Nobody can say he was not warned. "Google is not a conventional company, we do not intend to become one," founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin wrote before the IPO in 2004 in an "Owner's Manual". Not only the investors understood this as a promise.
In the 15 years since then, the start-up has become an attractive group for many. The stock shot up from the issue price of $ 85 to the current $ 1165. Techies around the world today dream of a career on campus in Mountain View, California. And Americans trust Google even more than their own police and judiciary, according to a survey by the Baker Center for Leadership & Governance of 2018. For a long time, Internet service providers have succeeded in reconciling capitalism and society. Last year, Mother Alphabet made a net profit of a whopping $ 30 billion.
But now the teenager has come under an identity crisis among the stock exchange groups. Because since the inauguration of Donald Trump, Google is suddenly fighting on several fronts. Unlike the administration of Barack Obama, which operated something like job rotation with the digital company, the new president sees Google not as a natural ally, but as a declared opponent. The search engine, he claimed, manipulated the 2016 presidential election in favor of his opponent Hillary Clinton. "We are watching Google very closely!" He threatens.
Trump, antitrust officers, analysts - the pressure is increasing
According to US media, the White House is working on a decree so that the state can take action against the alleged political bias of social media. At the same time, the tech industry has come under the watchful eye of the antitrust authorities after a long grace period. Finally, some analysts believe that Google's business model is too dependent on ad business. However, Alphabet has once again made a great profit in the past fiscal quarter.
At the top of the management's list of concerns, there should be something different anyway: their own employees, who, in Larry Page's words, are "everything." Because that is so, not only the food and thoughts were free in the Googleplex headquarters so far, but also the speech. A "googler" is allowed to say what he wants, when he wants, who he wants. Unlike in other companies, the employees should not give their political attitudes and personal beliefs to the porter, but bring their "whole self" to work. The objection to the superiors belongs to the job description.
Risky break with the corporate culture
The former Montessori students Page and Brin have thus created a unique corporate culture that magically attracts qualified, individualistic and creative talents. Many of the more than 100,000 employees worldwide have also hired at Google because this employer promises to be "not evil" and to make the "world a better place." In the best case, the deal pays off for both sides: free spirits create groundbreaking innovations.
But increasingly it turns out that the philosophy of success has a downside. Google is no longer a start-up that lets a lot go by. But a powerful group, the fans and critics measure their own claim. And not always it fulfills the.
- The technology magazine "Wired" has just revealed in a large-scale research that Google managers take business interests more important than to stand on the right side of the story. Only reluctantly, the company has publicly opposed the imposed by Trump after the election victory ban on entry for Muslims. They did not want to provoke the new government. But the workforce was under pressure.
- At the end of 2018, around 20,000 Googlers took to the streets in many cities to protest against sexual assaults on women, discrimination and lower pay . Previously, it had become known that the Android developer Andy Rubin had been silently complemented with a golden handshake of 90 million dollars on allegations that he had forced an employee to oral sex.
- As Google struggled to get into business with the US military to fuel its weak cloud business, a revolt broke out internally. "Google should not participate in the business of the war," it said in a petition that got more than 3000 signatures. In the end, they withdrew from the "Project Maven".
AFP
Google CEO Sundar Pichai
- A second attempt to gain a foothold in the important Chinese market of the future also went awry. The "Dragonfly Project" of a censored search engine failed, according to a report from the website Intercept on Internal Resistance. There are "currently" no corresponding plans, said CEO Sundar Pichai finally end of last year in the US Congress.
- The increasing polarization of American society exacerbates the internal struggles in the workforce . And in the family nothing stays for a long time. Former engineer Kevin Cernekee tweeted through the media claiming that Google fired him because he openly held conservative positions. Others say Cernekee represents nationalist positions. But one of the co-organizers of the women's protest has also given up. She accuses her bosses of having sedated her after the public rally.
New guidelines for the workplace
The mood seems so heated that Alphabet saw a need for action. The Group has introduced new guidelines for the workplace, which require, among other things, to renounce "insults". On the internal communication platforms "growing rudeness" has spread, a spokesman said the step.
It should not only be about the inner peace, but also the business. According to the Wall Street Journal, chief justice Kent Walker has threatened to kick people out for information on sensitive projects like Maven. "Our primary responsibility is to do the work we've been hired for and not use the work time on non-work related issues," the memo said to the Google community.
The break with the corporate culture is risky. Google's Weltverbesserungsattitüde was for many employees, the "ticket price," said an ex-employee of the newspaper. "They're changing the deal, it's a radical cultural farewell overnight."
