A Former Googler Abandons AOL for Start Up
September 5, 2010
Let’s think about Google as a management training ground. I am setting aside for the purposes of this goose-o-gram Xooglers’ ability to get and spend money on start ups. I want to focus on management excellence. The basics are important. Selling a product that makes customers happy, avoiding management wackiness like crazy legal hassles, and keeping employees chugging along without spending three days a week looking for another gig. I know management is not math, but now there is increasing evidence that Google “logic” may not work as a management method.
I have one example, which is not going to get me a PhD, but it sure is helpful to document news items. A stack of similar items may be useful later. I noticed that AOL CEO, Tim Armstrong former Google VP of Advertising Sales, hired former Google engineer Jeff Reynar as the Head of Technology but according to “AOL Head of Technology Jeff Reynar Already Bails Startup After Half A Year” Reynar has already moved on in search of “greener pastures with the new company Tlists. The first thing that many may wonder is with the success of Google why Reynar and more importantly the CEO Armstrong are not better leaders. They were unable to use the skills they learned to revitalize AOL and the company continued to sink. This brings the question to mind “Are Google executives really good leaders and business managers or are they simply lucky they got in good with the Internet king Google?” No answers from the goose. He is neither logical nor a manager.
Stephen E Arnold, September 5, 2010
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