How is it that every Google employee has internalized the company line so completely? I guess I would be saying such things, too, if I was working at a place which treats its employees to such great perks. (Yes, boss, this place is great, too.) Of course, the early days of a massively successful enterprise are always heady. One wonders how things will be five years from now, when pressure for continued growth creates pressure to pull back on employee perks.

It's always notable how company lines always hit a point where they can't survive realistic scrutiny. Remember what Stacy Sullivan, Google's chief cultural officer and human resources director, said in the video? Here's her quote:

"I think some of the key elements of what a Googly individual would be is, someone who is flexible, focuses on just getting things done, doesn't worry about who they're working with, and politics."

No politics? Oh, please. What happens, I wonder, if someone pipes up in a Google meeting about how they really like something Microsoft is doing?

Let's accept that corporate speak at Google (or anywhere else, for that matter) is simply a story everyone within a company repeats to reassure each other that things are fine. Indeed, at a massively successful firm, reassurance is important. It must be scary to be a software-industry version of The Beatles, and there must be unimaginable pressures to keep the ball rolling (along with occasional doubts as to whether all the success to date is truly deserved or just good luck).

My second point is:

As I noted in my 5 Cool Google Tools You Should Know About the other day is, what the heck do all these people at Google do?

Once you get past search, the new online apps, and Google Earth, what do the other tens of thousands of employees work on? Mentoring the Summer of Code kids can only take up so much time.

As best as I can tell, Google's model is that it will take stuff created by any of its groups and put it out in public to see if it's a potential product, no matter how medium-baked a project might be. Google seems to believe this "throw stuff against the wall and see what sticks" model is a far better way to ferret out the winners than to have a bunch of software executives sitting in a room deciding what's best for users.

You know what? They're probably right.

« Contractors Are A Security Threat -- Both Active And Passive | Main | Is Anyone Really Surprised That Apple Won't Support Hacked iPhones? »