Business Week Throws a Holiday Gift to Google
December 20, 2008
I am preparing to go to a meeting to talk about a legal online service. My newsreader spit out a link with the headline “Why Your Office Isn’t Like Google’s” by Jack and Suzy Welch here. Yes, that Jack, the neutron variety, and that Suzy, a mega publisher / editor. I put down my Odd Lots bag, pulled up my Office Depot chair, and looked at my 15 inch fuzzy CRT.
Yes, my office is not like Google’s. I agree.
I dived into the story to learn that normal companies are not like Google.
A bolt from the blue. Just like Jonathan Edwards, 17th century theologian, a sudden revelation.
I did not know that Google was not like ArnoldIT in Harrod’s Creek, Kentucky.
I thought that GE (exiting its financial business and tightening its belt) and GM (floundering toward mega failure) were normal today. Google, on the other hand, seems to be making money and innovating. Well, the secret is that people at Google are empowered.
Was, I asked myself, Bernard L. Madoff was empowered. Jack and Suzy Welch’s connotation for empowerment pushed my understanding in a new direction. One point that jumped out at me was:
“Empowerment is less likely to happen in bigger companies, which is the opposite of how it should be.”
Anyone with an Odd Lots bag should know what “it” is, but I have to admit. I don’t know. Maybe the “it” is the magical quality of the “It” girl. Or, the older lingo for the “X factor”. Or, maybe it means “normal business practices”. Hmm.
Whatever “it” is, Google has “it”, said Jack and Suzy Welch, “Google… is still enjoying the fruits of its innovation and judos to its leaders for that.”
Quite a holiday gift for Google. I don’t think this Business Week essay is an advertorial. But what do you think? Is your company on Jack and Suzy Welch’s A list like Google? Is your company like mine, buying chairs at Office Depot? Let me know.
Stephen Arnold, December 19, 2008
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