dollars and apologized for the mistake, she was commended by Larry Page, who congratulated her for making the mistake and noting that he would rather run a company where they are moving quickly and doing too much, as opposed to being too cautious and doing too little. This attitude toward acting fast and accepting the cost of resulting mistakes as a natural consequence of working on the cutting edge may explain why the company is performing much ahead of competitors such as Microsoft and Yahoo! One of the current challenges for Google is to expand to new fields outside of their Web search engine business. To promote new ideas, Google encourages all engineers to spend 20% of their time working on their own ideas.

Google’s culture is reflected in their decision making as well. Decisions at Google are made in teams. Even the company management is in the hands of a triad: Larry Page and Sergey Brin hired Eric Schmidt to act as the CEO of the company, and they are reportedly leading the company by consensus. In other words, this is not a company where decisions are made by the senior person in charge and then implemented top down. It is common for several small teams to attack each problem and for employees to try to influence each other using rational persuasion and data. Gut feeling has little impact on how decisions are made. In some meetings, people reportedly are not allowed to say “I think…” but instead must say “the data suggest….” To facilitate teamwork, employees work in open office environments where private offices are assigned only to a select few. Even Kai-Fu Lee, the famous employee whose defection from Microsoft was the target of a lawsuit, did not get his own office and shared a cubicle with two other employees.

How do they maintain these unique values? In a company emphasizing hiring the smartest people, it is very likely that they will attract big egos that may be difficult to work with. Google realizes that its strength comes from its “small company” values that emphasize risk taking, agility, and cooperation. Therefore, they take their hiring process very seriously. Hiring is extremely competitive and getting to work at Google is not unlike applying to a college. Candidates may be asked to write essays about how they will perform their future jobs. Recently, they targeted potential new employees using billboards featuring brain teasers directing potential candidates to a Web site where they were subjected to more brain teasers. Each candidate may be interviewed by as many as eight people on several occasions. Through this scrutiny, they are trying to select “Googley” employees who will share the company’s values, perform at high levels, and be liked by others within the company.

Will this culture survive in the long run? It may be too early to tell, given that the company was only founded in 1998. The founders emphasized that their initial public offering (IPO) would not change their culture and they would not introduce more rules or change the way things are done in Google to please Wall Street. But can a public corporation really act like a start-up? Can a global giant facing scrutiny on issues including privacy, copyright, and censorship maintain its culture rooted in its days in a Palo Alto garage? Larry Page is quoted as saying, “We have a mantra: don’t be evil, which is to do the best things we know how for our users, for our customers, for everyone. So I think if we were known for that, it would be a wonderful thing.”

Based on information from Elgin, B., Hof, R. D., & Greene, J. (2005, August 8). Revenge of the nerds—again. BusinessWeek . Retrieved April 30, 2010, from http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jul2005/tc20050728 _5127_tc024.htm ; Hardy, Q. (2005, November 14). Google thinks small. Forbes, 176 (10); Lashinky, A. (2006, October 2). Chaos by design. Fortune , 154 (7); Mangalindan, M. (2004, March 29). The grownup at Google: How Eric Schmidt imposed better management tactics but didn’t stifle search giant. Wall Street Journal , p. B1; Lohr, S. (2005, December 5). At Google, cube culture has new rules. New York Times . Retrieved April 30, 2010, from http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/05/technology/05google.html ; Schoeneman, D. (2006, December 31). Can Google come out to play? New York Times . Retrieved April 30, 2010, from http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/31/fashion/31google.html ; Warner, M. (2004, June). What your company can learn from Google. Business 2.0, 5 (5).

Discussion Questions

  • Do you think Google’s decision-making culture will help or hurt Google in the long run?
  • What are the factors responsible for the specific culture that exists in Google?
  • What type of decision-making approach has Google taken? Do you think this will remain the same over time? Why or why not?
  • Do you see any challenges Google may face in the future because of its emphasis on risk taking?
  • Book a free demo

9 Lessons You Can Learn From Google's Innovation Culture

Check out what makes Google one of the most innovative companies in the world

google company culture case study

When it comes to the companies at the forefront of modern day tech innovation, there’s one name that comes up again and again: Google.

In fact, Google’s range of product innovations are so popular, and have had such a fundamental role in shaping our relationship to the internet, that we often think of them as being baked into our online experience. 

But how, exactly, does Google create such amazing solutions for its millions of users?

In this innovation case study, we’ll take a look under the hood of this tech behemoth, and will explain what makes Google such a powerful creative force. 

From Google’s recognition of innovation at every layer of the company, through to its investment in understanding market trends and needs, we’ll give you a play-by-play of how they do it. 

First, let’s start with a look at how Google became Google. 

Humble beginnings: a simple solution to a common problem

Today, Google (or, more accurately, Alphabet) is an undisputed tech powerhouse, with quarterly revenue north of $39 billion U.S. dollars , a valuation that is heading fast towards $1 trillion , and a total global workforce just shy of 100,000. 

As of writing this post, Google captures an unbelievable 90.5% of the total search engine market share, with over 63,000 searches per second on any given day. Chances are you found this article using Google. 

Even more impressive, the average internet user conducts between three to four Google searches every single day. That’s a truly mind-blowing amount of activity. 

But before Google was a household name, the company existed to find a simple solution to a very common problem in the early days of the web: ranked search results. 

As Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin later explained in a letter to investors ahead of the company’s IPO in 2004, “our intense and enduring interest was to objectively help people find information efficiently.”

In 1996, Page and Brin were frustrated with the lack of organization on the web. They noticed weblinks were presented to users in a haphazard way, making it hard to navigate between pages and find the desired information. 

To address this problem, they combined their knowledge of mathematics and computer science to build an algorithm that recognized for the number of links to a web domain, gauged the importance of those links, and ranked the most important results first.

This simple yet powerful idea led to the release of the first version of Google in August 1996, hosted on Stanford University’s website.

google company culture case study

As the New York Times explains , this search for an elegant solution to a widespread problem is the genesis for many of the world’s most transformative companies, including the likes of Uber, Netflix, Twitter, and many more. 

So, how exactly did Google turn it’s elegant solution for ranking web pages into a network of dozens of popular and transformative products? 

It all comes down to Google’s innovation framework. 

Nine Pillars: Google’s strategic approach to innovation

For a company with such an ambitious range of products and services, it’s crucial for Google to have a focused, disciplined approach to innovation. 

That’s why Google uses a company-wide innovation strategy - its “Nine Pillars of Innovation” - to map and prioritize all innovation projects and activities, and to help guide staff creativity. 

And helpfully for us, we don’t have to guess at Google’s secret sauce: Google’s ‘Chief Brand Marketing Evangelist’ Gopi Kallayil spilled the beans at San Francisco’s Dreamforce Summit back in 2013. 

Now, here’s a quick rundown of Google’s nine principles to support company-wide innovation . 

#1): Recognize that innovation comes from anywhere 

Google recognizes a fundamental truth about innovation: it can come from anywhere, at any time, and in any form. 

So, rather than relying on creativity and inventiveness from specific teams and individuals, Google encourages employees in every part of the business to contribute their best ideas.

For example, a doctor on Google’s staff once argued that the company had a moral obligation to provide assistance and support to users searching for phrases relating to suicide and self-harm. 

Afterwards, Google adjusted its search engine to display the number for the National Suicide Prevention Hotline in response to queries like these. This led to a significant boost in calls to the hotline, with millions of people getting the help they need. 

This commitment to innovation and responsiveness at every level lets Google channel the true creative potential of its workforce , and propose solutions using a broad pool of skill, talent, and experience. 

#2): The user comes first

In searching for creative solutions to common problems, Google employees are encouraged to put the user first, and worry about profitability later. While this might sound counterintuitive, it’s precisely this attitude that has led to some of the most helpful Google products.

A great example, says Gopi Kallayil , is Google’s rollout of predictive analysis, helping users to search for things faster and with greater accuracy. 

While sales reps within the company were concerned about cutting down the time users would be viewing ads, Google committed to the idea because it was useful, and would lead to faster web navigation and a more positive user experience overall.

This approach shows the value of user-first thinking. Sometimes, the most innovative ideas or products (such as FedEx, Square, and even Tupperware ) don’t have a clear path to profitability. Putting the user first is a great way to make sure these ideas get out into the world anyway. 

#3): Aim to be ten times better

At Google, incremental improvement just isn’t good enough. Employees are encouraged to aim high, and to envision truly world-changing projects. 

We can see this ambitious ethos at work in the company’s acquisition of what would eventually become Google Maps .

In a less innovative company, the concept of making interactive maps and trip planners available online would have been a more modest project, focusing merely on making traditional paper maps available for web users.

Instead, Google set the goal of revolutionizing the way people use the web to plan trips. It built a system that would learn and improve with every single journey, and would adapt to the travel habits and preferences of each user. 

google company culture case study

Now, Google Maps is the world’s leading navigation interface , with over 154 million monthly users . In fact, the system has so thoroughly transformed the way we travel, it’s even started to undermine ‘The Knowledge’ , the elite test for London’s cab drivers.

#4): Technical insights trump market research

Google knows a key truth about innovation: technical product insights can be a lot more useful than market research. 

While there’s still a lot of utility in asking users what they want, those with the most advanced knowledge should be put in the driver’s seat. 

Perhaps the best example of this is the jewel in Google’s crown - its search engine. Over the years, Google has fine-tuned its engine not through asking users what they wanted, but through putting technically-gifted thinkers to work making incremental improvements.

There’s a great reason for this. While users and customers can give helpful advice on what they love and hate about a particular product, they lack the expertise to know what’s truly possible in product development, and to envision radical new ideas for disruptive innovations. 

google company culture case study

Of course, this isn’t to say Google ignores its users. The company still pays plenty of attention to what people want, but knows that the biggest leaps forward tend to come from those with the deepest and most comprehensive technical knowledge. 

#5): Ship and iterate

Similar to Facebook’s now abandoned credo of “move fast and break things” , Google is all about iterative progress. It pushes services and products out to customers early, then uses feedback to move step-by-step towards the best possible version. 

Rather than wait for perfection, Google recognizes that products are smoothed out through user feedback. That’s why, when it launched Chrome back in 2008 , Google opted for a learn-as-you-go approach, updating the browser every six weeks to iron out kinks. 

This iterative approach is a great way to fine-tune innovative products over time, and helps Google’s products and services to be well-suited to customer demand. It’s also a great way to avoid too much hesitation in rolling out new products.

#6): Allow employees 20% time

Just like innovation leader 3M’s 15% approach, Google gives employees 20% of their work time to pursue passion projects - even when they’re outside the core job or mission of the company. 

google company culture case study

For the company, this is an excellent way to encourage people to draw on their full range of innovative capabilities. It’s also a great way to keep employees engaged. 

Beyond this, however, the 20% time approach is a way to encourage ideas for world-changing products. In fact, many of Google’s most popular innovations, including Gmail and AdSense, originally began as 20% time projects . 

Even though some ex-Google employees have said the policy results in additional obligations for employees to innovate on top of their core job responsibilities (becoming 120% time , as one person put it), there’s still huge value in dedicating time for people to innovate.

#7): Commit to open innovation

Google has a long history of embracing the wisdom of crowds, and its run of inventive and innovative products tells us a lot about the very real benefits of this kind of open innovation.

For example, as Fast Company notes, when developing the Android platform, Google knew it needed access to the planet’s top developers to really fulfil the platform’s potential. 

Because of this, the company encouraged developers outside the company to create their own apps , forming a creative ecosystem of open innovation. The end result? The creation of over three million helpful apps for Android users. 

Even if Google didn’t benefit directly from these creative efforts, making the platform open source turned the Android interface into a much more attractive product. As with Microsoft’s promotion of MS-DOS , this helped to drive uptake and create a dedicated community of users. 

Alongside other examples such as the My Starbucks Idea platform and the LEGO Ideas portal, Google’s development of the Android platform illustrates the many upsides of embracing open innovation. 

#8): Don’t make failure a bad word

Google recognizes that not every innovation will succeed. Instead, the company cultivates an appetite for failure, seeing it as a necessary part of successful innovation. 

This has led to a famously long list of failed Google innovations , from content sharing novelty Bump! through to the often mocked headset Google Glass (which, surprisingly, might even be making a comeback now). 

google company culture case study

Rather than hiding from these missteps, Google uses every failed innovation as a chance to learn and improve. By celebrating these examples, Google helps to dispel the stigma around failure, contributing to a much more forgiving and supportive innovation culture. 

And let’s not forget, for a company as successful as Google, the odd failure is unlikely to put a dent in the company’s core profitability anyway. The Google business model is large enough to cope with the occasional mishap.  

#9): Do work that matters

Finally, Google’s innovation strategy is powered by a simple but powerful ethos: everyone at the company should do work that has a positive impact on the world.

Google employees are encouraged to draw a straight line between their day-to-day obligations and the company’s mission : “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful”. 

The company’s commitment to do work that matters isn’t just a feel-good corporate story - it gives Google employees a great reason to get out of bed in the morning and do their best work. 

Active innovation management: making the hard calls

As we’ve seen, Google isn’t afraid of trying out a bunch of radical and potentially unprofitable ideas on the journey towards transformative product innovation. This not only requires tolerance for failure - it also requires active innovation management. 

In practice, this means the company cultivates a wide pool of innovations, supports them from development through to testing and piloting, and provides them with the resources, leadership, and guidance they need to flourish. 

google company culture case study

However, Google also sets high expectations for new innovations. When projects aren’t performing as expected, or where problems arise that threaten core company values, Google isn’t afraid to make the tough calls - including suspending or even terminating these projects. 

No other example summarizes this active approach to innovation management than the decision to can Google+ in early 2019 . After struggling with low user uptake (not to mention rumours of user data breaches ), Google made the call to shutter this social network, despite knowing that doing so would attract criticism from users and commentators.

This approach to innovation management shows how, if companies want to support radical innovation, they need to make bold decisions when things aren’t going as expected. Companies must set clear performance metrics, and need to respond if these metrics aren’t met.

And Google+ isn’t the only example of Google’s courageous decisions with underperforming products - there’s also Google Wave , Google Notebook , Google Nexus , and many, many more. 

This active innovation management helps Google to avoid a classic innovation pitfall - that of pouring endless time, effort, and resources into under-performing innovations. 

Put the feedback loop to work

At Google, every step of the innovation process is rigorously documented to inform future efforts. Each innovation project forms part of a feedback loop, and performance information is mined for helpful lessons and observations. 

In practice, this requires researchers and product teams to work closely at each stage of project development, collaborating on better ways to do things. The company’s Google Brain team is perhaps the best example of this, capturing project information from across the company.

google company culture case study

The Google Brain team’s collection of innovation feedback and performance has led to key improvements in core Google products , such as the Gmail Smart Reply feature, and the expansion of Google Translate to cover over 100 languages. 

In practice, you don’t need to invest in anything quite as fancy as deep learning or AI to put the innovation feedback loop to work. All you need is to capture the lessons learned in launching a new innovation and actively look for ways to improve future innovations as a result.

The Blue Ocean approach: creating new markets

In addition to providing a range of popular tools in competitive markets (such as email servers, online calendars, and team collaboration tools), Google also dedicates a lot of time and effort to Blue Ocean innovation - the discovery of uncontested markets. 

Defined by writers W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne, Blue Ocean innovation refers to products in markets with little to no competitors. Rather than have to pit a product against a range of others, Blue Ocean innovation introduces products to suit new market needs.

google company culture case study

A nice example of this Blue Ocean strategy at work is Google’s decision to capture hiking routes and information as part of Google Maps , and to promote these experiences to web users interested in the outdoors. 

While there are plenty of other hiking guides out there, incorporating hiking trails into an existing online travel planner is an example of an uncontested market. By offering this service, Google doesn’t have to deal with any competition for advertising revenue. 

Embracing future thinking

Google has had an amazing 20-year run of shaping how we experience the internet. But as we look ahead to the next decade of Google services, what can we expect from the company?

Throughout Google’s history, the company has set itself apart by committing to simple, elegant solutions that stand the test of time. As we’ve seen, by adopting an iterative approach to innovation, Google makes sure its products keep up with market tastes and demands. 

Now, however, the range of technical and ethical questions Google needs to consider are bigger than ever. 

Google is grappling with questions around data manipulation , the use of bots to frame public debate, and the worrying tendency for web users to see search results as infallible . There are also questions around the role of AI and machine learning in shaping our online experiences.

In this environment, Google’s future-focused approach to innovation is crucial to staying relevant and conserving public trust. Google must make sure its products stay fit-for-purpose in a changing world, and must keep a close eye on consumer trends and preferences.

Is Google too powerful?

As an innovative force shaping the tech world, Google faces a problem not faced by many other companies: is the company too big, too influential, and too powerful?

google company culture case study

With the company handling 90.5% of the world’s web searches, it’s a fair question to ask. And with an increasing awareness of the tricky ethics around data use and privacy considerations on the web, some users are wondering if they might trust Google a little too much .

Google’s size, and its dominance over so much web activity, does lead to a bunch of interesting questions: Can Google ever be truly accountable to its users? Is the company too big to be effectively regulated? And do governments need a new way to think about tech monopolies? 

As one New York Times writer puts it , some companies “can no longer be understood in terms of former competitors or current peers - because they don’t really have any.” Google definitely fits in this category, along with Silicon Valley neighbours Apple and Facebook.

For now, Google’s position at the front of the pack doesn’t seem to be slowing down the company’s rate of innovation, or the extent to which these innovations are shaping the world. 

Innovation tips from the big players

When it comes to innovation, there’s nothing more informative and illuminating than studying the habits, techniques, and disciplines of the big players. 

And what better case study to teach the value of innovation than Google? 

After all, there are good reasons why Google routinely tops the lists of the world’s most innovative companies . The Silicon Valley giant has been at the forefront of digital innovation for two decades now, with no signs of slowing down. 

With Google’s relentlessly innovative approach to product development, it’s willingness to use future thinking to analyze problems and opportunities, and its bold capturing of uncontested markets, it’s not hard to see why this tech powerhouse remains so dominant. 

So, take a look at Google’s ‘Nine Pillars of Innovation’, its active approach to innovation management, and its use of the feedback loop. Then, think about how you could borrow a little bit of the company’s recipe for creativity in your own business.

google company culture case study

Jonathan Livescault

Former Strategy Consultant turned Entrepreneur. Excited to help every day corporate innovation teams get results and build their company's future.

Linkedin

Want to fix your innovation engine and deliver results now?

Latest articles.

Everything You Need to Build a Culture of Innovation

Everything You Need to Build a Culture of Innovation

In this post, we will have a look at what you need to create and foster a lasting innovation culture in your company.

The Ultimate Guide to Innovation Management

The Ultimate Guide to Innovation Management

This guide sets out the what, why, and how of innovation management. You’ll find key terms, common management strategies, and excellent examples of innovation in action.

How to Develop an Efficient Innovation Strategy

How to Develop an Efficient Innovation Strategy

We cover everything you need to develop an efficient innovation strategy. Read-on!

Google Boosts its Employees’ Engagement

Case Study: How Google Boosts its Employees’ Engagement

You might have heard about this mantra: ‘happy employees produce better results.’ this is the mindset of google to keep its employees productive and satisfied. this article explains more..

Let’s say you’re a company providing software development services . If your developer’s team isn’t enthusiastic about their projects every day, you’re not going to achieve excellence. This is productivity’s power. But remember productivity is dependent on the company’s culture.

Why is everyone talking about Google’s culture or work environment? We know that Google is one of the most influential and powerful companies around the globe. The company follows a pretty well unique culture instead of corporate culture.

It has something that every big organisation needs to follow to level up their employees’ engagement or morale. The culture of any company is vital to its success and Google is perfectly right on the track.

It has one sole purpose:  Keep the employees happy and keep up the productivity.

Google has been at number ONE place from the past six years and featured on  Fortune’s  annual list of  ‘Best Companies to Work For.’  And this is not it. Google has also been named as the tech company with the best culture. (Reported by Forbes) Furthermore, Google has a 4.4 rating on  Glassdoor  based on 6000+ employees reviews.   

Google’s morale

This is what the employees of Google answered the questions asked about their work culture.

  • Acknowledged for the efforts?

Yes: 61 % Employees

Improve your employee engagement

Get started for free today.

No: 39% Employees

  • Job Security?

Very Secure: 34 % Employees

Neutral: 19% Employees

Insecure: 8% Employees

Very insecure: 5% Employees

  • Work Environment?

Positive: 85% Employees

Negative: 15% Employees

  • Excited about going to work daily?

Yes: 80% Employees

No: 20% Employees

So, without further ado, let’s move towards the ways Google uses to boost its employees’ engagement .

“There are way easier places to work, but nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week. But if you love what you do, it (mostly) doesn’t feel like work.”- Elon Musk.

How Google Keeps Its Employees Productive And Engaged?

Exclusive perks.

Today, employees want a job in a company that makes them love what they do. Never for financial benefit or intellectual recognition. Yet instead of chance to add to the common good.

The major differentiator is to make a real difference.

Google offers different perks to its employees to show them that they are not only investing in their overall health but their future as well.

  • Chef-prepared free organic food (breakfast, lunch, and dinner);
  • Free dental and health checkup;
  • Free and unlimited dry cleaning;
  • Subsidised massages;
  • Several foosball, ping pong, video games stations;
  • On-site physicians;
  • Gyms/swimming pools memberships;
  • Free haircuts from professional hairdressers;
  • In-house nap pods;
  • Death benefits to deceased employees’ families, and;
  • Hybrid car subsidies.

Flexibility

Google has been one of the very first companies that had a vision of understanding the employees’ needs. It lets its workers have a flexible schedule so that they can work on their terms and enhance creativity and productivity. They have given their employees complete freedom to work in a way that is most suitable to them.

Knowing the employees well

Google had gone through a series of laboratory tests to figure out the productivity of their employees. They had four different experiments that included 700 participants. All the employees were treated to free drinks, fruits, and chocolates or shown a comedy movie clip.

They also enquired some of the participants about the family tragedies as a part of their assessment. After this, they found that happiness is the reason for 12% more productivity.

Google promotes an innovative and diverse organisational culture that has been a part of its employee’s life. A positive creative atmosphere and a safe working space offered by Google to its workers keep them comfortable and happy at work. The concept that being a part of Google is about being smart and wise encourages the employees to think openly and keeps them productive.

Nowadays, there are different creative coworking spaces which are known to be a perfect alternate to a workplace. These spaces are believed to deliver various advantages such as strong networking and increased engagement.

Google’s founders were researchers who had a belief in innovation and freedom of thinking. This is one of the main factors that influenced the style of Google’s leadership.

According to Brassfield, 2013, a positive leadership style stimulates inspiring and motivating employees to develop innovative ideas and inventions.

Keeping people inspired

Future Workplace, in 2017, demonstrated in a study that one of the biggest threats to employees’ engagement is employee burnout. It has also been found out that many proficient workers are often overburdened with the tasks that lead to halted innovation, incomplete work, etc.

What does Google do about keeping its employees productive, inspired, or motivated? Google’s strategy for this is  20% time . Every employee devours up to 20% of his time at work each week on ventures that inspire him.

This concept inspires employees as it allows them to concentrate on things they love or are passionate about. It can prevent burnout, decrease turnover, increase engagement.

Google tablet

Image: Pexels

Career development

Google provides an extensive professional growth program that is successful and creative and guarantees long-term performance for all the employees. The career development program of Google is one that ensures incentives are provided to employees to meet their professional and personal progression.

Google has adopted a unique way to promote the professional development of all its employees. CareerGuru  is a career coaching that provides all the details to the employees by Google’s leaders about working at a specific role in the company.

Creativity Encouragement

The companies that believe in fostering a culture of creativity have happy, satisfied, and motivated employees. Google leads the way in promoting creativity in their employees.

They are free to express their ideas as a solution to any problem. Moreover, employees are encouraged to work wherever they are comfortable in the workplace. Google has a set up where rather than just considering an applicant’s professional background, they look to recruit people who are normally inquisitive and fond of learning.

Trusting Employees

Google believes in trusting their workers because trusted employees feel more valuable. It can also boost the sense of job satisfaction and can also decrease the rate of staff turnover.

In a survey by PwC, reliable employees are 76% more engaged in their work than those in a low trusting environment. Trusted employees are happier and they have the urge to go the extra miles.

Culture based on qualitative data

Google has always been searching out different ways to optimise the performance of its employees while ensuring their happiness and satisfaction. Everything done at Google is based on real data. They use the qualitative and quantitative facts to set up processes and every single rule that is streamlined.

Google has additionally performed researches to discover how much paid time off new mothers would need and ways of building an improvised and better culture.

Fun workplace

Have you ever been allowed to design your own workstation at your company?

Probably not. But Google does it. It lets the employees design their desks or workstations.

When you see the pictures of the workplace, it seems an interesting adult play and work area and not a dull and lifeless space.

Google has always tried to push the boundaries of its workspace.

Collaboration of coworkers

At Google, the employees are urged to collaborate. They have a program called ‘Googler to Googler’ to keep them productive and promote skills such as management, public speaking, orientation, or extracurricular activities.

It is crucial to build a sense of community to create a positive culture. The company has arranged several micro kitchens around the whole workspace where coworkers can have a little chit-chat session. No one has to spend time on deciding where to eat because Google has various break-out spaces for lunch.

Google’s way of listening

Google employees have developed great software and projects that include Gmail, AdSense, Google News, etc. and all these big projects were originated because of its staff productivity approach. Google has a way of collecting employees’ feedback and listening to their suggestions that is  gDNA.

  • The employees utilise a device ‘Google Moderator’ , the result of 20% time strategy, to inquire about something and vote on inquiries of others;
  • The company holds a meeting, every Friday, where the managers react to the most famous inquiries of the week;
  • Leaders or managers utilise a charting instrument called Google-O-Meter to measure the prominence of various worker bits of advice;
  • Leaders likewise plan “Fixits” to comprehend huge, critical issues; and,
  • Fixits are 24-hour runs where team members give their full focus around discovering solutions for explicit issues.

So, can Google teach us anything?

If you are planning to adopt these learnings at your organisation just like Google keeps its employees productive, it’s essential to test the progressions first and measure the results.

It’s a great deal of work, however, the engagement advantages will make the difficult function admirably justified.

About the Author

Usman Akram is a digital marketer and SEO specialist who’s passionate about experimenting and discovering new SEO tactics and strategies to dominate search rankings while bringing an unmatched user-experience. As of now Usman is serving Buzz Interactive , a leading digital marketing agency as the head of SEO.

Post navigation

Google: Organizational Culture & Company Values — Organizational Culture Essay

This Google organizational culture case study analyzes the Google business culture from the management theory perspective. It considers the company’s corporate values and their benefits and problems. What is Google’s organizational culture? As this analysis shows, it focuses on a comfortable working environment and employee reward and recognition. This essay also provides details on issues facing the organisational culture of Google, such as discriminatory recruiting practices. Check it out to get inspiration for your paper.

Organizational Culture Essay: Introduction

Google company: culture and values.

  • Google’s Organizational Culture: Leadership

Organizational Culture at Google: Analysis of Problems

Organizational culture of google: conclusion, reference list.

Culture is the behaviors, values, and beliefs shared by a group of people or an organization. Culture is symbolic and it is used by a company to unify its employees (Bijur, 2001). Some people might mistake culture with the ideals, mission, or vision the company has laid out to market its products, however, culture is expressed in the daily practices, beliefs as well as communications, and for a culture to be strong it should be internally consistent, clear and widely shared (Schein, 2001).

Organizational culture applied in Google Company was established by the founders of the company, Page, and Sergey, they wanted to create a company that was fun to work from (Chaynes et al, 2009). This led them to recruit young employees in the Company; the two set their employees free by allowing them to come with their pets at work and constructing recreational facilities for them at work. This culture grew strong in Google and was common among employees.

In any organization, culture is streamlined by the leaders of the organization and the purpose of the company. The organizational culture is established in a setting that has high leadership values and high-performance expectations (Schein, 2001). After establishing the first culture, a company can choose to alter it by designing it according to its variables, experiences, style on management and leadership (Schein, 2001). During culture development, it can be influenced by a company’s integrity, effectiveness and sometimes its competitiveness.

Looking at Google’s culture, it is seen that the culture is influenced by innovation and mission as well as its call for fun; this is seen through its artifacts such as values, management style, organizational structure, and Googleplex. By including creativity in its culture, Google has managed to maintain its competitiveness in the market; this is because Google operates in an industry that is dynamic with changes being recorded each day (Chaynes et al, 2009).

Its choice to include mission and fun has helped the company to attract young people from universities and colleges who are intelligent and whose mind is still creative; young people enjoy having fun and as they work their creativity puts Google as a company on top. All its success is owed to the success of the company’s organizational culture created by Page and Sergey. The Company’s culture should help an organization to improve its relations with the community and other companies (Chaynes et al, 2009). This has been demonstrated by Google Company culture by emerging as a communal organization with a high level of solidarity and sociability.

Google’s culture focuses on a comfortable working environment for the employees; a company with employees that are free to express themselves and are involved in the Company’s decision making produce more results and are always committed to their work. Google Company has a culture that is well understood by its employees; this culture gives each employee a comfortable working condition by allowing them to arrange their offices according to their taste and preference (Chaynes et al, 2009). This freedom that is given to them leads to their increased performance and hence the success of the company. The employees at Google are also given the freedom to work on the project of their choice, making them deliver better results; this is attributed to Google culture.

The way a company rewards its workers is another aspect of organizational culture; this aspect does not include the company’s reward and recognition programs but includes the reason for rewarding employees. The things the company pays more attention to choose people who they feel deserves a reward; this aspect is different from what the company says or strives to do (Giles, 2000). Employees who are appreciated are vibrant and always work hard towards the company’s mission.

In the case of Google Company, it offers financial rewards to its employees, and this has helped the company to retain its employees and shield them from its competitors (Chaynes et al, 2009). Following the reward imposition, the Company’s employees do not think of leaving the company; they concentrate more on working towards the mission of the organization. Talented employees from other companies such as Microsoft leave their companies to join Google; an example is Microsoft Executive, Kai-Fu Lee who joined Google from Microsoft.

Google’s Organizational Culture: Leadership

Companies should also understand that a good organizational culture includes good leadership practices. A company requires a leader that is strong and understands the company’s goals and objectives and has the power to achieve the desired results (Borgatti, 1996). A leader can only achieve this through modeling the desired behavior in others, and instill in others, values that direct them towards realizing the set vision; motivate others to work towards a company’s mission; create an environment that encourages sharing of strategies and ideas that are directed to achieve the required results; present to others goals that are clear and unambiguous and ensure constant communication (McNamara, 2001).

Goleman proposes six different styles of leadership, which positively influences the company results. These leadership styles include coaching, pacesetting, democratic, authoritative, affiliative and Coercive. Google utilizes an affiliative style of leadership; it has created an open atmosphere where each employee is free to communicate and share his or her ideas with the other employees (Chaynes et al, 2009). This style of leadership has increased the flexibility and productivity of employees. Google also utilizes authoritative leadership; in this style of leadership, Google leaders give employees the freedom to develop new ideas, innovate and test and experiment on the viability of their ideas, but leads them towards the company’s vision (Chaynes et al, 2009).

The employees are put in groups where they work with complete freedom; this style of leadership makes employees feel useful to the company. Google also encourages collaboration by allowing employees to share ideas on the development of new products. Google also use the democratic style of leadership; the company involves its employees in decision making concerning goal achievement and other issues that are not sensitive (Alon et al, 2005). This kind of leadership employed by Google Company is directed to improve the working conditions of employees and increase their performance, and with this leadership, Google expects permanent growth.

Culture is dynamic; it is sometimes effective and ineffective under certain circumstances; there is generally no good culture. Google Company has demonstrated this through its subculture; the culture of this company is considered to be strong and praised for its flexibility (Chaynes et al, 2009). However, Google’s culture deviated from this fact; in 2004, Google’s director of operations filed a complaint: he was fired unjustly. His dismissal was based on the reason that he was not in-line with the Company’s culture when he claimed to be one of the youth.

In this case, Google was following its culture of having employees that are young and creative (Alon et al, 2005). On the other hand, the director of operations was right because the culture was discriminating against employees in terms of age, which is wrong according to the law, and if the case is filed in court he would win the case. Google created this culture to achieve its goals; however, the culture was going against human rights and fight against discrimination. Following the incident, there is no doubt that this part of Google’s culture needs to be changed.

Recruitment of employees has always raised issues in a company, and for a company with good relations with its employees and the public, it should employ an organizational culture that encourages a transparent recruitment process. Google considers its employees as special people and when recruiting, they simply take the best. Google focuses on the intelligence of recruits; they leave out emotional intelligence claiming that the candidates can gain emotional intelligence while in the company (Alon et al, 2005). Google believes that through open communication which is incorporated within the company’s culture the employees will gain and maintain emotional intelligence (Chaynes et al, 2009).

A candidate who has high or average emotional intelligence has skills that are necessary for leadership and each level in an organization requires leadership. Google has taken care of many issues in its organizational culture; however, the issue of recruitment of employees has not been adequately handled (Chaynes et al, 2009). Google should understand that analytical intelligence is just a part of one’s intelligence, employees should also be in a position to manage their emotions as well as cope and understand fellow employees’ and customers’ emotions; therefore, this part of intelligence cannot be overlooked.

Google should consider incorporating emotional and cultural intelligence in recruitment instead of focusing only on analytical intelligence. Google employs leadership styles that create a good working environment, thus impacting the Company’s performance, this is a great move because other leadership styles such as Coercive and pacesetting impact employees working environment negatively (Chaynes et al, 2009). However, for Google to maintain its good leaders and leadership styles it should support emotional intelligence; this is because leadership has different components and for successful leadership leaders should have most of these components (Alon et al, 2005). These components include emotional intelligence, cultural intelligence analytical intelligence as well as motivation.

Google’s recruitment process creates doubts about the kind of leadership used in the company; the question is that “is the leading healthy?” The leadership of Google, allows managers to discuss issues with their team, however, each employee deals with the problems individually; this means that each employee is his or her boss and no reference is made to the boss (Chaynes, 2009). Since the beginning of the company, employees worked in teams, with each team member being equal when it came to making decisions concerning the company.

This increased levels of innovation and product varieties and led to the success of the company. The open atmosphere was highly encouraged among employees and management structures were overlooked and the company still focuses on improving working conditions in teams with each member having the same influence (Goleman, 2000). Google has used teams to create and invent new thoughts, and this idea was established by the founders of the company. This developed to be a strong organizational culture; Google led the way and other companies followed (Alon et al, 2005).

Google Company is known to be a powerful company, and its future is predicted to be more powerful. Google has been increasing its benefits year after year; it has never been turned over by other companies because of the loyalty of its employees (Chaynes et al, 2009). The company poses an important artifact: Googleplex; this gives employees free food, sports, and pleasure, and since most of Google employees are young they enjoy such services. All these advantages makes Google the company to be more successful.

However, according to the critics of Google, the company’s culture and leadership can contribute to its downfall if it is not changed for the better (Chaynes et al, 2009). The culture of free employees has made the Google employees to be disrespectful; they come late for meetings, disrupt presentation by talking. The free culture has also made them to be more arrogant.

According to the critics, Google advertises itself by painting a good image but in the real sense, its image is not good. Its recruitment process, despite ignoring emotional intelligence, it also ignores applicants’ experience; they only focus on the academic records and ranks (Alon et al, 2005).

Google’s organizational culture is strong and it helps the company to achieve its goal and improve its performance, however, Google is challenged to improve on its leadership and change its recruitment process. The future might change and if its culture is not flexible enough, then all its success achieved over the years might go down the drain in one flash.

Alon, I. et al. (2005). Global leadership success through emotional and cultural intelligences. Business horizons , vol 48 issue 6, pp. 501-512.

Bijur, L. (2001). Changing the Corporate Culture: A Competitive Imperative . Web.

Borgatti, P. (1996). Organizational Culture . Web.

Chaynes, L. et al. (2009). Google . Web.

Giles, R. (2000). Identifying and Influencing Organizational Culture . Web.

Goleman, D. (2000). Leadership that gets results. Harvad business review , vol.78, issue 2, pp.72-90.

McNamara, C. (2001). Organizational Culture. Web.

McNamara, C. (2001). Creating Quantum Change . Web.

Schein, E. (2001). Organizational Culture and Leadership . Web.

Cite this paper

  • Chicago (N-B)
  • Chicago (A-D)

StudyCorgi. (2020, December 22). Google: Organizational Culture & Company Values — Organizational Culture Essay. Retrieved from https://studycorgi.com/google-company-organizational-culture/

StudyCorgi. (2020, December 22). Google: Organizational Culture & Company Values — Organizational Culture Essay. https://studycorgi.com/google-company-organizational-culture/

"Google: Organizational Culture & Company Values — Organizational Culture Essay." StudyCorgi , 22 Dec. 2020, studycorgi.com/google-company-organizational-culture/.

1. StudyCorgi . "Google: Organizational Culture & Company Values — Organizational Culture Essay." December 22, 2020. https://studycorgi.com/google-company-organizational-culture/.

Bibliography

StudyCorgi . "Google: Organizational Culture & Company Values — Organizational Culture Essay." December 22, 2020. https://studycorgi.com/google-company-organizational-culture/.

StudyCorgi . 2020. "Google: Organizational Culture & Company Values — Organizational Culture Essay." December 22, 2020. https://studycorgi.com/google-company-organizational-culture/.

StudyCorgi . (2020) 'Google: Organizational Culture & Company Values — Organizational Culture Essay'. 22 December.

This paper, “Google: Organizational Culture & Company Values — Organizational Culture Essay”, was written and voluntary submitted to our free essay database by a straight-A student. Please ensure you properly reference the paper if you're using it to write your assignment.

Before publication, the StudyCorgi editorial team proofread and checked the paper to make sure it meets the highest standards in terms of grammar, punctuation, style, fact accuracy, copyright issues, and inclusive language. Last updated: August 26, 2023 .

If you are the author of this paper and no longer wish to have it published on StudyCorgi, request the removal . Please use the “ Donate your paper ” form to submit an essay.

Module 11: Making Decisions

11.6 optional case study: decision-making culture of google.

Figure 11.1

google company culture case study

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Googleplex_Welcome_Sign.jpg by Ardo191.

Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) is one of the best-known and most admired companies around the world, so much so that “googling” is the term many use to refer to searching information on the Web. What started out as a student project by two Stanford University graduates—Larry Page and Sergey Brin—in 1996, Google became the most frequently used Web search engine on the Internet with 1 billion searches per day in 2009, as well as other innovative applications such as Gmail, Google Earth, Google Maps, and Picasa. Google grew from 10 employees working in a garage in Palo Alto to 10,000 employees operating around the world by 2009. What is the formula behind this success?

Google strives to operate based on solid principles that may be traced back to its founders. In a world crowded with search engines, they were probably the first company that put users first. Their mission statement summarizes their commitment to end-user needs: “To organize the world’s information and to make it universally accessible and useful.” While other companies were focused on marketing their sites and increasing advertising revenues, Google stripped the search page of all distractions and presented users with a blank page consisting only of a company logo and a search box. Google resisted pop-up advertising, because the company felt that it was annoying to end-users. They insisted that all their advertisements would be clearly marked as “sponsored links.” This emphasis on improving user experience and always putting it before making more money in the short term seems to have been critical to their success.

Keeping their employees happy is also a value they take to heart. Google created a unique work environment that attracts, motivates, and retains the best players in the field. Google was ranked as the number 1 “Best Place to Work For” by Fortune magazine in 2007 and number 4 in 2010. This is not surprising if one looks closer to how Google treats employees. On their Mountain View, California, campus called the “Googleplex,” employees are treated to free gourmet food options including sushi bars and espresso stations. In fact, many employees complain that once they started working for Google, they tend to gain 10 to 15 pounds! Employees have access to gyms, shower facilities, video games, on-site child care, and doctors. Google provides 4 months of paternal leave with 75% of full pay and offers $500 for take-out meals for families with a newborn. These perks create a place where employees feel that they are treated well and their needs are taken care of. Moreover, they contribute to the feeling that they are working at a unique and cool place that is different from everywhere else they may have worked.

In addition, Google encourages employee risk taking and innovation. How is this done? When a vice president in charge of the company’s advertising system made a mistake costing the company millions of dollars and apologized for the mistake, she was commended by Larry Page, who congratulated her for making the mistake and noting that he would rather run a company where they are moving quickly and doing too much, as opposed to being too cautious and doing too little. This attitude toward acting fast and accepting the cost of resulting mistakes as a natural consequence of working on the cutting edge may explain why the company is performing much ahead of competitors such as Microsoft and Yahoo! One of the current challenges for Google is to expand to new fields outside of their Web search engine business. To promote new ideas, Google encourages all engineers to spend 20% of their time working on their own ideas.

Google’s culture is reflected in their decision making as well. Decisions at Google are made in teams. Even the company management is in the hands of a triad: Larry Page and Sergey Brin hired Eric Schmidt to act as the CEO of the company, and they are reportedly leading the company by consensus. In other words, this is not a company where decisions are made by the senior person in charge and then implemented top down. It is common for several small teams to attack each problem and for employees to try to influence each other using rational persuasion and data. Gut feeling has little impact on how decisions are made. In some meetings, people reportedly are not allowed to say “I think…” but instead must say “the data suggest….” To facilitate teamwork, employees work in open office environments where private offices are assigned only to a select few. Even Kai-Fu Lee, the famous employee whose defection from Microsoft was the target of a lawsuit, did not get his own office and shared a cubicle with two other employees.

How do they maintain these unique values? In a company emphasizing hiring the smartest people, it is very likely that they will attract big egos that may be difficult to work with. Google realizes that its strength comes from its “small company” values that emphasize risk taking, agility, and cooperation. Therefore, they take their hiring process very seriously. Hiring is extremely competitive and getting to work at Google is not unlike applying to a college. Candidates may be asked to write essays about how they will perform their future jobs. Recently, they targeted potential new employees using billboards featuring brain teasers directing potential candidates to a Web site where they were subjected to more brain teasers. Each candidate may be interviewed by as many as eight people on several occasions. Through this scrutiny, they are trying to select “Googley” employees who will share the company’s values, perform at high levels, and be liked by others within the company.

Will this culture survive in the long run? It may be too early to tell, given that the company was only founded in 1998. The founders emphasized that their initial public offering (IPO) would not change their culture and they would not introduce more rules or change the way things are done in Google to please Wall Street. But can a public corporation really act like a start-up? Can a global giant facing scrutiny on issues including privacy, copyright, and censorship maintain its culture rooted in its days in a Palo Alto garage? Larry Page is quoted as saying, “We have a mantra: don’t be evil, which is to do the best things we know how for our users, for our customers, for everyone. So I think if we were known for that, it would be a wonderful thing.”

Discussion Questions

  • Do you think Google’s decision-making culture will help or hurt Google in the long run?
  • What are the factors responsible for the specific culture that exists in Google?
  • What type of decision-making approach has Google taken? Do you think this will remain the same over time? Why or why not?
  • Do you see any challenges Google may face in the future because of its emphasis on risk taking?
  • An Introduction to Organizational Behavior. Authored by : Anonymous. Provided by : Anonymous. Located at : http://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/an-introduction-to-organizational-behavior-v1.1/ . License : CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike

Footer Logo Lumen Candela

Privacy Policy

HBR.ORG - Prod

  • Global Research Group

Leadership & Managing People

Culture at Google ^ 320050

Culture at Google

google company culture case study

Culture at Google ^ 320050

Want to buy more than 1 copy? Contact: [email protected]

Product Description

Publication Date: March 04, 2020

Beginning in 2017, technology (tech) company Google faced a series of employee-relations issues that threatened its unique culture of innovation and open communication. Issues included protests surrounding Google's contracts with the U.S. government, restrictions of employee speech, mistreatment of contract and temporary workers, allegations of sexual misconduct and gender inequality, and claims of retaliation against labor organizing. While Google employees felt an obligation to dissent against morally questionable practices, embodying the company's informal motto "don't be evil," the company struggled to respond to employees' concerns while preserving its unique culture.

google company culture case study

This Product Also Appears In

Buy together, related products.

Google to Alphabet: Two Job Opportunities ^ 116046

Google to Alphabet: Two Job Opportunities

How to challenge google (and win).

Google Energy Shifts into Renewables ^ W92C26

Google Energy Shifts into Renewables

Copyright permissions.

If you'd like to share this PDF, you can purchase copyright permissions by increasing the quantity.

Order for your team and save!

Google Case Study: SWOT Analysis

Looking for a case study on Google? The essay below focuses on SWOT analysis of Google’s strategic management. Get inspired to make your own case study of Google company with us!

Google Case Study: Defining the Issue

Google business strategy analysis, swot analysis of google company, google case study: solution & recommendations.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin created Google in 1998 during their college days at Stanford University. Over the last one decade, Google has grown into a globally acknowledged market force for its service provision, business model, efforts in development of technology, and human life influence.

Since inception of internet and development of information technology, Google’s record is impressive in the way it has charmed people regardless of their ethnic, religious, and political affiliations.

The company has also reached out to different social and economic classes across the world through its numerous products.

Google identifies among the leading search engines available in the world market. Its reliability in terms of matching results and simple design of their website has attracted a respectable fraction of global population, which is increasingly warming up to the contemporary world of internet.

Some of the main competitors of Google are Yahoo, Amazon, MSN and Bing. Google has managed to fight off competition from these companies to command close to 85% of internet searches.

In 2005, Google’s search engine was the best performing product from the company ahead of email services. Other products by Google include Google profiles, Google maps, Google talk, Google gadgets and Google trends.

This essay will analyze Google’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It will also identify and discuss Google’s business strategy and organizational culture.

Google has demonstrated how fast a business can grow if it develops an effective operational strategy, and an inclusive corporate culture. In 2000, a company that started with two individuals grew fast to include a workforce of 60 workers.

Google has a business strategy that aims to help penetrate major global economies by providing products and services that meet primary needs of their customers. Google provides its services in America, Europe, Asia, and other parts of the world through ten other languages apart from English.

Google’s corporate values and business strategy help to promote innovation within its workforce, thus the company’s rapid growth.

Through innovations such as Google toolbar browser, keyword-targeted advertising, and expansion of search capabilities to include 28 languages, the company earned a annual revenue of $86 million for the 2001 fiscal year.

This figure was very high compared to their annual revenue of $220,000 two years earlier.

The company’s Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Eric Schmidt was definitely doing his job effectively. He managed to build a corporate culture for Google, which has made it a striking, favorable, fitting, and exquisite place to work.

It promotes cultural and talent diversity in its workforce. It also nurtures a spirit of togetherness among workers.

The inclusive nature of the work environment at Google motivates employees towards achieving organizational goals, as they develop a certain level of attachment to activities and processes within the company.

Google has developed its business model along this culture, thus the reason it stands out from its competitors. The focus of their business model is to improve access to information by providing quality, reliable and effective means of doing so.

This is a management tool used by organizations to make decisions through assessment of organizational structure and corporate culture. It entails identifying internal strengths and weaknesses of an organization, as well as external opportunities and threats.

The cardinal focus of applying SWOT analysis in an organization is to build on strengths, do away with weaknesses, take hold of available opportunities, and respond to possible threats.

Google has several internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as opportunities and threats from the external environment.

A strength that has enhanced Google’s fast growth is an effective market strategy. The market strategy applied by Google entails innovation, a large portfolio of products, broad market coverage, and effective marketing.

Google has created a global customer base covering various types of customers of varied age, social and economic class, as well as political and religious affiliations.

The second strength is good human resource planning and management strategies. Google has demonstrated strong ability to create a cohesive and inclusive work environment that helps maintain high employee morale.

They have effective employee motivation and retention strategies that include good remuneration packages and workplace benefits.

The third strength is effective change management strategies. Innovation creates need for regular change implementation at Google, and it has effectively managed to introduce without compromising its corporate culture.

Other notable strengths of Google include effective leadership and management strategies, financial stability, customer goodwill, and a strong corporate culture.

The first weakness is poor recruitment strategies. The human resource department at Google receives numerous applications from potential employees from various parts of the world.

Google ignores these applications because its owners prefer to hire graduates from Stanford University, their alma mater.

This strategy locks out very qualified and competent individuals who could bring a new dimension into Google’s way of conducting business.

The second weakness is poor implementation of employee retention strategies. Although the company has developed strategies for reducing employee turnover, poor implementation has forced some top managers to leave and join their competitors.

When employees leave and join a competitor, the competitor most likely counters their efforts in the market.

The third weakness is unreliable partnerships. Google formed numerous partnerships with many companies in a bid to increase its market share. Some of these partnerships failed to fulfill their desired potential, leading to poor management of some portfolios.

Opportunities

The outside environment offers Google numerous opportunities that can be exploited to improve stability in the market.

The first opportunity is to integrate its services with computer software in order to attract more users. This means that Google can form partnerships with computer software developers like Microsoft to have their products integrated during production.

Google plans to launch an operating system called chrome that will enable it compete effectively with companies such as Microsoft.

Although it will be challenging to convince people to try out a new operating system for their personal computers, Google can look up to its operating system for smart phones that has been a huge success. This will motivate them to go ahead with the launch.

The operating system is cost effective, reliable and its usability suits needs of many internet users. This is an opportunity Google can exploit and stamp its control of the internet service market.

Other opportunities include expansion of global market presence, integration of research and development skill in its activities, as well as development of new business partnerships for growth of its brand.

The first threat is Google’s inability to provide enough motivation to part time employees who work on various projects. Many of these employees do not receive allowances and this might derail their human resource development strategies.

The second threat is court battles instigated by its major competitors. Yahoo, Amazon, and Microsoft among other companies have filed a case to stop Google from digitizing and getting exclusive rights for the concept of online advertising.

The third threat faced by Google is the dynamic nature of competition in the industry. There is need for increased innovation to ensure that the company does not lose its market leadership to emerging competitors.

Google needs to apply certain approaches to ensure that it makes the best out of its strengths, do away with weaknesses, seize available opportunities, and eliminate all threats from the external environment.

The first recommendation is need for Google to further reflect on its mission statement and develop it. It is important for Google to know that all their competitors are seeking to provide the best services on the market. Thus, it needs to rethink how it can maintain its market leadership.

The second recommendation is that Google needs to reorient its organizational structure and culture to promote development of its brand. Google needs to develop effective strategies for change management, which is an effective tool for organizational success.

Thirdly, Google needs to revise its recruitment strategy to include graduates from other institutions who can provide an extra dimension to its organizational development.

Google currently applies a strategy that its founders started, of picking their employees from Stanford University, as they believe its graduates have the essential competencies.

Maintaining market leadership is a function of human resource management that involves applying effective recruitment strategies.

Employee recruitment entails developing an attractive remuneration and benefits package for all workers. This helps to reduce employee turnover because they will be satisfied and motivated to work.

  • Chicago (A-D)
  • Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2023, October 29). Google Case Study: SWOT Analysis. https://ivypanda.com/essays/google-case-study-analysis/

"Google Case Study: SWOT Analysis." IvyPanda , 29 Oct. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/google-case-study-analysis/.

IvyPanda . (2023) 'Google Case Study: SWOT Analysis'. 29 October.

IvyPanda . 2023. "Google Case Study: SWOT Analysis." October 29, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/google-case-study-analysis/.

1. IvyPanda . "Google Case Study: SWOT Analysis." October 29, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/google-case-study-analysis/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Google Case Study: SWOT Analysis." October 29, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/google-case-study-analysis/.

  • Google Company Analysis
  • Google LLC: SWOT and PEST Analyses
  • Google Company's Alliances
  • Google Chrome SWOT Analysis
  • Quality management
  • Google Glass Product: Operations Strategy
  • Google's view on the future of business
  • Microsoft AG: SWOT Analysis
  • Google Company Overview
  • Motion LTD: SWOT Analysis
  • Apple Company: Strategical Management Analysis
  • Eastman Kodak Company and Fujifilm
  • Soulo Karaoke Brand Strategies
  • Tata Group Goes Worldwide: Growth Through Acquisition
  • Communications and Media: Case Study of Google Company
  • Do Not Sell My Personal Info

Download Your Copy

  •  ⋅ 

Google Case Study Reveals Search Console Evolution Via APIs

Google case study shows how APIs can change what it means to use Search Console and evolve how it's accessed in the future

New Google case study shows how Search Console APIs allows data to be reviewed and manipulated within a CMS or a proprietary SEO dashboard. While the article is a case study, a call to action at the end of the article reveals how Google is using APIs to transform search console from a SaaS to a data stream that can be manipulated in the GUI of your choice.

Application Programming Interface (API)

API is a widely used technology that acts as a bridge between two applications that enables one to manipulate the other. It’s use is everywhere, particularly in WordPress where an API can allow a plugin to access and manipulate the website information contained in the database.

Wix Case Study

The collaboration between Google and Wix embedded Google’s Search Console APIs within the Wix dashboard, streamlining the SEO process for millions of Wix users globally.

Users benefit by gaining easy access to useful insights and functionalities of Google Search Console within the familiar Wix dashboard, keeping a unified experience within Wix without having to learn a different user interface.

Implementation and User Benefits

Wix’s integration strategy focused on leveraging Google APIs to enhance its own SEO tools that users are already familiar with. The process involved choosing and integrating specific Google functionalities that complement Wix’s user interface (dashboard UI), resulting in a more intuitive experience of Google’s search console features.

The case study reports that users who integrated search console APIs experienced an average increase in traffic of 15% over the course of one year.

Ecommerce sites experienced a 24% increase in Gross Product Value compared to Wix similar Wix ecommerce sites that did not use the search console API integrations.

According to the case study:

“So far, over 2 million Wix sites connected their Search Console account and submitted a sitemap to Google through the new integration. They also regularly used the new features, such as Site Inspection and Analytics Reports to troubleshoot indexing errors, fix them and get insights on resulting changes in performance. “

APIs Enables Evolution Of Search Console

The successful integration of Google’s APIs into Wix’s platform demonstrates the value of collaborations between Google and companies that offer content management systems, including webhosts that develop their own point and click web builders based on WordPress.

But another goal of the case study is to show how inhouse SEO tools and dashboards can integrate Google Search Console functionalities through the use of APIs.

It’s not until the end of the case study that Google discretely makes a call to action soliciting organizations to contact them through a web form or Twitter.

The article writes:

“If you’re a CMS and interested in collaborating with us, reach out using this form or through our social media.”

The call to action shows how the API is changing how Google’s search console data is accessed and pointing toward a trend where it’s less about signing in to search console to view data within Google’s user interface.

APIs already enable importing search console data into Screaming Frog to combine it with crawl data and of course there are WordPress plugins that can use it, too. The Wix case study shows a novel application that showcases the flexibility of how search console data can be used in the future beyond how it’s currently accessed.

Read Google’s Wix case study:

How Wix generated value for their users by integrating stats and functionality via Google APIs directly into the Wix UI

Featured Image by Shutterstock/Catalyst Labs

I have 25 years hands-on experience in SEO and have kept on  top of the evolution of search every step ...

Subscribe To Our Newsletter.

Conquer your day with daily search marketing news.

More From Forbes

Cultivating culture in the cloud: core values and norms in remote work.

  • Share to Facebook
  • Share to Twitter
  • Share to Linkedin

Jitasa COO: 15 years leading, driving growth through team unity, and transparent, friendly leadership in the nonprofit sector.

In an era where remote work has become more than a trend, evolving into a key facet of our professional landscape, the challenge of building and sustaining a robust workplace culture in a virtual environment is unique. Without the physical office space where culture is often informally cultivated, leaders must find new ways to instill and uphold their organizational values and norms.

At the heart of this transformation is the heightened importance of core values and norms in a remote setting. These elements act as the cornerstone for decision-making and behavior, especially when traditional methods of in-person observation are not viable. In a remote work context, where interactions are screen-mediated, the embodiment and communication of core company norms and values requires a thoughtful and engaging approach.

Crafting Remote Work Culture Through Impactful Storytelling

One of the keys to this approach lies in the art of storytelling. As highlighted by Harvard Business Review , storytelling is a powerful tool in the business and educational sectors that goes beyond mere engagement, serving as an effective method for conveying complex ideas in a simple, relatable and memorable manner. Storytelling has been shown to be more effective than traditional fact-based presentations in fostering understanding and retention. In the context of remote work, storytelling can serve as a vital instrument for leaders to effectively communicate and reinforce their organization's core values and norms. Taking a narrative-driven approach not only ensures that these values are more deeply understood and internalized by team members but also aids in building a stronger, more cohesive virtual team culture with clear expectations that inspires engagement.

Creative and memorable norms can leave a lasting impression, making them more likely to be embraced and remembered by team members. For instance, norms that are articulated through vivid storytelling or are associated with unique symbols, phrases and rituals that are unique to your organization can make a deeper impact. These creative expressions of norms can serve as constant reminders of the company's values and the behaviors that are celebrated and encouraged.

Best High-Yield Savings Accounts Of 2024

Best 5% interest savings accounts of 2024.

Start by clearly defining the core values and norms that represent your organization's culture. These should reflect the company's ethos and the behaviors you want to encourage. Then employ storytelling to make these values and norms relatable and memorable. Share stories that exemplify these values in action, whether they are real examples from within the company or hypothetical scenarios that illustrate the desired behavior.

Translating Core Values And Norms Into Consistent Cultural Touchpoints

Weaving your norms and values across all facets of the business through actionable guidelines and touchpoints is also crucial in cultivating a robust and thriving remote work culture. By offering actionable guidelines built around your core values and norms, you can provide a model for employees to understand how to apply these values in their daily work, beginning at the very start with the employee onboarding processes. Guidelines should be clear, relatable and easily integrated into daily workflows, ensuring that they are not just abstract concepts but practical tools for shaping the desired culture. Other cultural touchpoints can include regular all-hands meetings and team gatherings, which provide opportunities for values to be reiterated and celebrated, reinforcing a sense of community and shared purpose.

Embedding these principles into business processes, procedures and reports ensures that they are not just abstract ideals but are actively guiding decision-making and business operations. Consistent reinforcement across these various touchpoints not only strengthens the culture but also makes it more tangible and real for every member of the organization, regardless of their location. To further foster this, be sure that you are also involving employees in the process of co-creating and evolving core norms and values. Employee inclusion can lead to greater buy-in and a more authentic representation of the company’s culture.

Culture in remote work environments is not just about communication—it's about creating a shared experience that resonates with each team member. For business leaders and entrepreneurs, this means not only defining core values and norms but also translating them into actionable guidelines and touchpoints that are reinforced across business processes, workflows and decision-making.

Throughout all of these efforts, make sure that you are also regularly assessing the effectiveness of your cultural initiatives and creating space for reflection. Remain open to evolving your core values and norms as the company grows and the remote work environment changes. By doing so, leaders can effectively foster a sense of belonging and purpose, even in a virtual setting, paving the way for a cohesive and dynamic remote work culture that thrives on shared values and mutual understanding.

Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?

Jon Osterburg

  • Editorial Standards
  • Reprints & Permissions

IMAGES

  1. (PDF) Business culture of corporate giant -a case study of Google company

    google company culture case study

  2. Google Case Study Updated

    google company culture case study

  3. Google’s (Alphabet’s) Organizational Culture & Its Traits

    google company culture case study

  4. Case Study on Work Culture in Google

    google company culture case study

  5. Unlocking Google’s secret success in transforming corporate culture

    google company culture case study

  6. Organizational Culture Case Study Google Inc

    google company culture case study

VIDEO

  1. Class in Popular Culture (Case Study)

  2. Google is the Only Company to Ask this Coding Question!

  3. Case Study How Google Creates a Cohesive Culture for their Workforce

  4. Popular Culture Case Study

COMMENTS

  1. GOOGLE: a reflection of culture, leader, and management

    This paper will analyze the case study of Harvard Business Review, Oxygen Project, and clarify the management problem in Google's organization. It will also compare Google with Zappos, a much smaller organization, and present how the BoDs of Zappos assesses its culture and subcultures.

  2. Case Study: Analysis of Organizational Culture at Google

    Case Study: Analysis of Organizational Culture at Google Google Inc came to life with the two brilliant people as the founder of the company. Those two were Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Both of them are a PhDs holder in computer science in Stanford University California.

  3. Culture at Google

    Culture at Google By: Nien-hê Hsieh, Amy Klopfenstein and Sarah Mehta Format: Print | Language: English | Pages: 34 Email Print Share Abstract Beginning in 2017, technology (tech) company Google faced a series of employee-relations issues that threatened its unique culture of innovation and open communication.

  4. Google's (Alphabet's) Organizational Culture & Its Traits

    Through its company culture, Google ensures workforce competence. The technology business actively develops its corporate cultural strengths through institutional measures, such as employee training, and through informal approaches, such as personalized leadership and management support.

  5. Google's (Alphabet's) Organizational Structure & Culture

    Google's organizational structure and company culture align to maximize innovation. Innovation contributes to the brand image, which is an essential strength identified in the SWOT analysis of Google (Alphabet).The alignment between the work culture and corporate structure helps develop the company's competitive advantages to address strategic challenges linked to multinational competitors ...

  6. (PDF) GOOGLE: a reflection of culture, leader, and management

    2.3+ billion citations Join for free PDF | This paper provides a viewpoint of the culture and subcultures at Google Inc., which is a famous global company, and has a huge engineering staff......

  7. 11.1 Decision-Making Culture: The Case of Google

    Figure 11.1 Wikimedia Commons - public domain. Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) is one of the best-known and most admired companies around the world, so much so that "googling" is the term many use to refer to searching information on the Web.

  8. 3 Lessons From Google About Building A Culture Of Innovation ...

    1. You need to think 10X as much as you are thinking 10%. Some innovations are incremental; others are transformational. It is wise to have a portfolio of both, but for most companies, the ...

  9. 11.1: Decision-Making Culture: The Case of Google

    To promote new ideas, Google encourages all engineers to spend 20% of their time working on their own ideas. Google's culture is reflected in their decision making as well. Decisions at Google are made in teams. Even the company management is in the hands of a triad: Larry Page and Sergey Brin hired Eric Schmidt to act as the CEO of the ...

  10. Growing A Culture Of Innovation: 5 Lessons From Google

    1. Sustained competitive advantage cannot be achieved with technology alone. To create a more innovative business, you must rethink how people, structures, and processes interact every day—we...

  11. Google's Culture: Genius That Demolishes (Case Study)

    Google's Culture: Genius That Demolishes (Case Study) October 2022 Authors: KHALIQ Ahmad Dr. Khaliq International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation (ISTAC) IIUM (Kuala Lumpur...

  12. 9 Lessons You Can Learn From Google's Innovation Culture

    #1): Recognize that innovation comes from anywhere Google recognizes a fundamental truth about innovation: it can come from anywhere, at any time, and in any form. So, rather than relying on creativity and inventiveness from specific teams and individuals, Google encourages employees in every part of the business to contribute their best ideas.

  13. Case Study: How Google Boosts its Employees' Engagement

    Case Study: How Google Boosts its Employees' Engagement You might have heard about this mantra: 'Happy employees produce better results.' This is the mindset of Google to keep its employees productive and satisfied. This article explains more. Let's say you're a company providing software development services.

  14. Purpose At Work: How Google Is Building Diversity And ...

    "For so long, we looked up at largely white men and asked them how the organization is doing on diversity, equity, and inclusion," Michael Munoz, who leads diversity, equity and inclusion within...

  15. Google: Organizational Culture & Company Values

    This Google organizational culture case study analyzes the Google business culture from the management theory perspective. It considers the company's corporate values and their benefits and problems. What is Google's organizational culture? As this analysis shows, it focuses on a comfortable working environment and employee reward and ...

  16. PDF GOOGLE: a reflection of culture, leader, and management

    This paper will analyze the case study of Harvard Business Review, Oxygen Project, and clarify the management problem in Google's organization. It will also compare Google with Zappos, a much smaller organization, and ... Company culture Researching Google's culture, we would know Laszlo Bock, Head of People Operations at Google, the equiva-

  17. PDF Business culture of corporate giant a case study of Google company

    1. About Google: mission, vision and values Mission, vision and values of an organization have been strongly considered as a necessary aspect of the process of strategic management for various...

  18. 11.6 Optional Case Study: Decision-Making Culture of Google

    One of the current challenges for Google is to expand to new fields outside of their Web search engine business. To promote new ideas, Google encourages all engineers to spend 20% of their time working on their own ideas. Google's culture is reflected in their decision making as well. Decisions at Google are made in teams.

  19. Culture at Google

    Publication Date: March 04, 2020. Beginning in 2017, technology (tech) company Google faced a series of employee-relations issues that threatened its unique culture of innovation and open communication. Issues included protests surrounding Google's contracts with the U.S. government, restrictions of employee speech, mistreatment of contract and ...

  20. PDF CASE STUDY: GOOGLE

    It was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. According to the Google website, Google has grown by leaps and bounds since then. From offering search in a single language the company now offer dozens of products and services— including various forms of advertising and web applications for all kinds of tasks—in scores of languages.

  21. Google Case Study: SWOT Analysis of Google Company

    SWOT Analysis of Google Company. This is a management tool used by organizations to make decisions through assessment of organizational structure and corporate culture. It entails identifying internal strengths and weaknesses of an organization, as well as external opportunities and threats.

  22. Business culture of corporate giant -a case study of Google company

    The objective of the article is to analyse the corporate and business culture of the multinational enterprise on the basis of case study of Google company. The article is mainly focused...

  23. Google case study

    Proposition - See Guidelines from Google on the principles used to determine their customer experience of Google and applications like Gmail and Google Docs; Google case study - reports. The best available case study is from the most recent Google Annual Report SEC filing which gives all the Google financial and its success and risk factors. Choose the annual report.

  24. Google Case Study Reveals Search Console Evolution Via APIs

    The case study reports that users who integrated search console APIs experienced an average increase in traffic of 15% over the course of one year. Ecommerce sites experienced a 24% increase in ...

  25. Cultivating Culture In The Cloud: Core Values And Norms In ...

    How To Take Control Of Your Personal Brand On Google. Feb 20, 2024, 10:15am EST. ... Employee inclusion can lead to greater buy-in and a more authentic representation of the company's culture.