Google Reinvents the Management Wheel
March 14, 2011
I used to work at Booz, Allen & Hamilton and I have done work over the years for other traditional management consulting firms. One thing about MBAs: Most of the folks from the top 20 schools have a shared base of business and management baloney. Mention a buggy whip and MBAs will shout, “Automobile seat covers.” Mention money and some will say, “Investment banking.” At Booz, Allen, at whatever level I was pegged in that pre-break up, blue chip outfit, I have to fly on a different plane. The idea was that if my plane went down, the project team would survive. Just slap in another person with the pedigree and the client would not know the difference. Think of replacing a Lego block when one goes missing.
I read in my hard copy of the New York Times the story “Google’s Quest to Build a Better Boss.” You can for a short time, I think, find a version of the story online at this link. (When I checked the link, I saw an ad for the Economist. Wow.)
What caught my attention was the verbiage about how Google applied its analytic method to figure out what makes a good boss. Now keep in mind that Google has lots of employees and is in the process of getting a new boss, Larry Page. I don’t think Mr. Page has worked at a sweat shop like a former blue chip management consulting firm, but that’s okay. The Googler human resources unit has generated a list of what a manager must do to be successful.
Surprise. A manager does not have to be a programmer. Got it. I have worked for some very astute managers over the years. None was a programmer. There was an aeronautical engineer, a retired three star general, a nuclear engineer, and a liberal arts major whose father founded a must-have magazine in the 1940s. Management is different from technology management in my opinion. Running an R&D operation that implements learnings from AltaVista.com experiences is one thing. Avoiding trouble with the European Commission, the Justice Department, and next door neighbors like Oracle and Apple is a different kettle of python scripts.
Now Google has identified that there are eight attributes that a manager has. Most of these fall into the buggy whip category, but for the New York Times and for Google, the eight are new. Please, read the eight tips and check off which of them you know. I particularly like the one that suggests one fit into a team and listen to colleagues. Helpful that one.
Several questions and comments from the goose pond:
- If Google had implemented these management tips, would the company have avoided the brain drain to Facebook?
- With a different management approach, would Google have been able to devise an approach to certain markets that would keep the company in China?
- Using the eight techniques, would Google be able to provide customer support to licensees of the Google Search Appliance to expand and extend that product’s reach? Someone told me that Google has placed upwards of 30,000 Google Search Appliances since the product’s launch? (I estimated that the actual GSAs in use was under 10,000, but what do I know? Competitors target GSA licensees as high potential prospects.)
My view is that the management method of “controlled chaos” does not work. The eight rules for management strike me as an admission that a different and more traditional approach to management is needed at Google. The big question, “Is it too late?”
If Google’s forthcoming Facebook competitor does not work, my hunch is that Google may need to rethink a number of processes. The methods of the MBAs might come in handy. Google does not have to go beyond this query. Just my opinion from Harrod’s Creek this fine morning.
Stephen E Arnold, March 14, 2011
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