IntroductionBelieve it or not, Google’s name is from a mathematical statement for the number 1 which is succeeded by 100 zeros. What’s this supposed to mean? Some rumors have it that it means Google wants to compile an infinite volume of information (Mcfadden, 2017). Although this is a popular theory, Google has other missions that it has pursued and made public, and these can be easily seen on the website of Google. It’s important to realize that Google was created right before the turn of the century, and not many internet giants existed. Back then, the internet giant was actually Yahoo. Ironically, Yahoo turned down a selling pitch from the creators of Google, and this ultimately spelled their demise (Mcfadden, 2017). Since the early 2000s, Google’s only become a stronger company, and one can argue that they’ve been the most innovative company because of how long they’ve been able to survive at the top of the pack. In 2008, Google Chrome was created and quickly became one of the most widely used browsers. In 2009, Google showed their adaptive strength by introducing their newest invention, Google Voice (Mcfadden, 2017). So why’s this all important? Google has become almost an automatic source for anyone, and rarely do you see someone doing this for some other product. Google’s importance in the world is rather high, so it’s important to know what they’re exactly trying to do. This paper will show how Google’s kept up with the trend as well as how they’ve molded their message into a one-size-fits all approach.
Goals, Missions, and Objectives
As the world has become more global, Google has also adapted their goals and missions to fit into a more connected society. They dedicate an entire page telling people what they’re values are, and it goes far beyond just being an internet search engine. Google is trying to tackle world issues such as injustice, medicine, the refugee crisis, energy, and poverty (“Abu’s Story,” n.d.). Google’s mission statement is quite broad, and they’ve been following their initial mission statement, up until recently. Google has both a vision and mission statement. Their vision statement is “to provide access to the world’s information in one click” while their mission statement is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” (Thompson, 2017). While these statements are rather broad, that’s for a good reason. The more broad a statement is, the company has a wider scope for what they can do. Google has certainly taken advantage of this broadness, and it’s created a lot of innovation and inventions that Google is responsible for. Because the company now is beyond the search engine phase, and has created newer products every year, it makes sense that it’s trying to modify its message in order to stay at the forefront of the innovation age.
Adaptation
Larry Page, Google’s CEO, publicly stated in 2014 that Google probably needs a new message (Gibbs, 2014). While Page doesn’t exactly know if Google will ultimately change its message, he does know that the company has moved into an unpredictable time period where companies can be at the top of the world for one day and then it can all come crashing down the next day. In my opinion, I think that Google should modify its mission statement to try and reach people it hasn’t already reached. This means expanding it beyond just the search engine and move it towards a more modern, global objective. Google now offers many new products such as Google Fiber and Google Glass, and this only proves that the company has outgrown its original message and needs to either add more to it or scrap it and create an entirely new vision. However, this may not even matter in the future, as Google is slated to maintain its place as one of the most successful companies in the world. They’ve already started coming out with new products like Google Fiber and Google Glass, and they’re already expanding and improving upon their own inventions. Does Google even need a message? Their brand is already known to so many, and it’s something the new generations were born into instead of needing to learn about it. In other words, Google’s role in the world and everyday life is so automatic that people may just instinctively know what this company stands for.
Important Leaders
Google is a huge company, and this means that it has many divisions led up by many leaders. Clay Bavor is leading Google’s virtual reality unit, and right now is focusing on developing smartphone virtual reality experiences. Nick Fox is leading Google’s communication unit, and is trying to bring Google’s messaging system into the forefront of this field. Sridhar Ramaswamy runs the ad business that funds Google. He is currently trying to figure out how Google is going to move forward in an AI-first world. These aren’t all of the leaders, but it’s clear that Google is a massive company that needs several leaders to head their units and divisions. This can prove especially hard if they don’t have the right leadership at the very top and a good, resonating message that can place all leaders on the same ground. It’s important to note that all of these leaders have different objectives; they’re all trying to accomplish something different. However, they’re also working for the same cause, which is to advance Google’s influence in today’s world and make it a more accessible reality. So while these leaders may have a different goal in mind, they are actually working towards the same objectives that this broad Google message presents (D’Onfro, 2016).
- About Us. (n.d.). Retrieved June 28, 2017, from https://www.google.com/intl/en/about/
- D’Onfro, J. (2016, May 26). Meet the people who run Google’s most important products. Retrieved June 28, 2017, from http://www.businessinsider.com/most-important-google-execs-2016-5/#clay-bavor-wants-to-bring-virtual-reality-to-the-masses-1
- Gibbs, S. (2014, November 03). Google has ‘outgrown’ its 14-year old mission statement, says Larry Page. Retrieved June 28, 2017, from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/03/larry-page-google-dont-be-evil-sergey-brin
- Mcfadden, C. (2017, January 19). Almost Everything You Need to Know About Google’s History. Retrieved June 28, 2017, from http://interestingengineering.com/almost-everything-you-need-to-know-about-googles-history/
- Thompson, A. (2017, January 28). Google’s Vision Statement & Mission Statement. Retrieved June 28, 2017, from http://panmore.com/google-vision-statement-mission-statement
