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Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

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Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#151

Post by nunez »

Arjuna wrote: post #140
ChuckMcM wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly correct. If you have a printing press that is dumping a couple of billon dollars into the basement every quarter in spite of what you're spending, you have the luxury of trying all sorts of novel things from a business perspective. That said, the margins on the search advertising business are shrinking, and have been for years now. You can cover for that by eliminating profligate spending and then eve…

"I hope the free sodas stay though." For those that are not aware of the reference here, you will enjoy reading Steve Blank's post entitled "The Elves Leave Middle Earth - Sodas Are No Longer Free." https://steveblank.com/2009/12/21/the-elves-leave-middle-ear...

Awesome article.

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#152

Post by panglott »

Periodic wrote: post #11

So many companies try to emulate how Google works. There are multiple books, hundreds or thousands of articles. People speculate on the perks, the review structure, the hierarchy, the autonomy. However, when other companies try to imitate Google they always fail because they're missing a crucial piece: Billions of dollars in ad revenue Google doesn't work the way it does to be successful. It works that way because it…

Isn't this true of any large, profitable company, like Microsoft in the '90s?

But surely the cultures these companies create are very different. Or is Google secretly a lot like Microsoft in the '90s?

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#153

Post by muninn_ »

jasode wrote: post #137
muninn_ wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't buy it. Many companies are able to get the perks, culture, and autonomy right without being a multi-billion dollar company. It does enable Google to do certain things (like moonshot projects) that smaller companies can't do, but a lot of the perks I've seen are replicated in other companies. In fact, I think your comment "Google doesn't do what it does to be successful, it does it because it is successful" is…

>Many companies are able to get the perks, culture, and autonomy right without being a multi-billion dollar company. You're right but I understood what Periodic intended to explain. Unfortunately, he phrased it as "billions in ad revenue" instead of a less common metric of "profit-per-employee" . If the company generates enough profit-per-employee , it can afford to pay for lavish perks. Consider 2 different companie…

So I understand what you're saying here, and it makes sense. At the same time, I see career section after career section offering the same kind of perks with much smaller companies. Maybe it's not 3 meals of gourmet food, but free catered lunches, great 401k matching, unlimited vacation, great health and dental benefits. I'm not saying the perks are matched tit-for-tat, but I still stand by my statement that you don't have to be a multi-billion dollar company to afford those perks.

Likewise, Walmart can offer those types of perks. Just not to people working on the floor or in distribution centers.

Thanks for your original reply :)

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#154

Post by nunez »

euyyn wrote: post #150
Periodic wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried to clarify the wording. I'm specifically trying to call out the structure of Google's management and the general way they approach problems. For example, even within the profitable Google portion of the business, they often have many competing projects. There will be competing search features, competing chat applications, competing cloud services. Google will make big speculative bets or internally competitiv…

> Google, as a company, doesn't really seem to have any idea of what most individual engineers are doing week to week. This isn't true. Even I, as a software engineer, can look up with ease what the majority of other people work on.

I hope you're not talking about peoples OKRs or internal profiles on Grow or whatever it's called now because you know that stuffs not accurate

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#155

Post by skizm »

rabidrat wrote: post #133
skizm wrote: post #76

I always wondered if Google just fired all their engineers except a few top guys, and focused on their core money making products like search / ads / etc. and tried to stay as lean as possible (lean being a relative term), how much profit they could make.

There's an old analogy that running a business is like taking a road trip, with money as the gasoline: you need to get gas along the way, but that's not the point of the trip. So effectively you're wondering how much fuel you'd have left over if you only had a few bicycles towing a fuel truck. What's the point?

There is no point. It is a thought experiment. I'm wondering how much value the different parts of their company actually add to the bottom line. I'm thinking that despite "losing money" on a lot of their stuff, it does keep them in the news and their brand relevant. Like if Google had only done search and ads would Android have taken off like it did? Or was it because everyone knows Google does cool stuff and hopefully their cool stuff would make its way to Android?

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#156

Post by user5994461 »

dionidium wrote: post #131
user5994461 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you and the parent commenter are missing a critical points. These companies were successful because of what they were, and they continue to be successful because of what they are. It is a virtuous circle living on money, people, management and many more characteristics that go together.

They aren't missing that point. They are making the opposite point. Google had a great product at the right time and they executed well. Now it makes billions . All the other stuff is most likely incidental.

And I'm making the point that they executed well because of what they are, and were from the start.

Google didn't suddenly transformed to being Google overnight the day they reached the first $1B.

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#157

Post by _RPM »

Periodic wrote: post #11

So many companies try to emulate how Google works. There are multiple books, hundreds or thousands of articles. People speculate on the perks, the review structure, the hierarchy, the autonomy. However, when other companies try to imitate Google they always fail because they're missing a crucial piece: Billions of dollars in ad revenue Google doesn't work the way it does to be successful. It works that way because it…

Yes, also, a lot of companies try to emulate Google's interview style for engineering.

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#158

Post by notheguyouthink »

sp332 wrote: post #48
notheguyouthink wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> informed consent Sidenote, and completely off topic: Is there a non-high-horse way to word this? I understand the meaning, but the same phrase can be used to be completely dismissive as well. It's a potential moral high ground, where if you don't agree you must be uninformed. I'm not saying OP meant it that way, it just brought up the honest question from me.

I think it's medical/clinical. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informed_consent "Express permission" is also a little jargony but I think it avoids the problem you mentioned?

Hmm, not sure - Trekkie made some good points regarding express permission. Perhaps it's just a bit of a loaded word, and if i care to use it without being dismissive, i must be careful.. well, not to be dismissive haha.

Appreciate your reply.

Re: Google Makes So Much Money, It Never Had to Worry About Financial Discipline

#160

Post by balls187 »

Periodic wrote: post #11

So many companies try to emulate how Google works. There are multiple books, hundreds or thousands of articles. People speculate on the perks, the review structure, the hierarchy, the autonomy. However, when other companies try to imitate Google they always fail because they're missing a crucial piece: Billions of dollars in ad revenue Google doesn't work the way it does to be successful. It works that way because it…

By Billions of dollars in ad revenue, you actually mean high Revenue per Employee.
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