Google " Baba " Knows everything and anything....but what you know about Google ?
Whenever we have to have information about anything , any place, any incidence, any fact.....even about most technical information about any disease, medicine; aero-planes -- specification-details of different models / variety ; planetary system, space, its missions etc., we take help from Google and information is made available immediately that too free. It is supposed to be authentic, detailed, correct, in many ethnic languages and up-to-date. But at the same time how seriously we tried to know about Google ! To know about Google, whether we need to browse Google only? There are many information, you can readily get from Google-sites, maps...etc., but how and why Google is built what it is, the driving force, their value-system etc. are not known to many.
All information is searched through Google Search, commonly referred to as Google Web Search or simply Google, is a web search engine developed by Google company. It is the most-used search engine on the World Wide Web, handling more than three billion searches each day. As of February 2016 it is the most used search engine in the US with 64.0% market share.
I have a personal experience. When an APPL-Trust's project-proposal was placed before me for approval / financing to work with 'Vantangia Community' in forests of Tarai-Region in Nepal-India border. I must admit, I have had never heard about this community earlier. It was odd for me to ask about it and I doubted about the authenticity of the possible source of information. So, I did do Google and got the detailed information immediately.
The parent company, Google is an American multinational technology company specializing in Internet-related services and products that include online Advertising Technologies, Search, Cloud Computing, Software, and hardware. Google is also known for Google Glass, Venture Capital Investments, Nest Thermostats, Smart Contact Lenses, Building size Video Screens, Sea-Water based fuels, Broadband Internet Services, Delivery drones, Internet balloons, Self Driving Cars, Quadrupedal All Terrain Robots, Wi-Fi Kiosks, Energy Generating Kites, the World's most sophisticated Artificial Intelligence Soft ware and Possible cure for Death, among others. Google's current revenue is US$ 76.062 Billion with an employs strength of about 57,000 persons, mostly highly talented, brilliant and qualified professionals drawn from all over the world, highly diversified on basis of color, nativity, origin of birth, sex.
Google was founded in 1996 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were Ph. D. students at Stanford University, California, U.S.A. Currently together, they own about 14 percent of its shares and control 56 percent of the stockholder voting-power through super-voting stocks. They incorporated Google as a privately held company on September 4, 1998. An initial public offering (IPO) took place on August 19, 2004, and Google moved to its new headquarters in Mountain View, California, nicknamed the Googleplex. As of October 2016, Google operates 70 offices in more than 40 countries.
In August 2015, Google announced plans to reorganize its various interests as a conglomerate called Alphabet. Google, Alphabet's leading subsidiary, will continue to be the umbrella company for Alphabet's Internet interests. Upon completion of the restructure, an Indian Mr. Sundar Pichai became CEO of Google, replacing Larry Page, who became CEO of Alphabet. The holding company Alphabet has major products as Technology, Internet, Computer Software, Autonomous Cars, Research and Development, Biotechnology and List of Google products. As per the details available on the web-site, the Current revenue of Alphabet is US$ 74.98 billion (2015), Operating Income US$ 19.36 billion (2015),Net Income US$16.34 billion (2015), total Assets US$147.46 billion (2015), total Equity base US$120.33 billion (2015) employing 69,952 persons (Q3 2016).
Google is famous for how it pampers its staff ? Out of many things, it offers five star facilities to its employees, which includes 24*7 free hot food of your choice and taste, Yoga & Gym., Laundry service , Stylist & Barber shop, Sleeping & Rest areas, Day Care and babysitting for Kids, etc..., besides good Pay ,Health Care and other perks. It makes it most employee-preferred. It helps Google earn employee's loyalty and trust in the company. Not surprisingly, It has won the best employers' tag worldwide many years in a row.
" Google is not a conventional company....We do not intend to become one...".wrote in 2004 the then founder and CEO of Google Mr. Sergey Brin and Mr. Larry Page to shareholders. They further continued " .....Google would never focus on short term profitability and would instead invest in employees perks such as giving free meals to staff and encouraging employees to spend 20 percent of their working hours on projects of their choosing.....Do not be surprised, if we place smaller bets in areas that seem very speculative or even strange...".It has been the main 'mantra' which Google seems to follows. It has produced exceptionally bumper crops for Google. Over 12 months ending in September 2016, an revenue earning of about US$ 76.1 Billion through Google's online advertisement business, which accounted to 89% of Alphabet's revenue, is not a small bid. But at the same time many ambitious projects fumbled, either failed to produce the desired results or over delayed, making the company to lose, in 2015, about US $ 3.6 Billion, roughly twice what they'd lost the year before, on these fronts. So swash in cash, Google spent lavishly on many high-bet-projects like market glass, self-driving car, house-size weather balloons and other projects. Also having a financially surplus company of this magnitude, it had inherently weak or lack of financial discipline.
In May 2015 after an organizational revamp, a new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) with the name Ms. Ruth Porat joined Google. A London born, Ruth lived and grew in Palo Alto, California. She earlier led Morgan Stanley's Technology Banking Division during the first dot com boom, served as an advisor to the Treasury Department during the bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, became Morgan Stanley's CFO in 2010. She joined Google with the mandate to bring financial- discipline in the company. She started with strict budgeting, progress monitoring and forced other bets to begin paying for the shared Google services they used. She forced many projects with ambiguous timelines for 10 or more years to show path to profits in half the time. It earned her truly a nick name " Ruthless Ruth". These actions pleased the investors and Google's share boomed plus 35%. But many project leaders, who were not accustomed of this tight-rope environment were not happy and quit the company. It further slowed the pace and the progress.
The super growth of Google , in such a small time-frame of about two decades, has been possible because of its belief in its employees, more ambitious technological efforts, openness and ability to take more risks and betting on projects/ areas never imagined or thought possible earlier, employing the full freedom to researchers and use potentiality of a battery of brilliant and devoted brains. Over the years , Google's speculative bets have included the purchase of U-tube, Android, forays in software and hard wares, entertainment, telecommunication and media.
While working on a project to digitalize various American libraries with the project name Alexandria, scanning page by page, in mid-2000 internal rivalry between different groups erupted and due to lack of oversight it flourished. In due course of time it looked, if it was " a federation of Google's". The top management decided to favor standalone companies, so budget, business model and branding could be planned and executed independent of mother Google. it was the precursor and gave birth to holding company Alphabet. The spirit of Google is alive and kicking, but the innovation is more directed and disciplined. Still it is one of the best companies to work with and fulfill your wild dreams.
Another important issue is diversity at work force. Available data highlighted a big gender gap and a shortage of African-Americans and Hispanics. In the past year, the company has made only a tiny bit of progress. As of January 2016, women still hold only 30% of Google’s jobs. Meanwhile, white employees account for 60% of the workforce while Asians account for 31%. Women now make up 18% of Google’s technical employees, up one percentage point from last year. It was a similar gain among the company’s leaders, of whom 22% are female. African-American and Latino employees saw no changes in their representation in those categories.