innovation and resources

Is there a cause-effect relationship between resources and innovation?

Nikesh Arora, Chief Business Officer at Google, says Larry Page certainly believes so. I asked this question at the Citi Technology Investor Conference 2012 at Hilton, New York, and he responded to me elaborately. The specific question is at : in the webcast here at 35:20.

In academia, an article from Scott Anthony of Harvard Business Review is presented here with three steps on how to innovate in tough times. The three points are:

1. Lower the cost of testing 
2. Creatively  tap into outside resources
3. Ruthlessly prune the portfolio

Particularly interesting is the fact that Nikesh Arora (Google CBO) mentioned exactly the third point as one of the strategies being deployed at Google.

Detailed transcript of the question I asked Nikesh and his response are below:


Question from Manik Patil: 

From a supply side perspective, for  your engineers or your staff employees, in general, Google is now having over 50,000 employees.

How do you plan to keep the productivity high and stop/avoid complacence kick in?

We have seen history of companies in the past where they have great growth, lot of products...eventually having trouble with growing number of staff employees and eventually having some pockets of lack of productivity.

Response from Nikesh Arora, Chief Business Officer, Google: 

It's a good question, really!

First of all, we are still getting used to the idea that we are 50,000 employees. We see ourselves at Google as Google and Motorola, which we run as a separate entity. For foreseeable future, that is how it is going to be. Dennis has done a great job with getting his arms around Motorola and has a great team. 

Scarcity creates innovation
But having said that, your question is a good question because we are constantly thinking about how do we make sure that we keep efficiency and 'efficiency' not just because we think about life that way but you know Larry (Page) has a very clear point of view that scarcity creates innovation. Having abundant resources -to your point- makes people complacent. They don't think about this...they think about solving bigger problems with lots of people. So, we do and try to make sure that teams have little less resource so that they are forced to think out of the box to solve the problems with constrained resources as opposed to having abundant resources.

Large Scale
Having said that, it does take a lot of resources to keep the engine running with $10 billion in quarterly revenues and billions of searches a day around the world and products like Android, Youtube. So, it's a constant challenge.

No Silver Bullet
There is no silver bullet and one answer to it. It just requires management to be vigilant. And does require for us to keep going back to our portfolio more often than not to make sure that we are not doing things that are not good for us or are not going to scale well.

Balance necessary 
At the same time, you have to be careful that if you pre-judge things to soon then you may be at the risk of killing innovation right when it is about to start. So, it's a fine balance and there is one more overhang of management.

Another leader who thinks similarly is: James Gorman, CEO of Morgan Stanley.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-14/can-morgan-stanley-s-gorman-save-wall-street-.html

I had certainly observed this at several highly innovative clients I had the privilege to work with. 

Rest In Peace Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs,

You will be missed. Several generations will be affected. Your contributions are peerless. I hope you inspired several other inter-disciplinary leaders in several spheres of the society, including but not limited to business.

Here's a tribute from Google at the most valuable ad-board of the world, their own homepage.



Here's a tribute from your own firm:


Bill Gates has noted his tribute here:
http://www.thegatesnotes.com/Personal/Steve-Jobs

Here's a tribute from the educational institution, which you chose not to complete your education at:

http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/Jobs.html

Eric Schmidt mentioned that you defined a generation. Particularly, I liked this part:

Steve was so charismatically brilliant that he inspired people to do the impossible, and he will be remembered as the greatest computer innovator in history.

Here's a tribute from NPR:
http://www.npr.org/2011/10/05/123826622/apple-visionary-steve-jobs-dies-at-56?sc=fb&cc=fp

May your soul Rest in Peace.

service management and asana.com

If what Justin Rosenstein says here is true, then asana.com may end up becoming a great service management solutions suite. Large companies certainly need some platform similar to that of Asana.

I am yet to check out the beta version and present my review.
asana, IT Service Management, google, facebook

interesting debate about Google Earth

Gulliver's travels section in The Economist presented this interesting debate regarding Google Earth here. 

Mumbai killing rampage was planned by the terrorists using Google Earth. However, that planning can happen by their personal visits as well. That's how earlier terrorists had planned their attacks in 1992. An Indian court's plea to ban Google Earth from capturing Mumbai pictures is a knee-jerk reaction by folks who lack capacity to do good policy engineering. 

IMHO, anything under the sun can be misused. For instance, the  planes were used in case of 9/11 for bringing about destruction. This does not mean that planes must be banned. 

I still support Google Earth.

ultimate ad spot

Yes - if you partner with Google then you can get the ultimate ad spot ever - the Google page. 

Check out this ad for the G1 phone. 

With the Learn more - Google indicates the discrete nature it always exercises in its approach. A gentle giant. If they wanted, they could say "Buy It" alike some other websites. However, they are elegant and they say "Learn More"

I feel like extending my contract with Tmobile just for having this phone.  However, on second thoughts, I feel that I must wait for a second version of the phone and some other carrier as Tmobile's service in NYC is inferior relative to Verizon. 

 

google and the art of recruiting

"I said Google, not Sizzler, " says Micky Rosa, the kingpin for the card-counting affair and the MIT professor in the movie 21.

As innovative as they get, I love Google's recruitment strategies ! Last time I made a remark like this was when I interviewed with them. This time around I make this comment after watching 21.

The product placement of "Google as a prestigious job" in the movie 21 was brilliant. This truly exemplified the "context-sensitive" nature of Google !

In the past, I have seen cyber-sleuthing as a technique being deployed by them at a massive scale in an amazing way to fetch talent from the open market - now, this. Well, the firms thirsty for talent have a thing or two to learn from Google !

par excellence

Google doesn't stop to impress me with their products. The newest one which impressed me was the ability to give a certain name to a tab in iGoogle and get related widgets automatically.

Here's how it works. If you are signed in the iGoogle webpage, click on Add a Tab. Give it a title, say notes. You will see a tab with multiple notes gadgets. I thought may be this was too obvious. So, I went ahead and added a tab called India. Huge number of widgets came up on that tab ! Same with stocks, technology management, etc !



This is amazing new step to keep Google users stuck to its page !!!

microhoooooo

Microsoft bid for Yahoo at $31 a share in a bid to gain some market share in the rapidly evolving online ad industry.

An earlier post on this blog here, expressed the possibility of consolidation with Microsoft buying Yahoo. Microsoft senior leadership was astute and kept this possibility on bay for a while. They made their move with an unsolicited bid when the Yahoo stock was beaten down due to lacklustre performance by Yang and the Gang. Larry Ellison moves in similar ways.

The media expressed that there may be anti-trust problems. Now, you gotta be kidding me! Together Microsoft and Yahoo will cover only a quarter of the total space that Google commands. I learnt at least this much in my Business Law class from Prof Hersch. I am not sure why the popular media made these comments. This just indicates how the media runs hurriedly to create sensational headlines rather than providing any thought to it. None other than CNBC said this and other channels followed suit ! This sad display of journalism reminds me of Prof Chris Telmer, who used to rip apart the pink press (financial press) for spreading false notions in the minds of the naive readers. Astute and educated investors read most of the pink media with a grain of salt due to such incidents.

Of course, Yahoo and Microsoft have huge share of email accounts. However, I am not yet sure if they have good enough products to target ads in that fashion. If they build it together, they will save money on building that. May be both already have products in the pipeline...who knows.

Going ahead, we will witness some interesting times in the search space.
1. MSN Money must leverage Yahoo Finance for their content but not the UI. The international market and eye balls (remember - Jewels at the bottom of the pyramid!) that MSN Money will get with the inclusion of Yahoo Finance content on MSN Money will surpass that of Google Finance easily.

Google Finance does not have any grip in the foreign markets - for instance, the Indian market. Whereas Yahoo Finance has a good set of data (though there is room for improvement for the international markets. Besides they roll no the RIC codes and hence, have a standardized convention for naming the stocks.

2. We will have a very colorful time watching the titans clash for the online ads market. MSFT has been ramping up its Live Search staff with good talent from around the globe. They have some way to go in order to make themselves equivalent to that of GOOG. However, they are on the right path.

3. Will MSFT be able to retain the top talent from YHOO? or will they be bought away by GOOG or facebook? Time will tell. Most of the sources I talk in Yahoo with tell me that they will not like to work for MSFT given that when they chose their careers - they had a choice and they actively chose YHOO over MSFT.

Another take on it is that this was a la The Art of War move by MSFT in which MSFT doesn't engage YHOO into a battle but just surrounds it. YHOO has nowhere to go. Mr. Yang and Gang could not maintain a high valuation for the ailing online giant. GOOG cannot make a bid as they dont want another regulator hassle from the DOJ for another anti-trust trial (this time it will be fatal).

In conclusion, 31 bucks a share is not a bad price to pay considering the additional steady revenues it will bring in. Microsoft senior leadership was astute and kept this possibility on bay for a while. Let us see how YHOO responds to this bid.

Who robbed the poor kid from the 100$ laptop?

Nicholas Negroponte, an MIT prof, decided to apply C.K.Prahlad's concept of trying to find gems at the bottom of the pyramid. He wanted to reduce parity in education which students get in the developing nations from those who get it in the developed nations. He formed the initiative OLPC or One Laptop Per Child. This was a brilliant effort by Prof Negroponte to work towards removing social iniquity. He got backing from the UN at Davos earlier.

Google stepped in to help as well - of course with money and a desire to sell their platform of SaaS software. Intel stepped in as they didn't want AMD to capture the market. Imagine what kind of market this brings for the vendors. A huge 200 million set of kids who will grow up with all this and eventually get used to it and demand the same thing when they go to work or consume at own expense when they grow up.

Operational difficulties and economics led to his price point going from 100$ to 188$. Volumes earlier estimated weren't there by orders of magnitude. The orders didn't come through. It is a hard-sell in these developing nations for spending 188$ on a kid when his/her entire schooling education can occur on that amount. The quest for capturing the market led Intel to come up with its own 230$-280$ laptop, slightly superior to the OLPC-made laptop.

However, the tech giants stomped the effort - check out this article. Who is to blame? Nicholas says that he is frustrated with the interference from the tech giants and the insidious sinister behavior which threw off his original calculations about the market-size and how much he would be able to capture - a classic business planning mistake by new entrepreneurs - not acknowledging and assessing competition correctly. Forget the tech-giants, the locals in India, Taiwan, etc competed to get a piece of the pie and I bet that Nicholas didn't have them in his business plan. Now, he feels frustrated !

On the other hand, Prof Nicholas expresses that we are not in laptop business. He must actually be happy that either this way or the other way, OLPC's objective must get satisfied - one laptop per child. Intel joined the board of OLPC - saw that these guys didn't know how to run the business the way it should be and decided to run off in their way - nothing wrong in it. Is it incestuous behavior? depends on who is looking at it...

Such contradictory stances by Nicholas probably sends out signals that his ego is hurt due to no success of his initiative. An academic devoting himself to nonprofit efforts must keep a check on his/her ego. I understand that the process of tech-giants muscling him out could have caused agony - but his original purpose was OLPC - he must have that in his mind - he will always be known as the guy who took this brave initiative of reducing the rift between developing nations and developed nations. I would always respect him for that !

why MISMers should focus on Google APM?

Consulting is a hot favorite for the MISMers (MISM students) as they want to utilize and deploy their newly gained knowledge about business-enabling via technology and running technology as a business immediately.

However, Google APM is a profile that helps you achieve that as well. Check out this set of 18 globe-trotting Google APMs. Of course, this is also a publicity stunt run by Google recruitment to attract the best talent at cheaper rates (yea, Google's cheap in their payscale - but what the heck, they give awesome stock-grants - about 200 shares per APM and on top of that, such perks). Check out this take on Google's APM program.

Unlike the consulting firms, Google maintains the entrepreneurial spirit of these young bright minds by providing them opportunity to spin their own projects, enabling them to be successful, and finally, bringing those to the market for the greater good of humanity. Much credit goes to initial founders and global product development chief such as Marissa Myers. Ms. Myers is young, energetic, and understands that the new generation folks would get put off if they are restrained from doing certain other things at work. How to channelize this huge burst of energy for the company's benefit is something that the Google leadership has mastered. Of course, it may appear that everyone's running amuck with any idea - however, that's not true. There is method to the madness and I wont divulge more details given to me by an ex-Product Manager during my interview for Product Management position earlier this year.

I would strongly recommend Google Product Management for those MISM students who yearn for the blaze of glory via entrepreneurial pursuits. I was oblivious about this opportunity till half-way into my program. When I discovered about it, I was obsessed with it. Google didnt' move fast and after 5 months of waiting I had to sign up my papers with my current employer, as Google was dragging the recruitment decision.

Google has been sharp enough to identify MISM as a program to source their PMs and APMs. Last year, they started having CMU on their radar for the same. Earlier, they saw CMU as a location for Devs, etc. However, the perception has changed and they intend to hire APMs and PMs as well. I hope this relation builds over a period of time and gets formalized making Google as a formal recruiter for the MISM program, similar to the consulting firms such as Deloitte, Diamond, McKinsey, etc.

google health

Google wants to digitize your health data. Check this article for more details. Rationale is simple: it is aligned with their original vision of the firm - To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

Well, I must say - they are well on their tracks. I like Marrisa's quote on "I am feeling yucky" !

On a side note related to this, they are also working towards mapping human genome. Google's helping the lead scientist in the field do that. They are good at organizing large amounts of information such that it's easily accessible - that's what they will do with their algorithms and techniques for the Human Genome project.

Google's 411

Google has decided to crush 411 (in a way).
Check out this new *free* service from Google named "Google voice local search".

Dial 1800-Goog-411 from any phone.
Differentiator in this service is: it's free !

Lat/long tracking and monetization of the same is on its way now :) This was a hot topic in last year's convention of "Future of technology" where Eric Schmidt alluded to a possibility of this happening.

Long-live the Google trio !

SaaS implementation

A new genre of service providers is emerging - SaaS service providers.

Here's a link about the same - Bluewolf, with experience in SaaS implementation have taken over as the pioneers. Salesforce.com has a consulting team - however, Bluewolf does implementations in many places as their services are cheaper. They can execute it and stay competitive due to economies of scale and scope. Now, joining Google for Google Enterprise Apps will help them quite a bit. Definitely, Bluewolf is at quite a bit of risk if they dont broker the contracts correctly with the end client or the service providers.

Will eSCM apply here? - both in case of CL and SP? Should it apply here?
As per me, the answer is yes - if you have a different point of you then you and I must talk ! :)

usability and free products: google, yahoo, microsoft

Can you imagine having a service provider (having no monopolistic advantages) trying to give you, a user, a hard time with their interface for your interaction. What do you do if you have other options? Switch !

Ease of use, and relevance are of prime importance. There is a reason that there exists a graduate program named "Human Computer Interaction" in some of the leading universities. There is a reason why these students get hired by most of the leading companies quickly. Ease of use does matter.

Check out why Google made it's way much ahead of its competitors such as Yahoo and Microsoft. Google has about 55%+ market of the search market. Yahoo is about 25% and Microsoft, a pithy 5-8%. There are many reasons and HCI is one of the prime ones. Larry Page, one of the Google founders, was a HCI grad student ! Their products beat Yahoo hands down. Microsoft was busy with anti-trust trial and totally lost track.

Microsoft has now started having good HCI products in their portfolio. Also, Yahoo has a similar ideology. They still don't have as much user-inclusion in their product developments. An acquaintance from Microsoft program management team for their search product explained me their process and I believe that they still need to allocate more time for the usability piece. However, to be fair - they are getting better!

Ray Ozzie has discovered that Google is way ahead and MSFT was left behind. However, he also respects them. At the same time, he is pushing his product dev team to get their act right with Live search product. He wants Microsoft back in this game. This market is going to double from USD 40b to USD 80b in 3 years. Microsoft cannot afford to stay back with a mere 5-8% market share.

One way to get back in the game is consolidating the smaller players. I foresee this consolidation happening. How - I dont know....! Let us say, what if the software giant makes a kill and buys out Yahoo? Picture this -

At today's price of 30-32 and outstanding shares of 1.34b, we get about 40b market-cap. If MSFT makes a bid of 20% higher, it will be about USD 48-50 b. MSFT can afford this purchase without any leverage - given their warchest of cash they've built up on their books. Besides, they needn't buy the whole pie; they can just buy a 51% stake at about USD 24 to 25 b. If they wait a bit, they can get it for cheaper as the stock market capitulates due to economic outlook - lol !

MSFT-Facebook romance is going on anyways. (Is this due to the Harvard connection???) So, MSFT will have a good usability team at hand and will be back in the game to take head on with GOOG. This wont be a serious threat to Google because the merger will be disruptive for both the companies from a talent perspective. However, this move will still strengthen Microsoft's position vis-a-vis Google and this move is the only way for Microsoft to get into this search arena, if they are serious about it.

Going back to the usability game, it is interesting to note that Govt of America has considered this seriously and has guidelines at usability.gov.

stalkerish..

This is stalking to the extreme !
Earlier, they wanted to know what everyone is searching for - now they wanna know the locations(lat/long coordinates).

Man, this is compromise of privacy - big time :) Ppl give up privacy for services they receive - not knowing what price they might pay for it later.
The recent one in stack is Google's Dodgeball

Is this Google's answer to 2 challenges:
1. orkut not being as popular/usable as facebook.
2. need to locate folks and provide advertisement possibilities to local businesses.

well, letsee wait-n-watch what happens !