The Great Debate UK
from The Great Debate:
Google’s greatest skill – and challenge
By Jeff Jarvis
Jarvis is the author of "What Would Google Do?" and teaches at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. His next book, "Public Parts", will be published later this year.
The miracle of Google was that it could accomplish anything—let alone become the
fastest growing company in the history of the world and the greatest disruptive
force in business and society today—while being run by a committee, a junta, a
council of the gods.
In management, as in every other arena of business, technology, and media, Google
broke every rule and made new ones.
It should not be a shock that Eric Schmidt has stepped aside as CEO and made room
for Larry Page. Schmidt was the prince regent who ruled until the boy king could
take the throne while training him to do so. We knew that this would happen. We
just forgot that it would.
When I interviewed Schmidt a few weeks ago and asked about pressure over
privacy, China, and lobbying, he said, “This is not the No. 1 crisis at Google.” What is?
“Growth,” he said, “just growth.”
Scale is Google’s greatest skill and greatest challenge. It scaled search (vs. quaint
Yahoo, which thought it could catalogue this web thing). It scaled advertising (vs.
the media companies that today don’t know how to grow, only shrink). It is scaling
mobile (by giving away Android). It has tried to scale innovation (with its 20 percent
rule)—but that’s the toughest.
How does Google stay ahead of Facebook strategically? The war between the two
of them isn’t over social. The next, great scalable opportunity and challenge is
mobile, which in the end will translate into local advertising revenue. Mobile will
give Google (or Facebook or Groupon or Twitter or Foursquare … we shall see)
the signals needed to target content, services, search, and advertising with greater
relevance, efficiency, and value than ever. As Schmidt told broadcasters in Berlin last
year: “We know where you are. We know what you like.” Local is a huge, unclaimed
prize. The question is how to scale sales.
I have no special insight into the Googleplex. But I have to imagine that when the
company’s three musketeers sat down and asked themselves what impediments
could restrain their innovation and growth, they were smart enough and honest
enough to finally answer, “us.”
As well as their holy trinity worked setting strategy and reaching consensus—the
one thing I did hear from inside Google was that nothing happened if they did not
agree—it has become apparent that Google became less nimble and more clumsily
uncoordinated.
Google is working on two conflicting and competing operating system strategies,
Android and Chrome. It bungled the launches of Buzz and Wave. It is losing talent
to Facebook. It needs clearer vision and strategy and more decisive communication
and execution of it.
If it’s obvious to us it had to be obvious to them that that couldn’t come from Largey-
plus-Eric. Google, like its founders, is growing up. It needs singular management. So
let’s hope that Schmidt did his most important job well—not managing but teaching.
Now we will watch to see who Larry Page really is and where his own vision will
take Google. Will he give the company innovative leadership and can Sergey Brin
give it leadership in innovation?
I imagine we will see a new support structure for Page built from below now rather
than from the side. I’m most eager to see how he will cope with speaking publicly
for the company. Schmidt’s geeky sense of humor was not grokked by media. (When
he set off a tempest in the news teapot saying we should all be able to change our
names at age 21 and start over with youthful indiscretions left behind us, he was
joking, folks. Really, he was.) Page is even less show-bizzy.
As for Schmidt: I have gained tremendous respect for him as a manager, thinker,
leader. His next act will likely surprise is more than today’s act.
Jeff Jarvis, author of What Would Google Do?, teaches at the CUNY Graduate School of
Journalism. His next book, Public Parts, will be published later this year.
The miracle of Google was that it could accomplish anything—let alone become the fastest growing company in the history of the world and the greatest disruptive force in business and society today—while being run by a committee, a junta, a council of the gods.
In management, as in every other arena of business, technology, and media, Google broke every rule and made new ones.
It should not be a shock that Eric Schmidt has stepped aside as CEO and made room for Larry Page. Schmidt was the prince regent who ruled until the boy king could take the throne while training him to do so. We knew that this would happen. We just forgot that it would.
from Breakingviews:
Goldman’s old-school Facebook deal sets new tests
Goldman Sachs' old-school Facebook deal brings a new set of challenges. The bank is raising up to $1.5 billion from clients to invest in the social network while putting in $450 million itself. Like Morgan Stanley's reported deal with online coupon service Groupon, it looks like classic merchant banking. With hot firms in the driver's seat, however, the banks could find themselves in for a wild ride.
Internet darlings, with their growth, profitability and cash, face little pressure to go public yet still have some use for what a fundraising can provide. So instead of an IPO, they rely on so-called D-rounds. This allows them to raise money at favorable valuations for internal use, while buying stock back from employees or early-round investors who want to cash out.
from MediaFile:
Berners-Lee: Apple, Facebook are enemies of the web
2010 is a great time for the web. Innovation is thriving as new services and content flourish on smartphones and laptops, thanks in good part to industry leaders like Apple and Facebook.
But according to Tim Berners-Lee, - often called “ the father of the web” - the open and democratic structure of the web is threatened by sinister forces trying to redesign the web in ways that make it more closed for their own personal gain. These enemies of the web don't just include totalitarian governments. They include industry leaders like Apple and Facebook.
Entrepreneurialism is not manufactured in a business park
The motive behind the coalition government’s plan to turn the Olympic Park into a ‘Tech City’ after the games to stimulate the technology industry in the UK is admirable, but I don’t agree with the strategy. If the ultimate aim is to build world-class companies like Google of Microsoft from the UK, a top down approach is not the right way of doing it.
To encourage entrepreneurs and entrepreneurialism, you need to get entrepreneurs together. Shoreditch has already created an organic hub of very early stage companies who all cluster together because there’s an existing creative culture in the area, and there’s access to technical talent. What the government is proposing will not replicate this as it’s more of a corporate hub for established companies.
Apple iPad: danger or opportunity for mobile operators?
-Ken Denman is CEO of Openwave Systems. The opinions expressed are his own.-
With the launch of the iPad 3G, the industry is holding its collective breath to see the impact that the device will ultimately have on already overtaxed networks.
The iPad is expected to be a home and WiFi-centric, coffee-table device that people use for reading newspapers and browsing the occasional email. But until users get their hands on the 3G device and start to use it how they want to use it, it is all speculation. What is not speculation however, is that usage of the device is going to put more pressure on networks that are already creaking under the strain of the mobile data overload.
from UK News:
Jeremy Hunt unveils Tory technology platform
As the three main UK political parties vie for positioning ahead of a general election to be held by June, the Conservatives unveiled their "Technology Manifesto" on Thursday in London outlining the key issues they would address if they form the next government.
Shadow Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Shadow Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude presented ideas on everything from improving broadband speeds to making government data accessible online.
Growth of mobile commerce taps touch Web users
As the mobile phone industry puts more emphasis on marketing hand-held smartphones, consumers are finding ways to dodge restrictive model-compatible applications by using Web-based programs.
Unlike single-device applications, mobile touch websites run on most mobile browsers freeing users from reliance on a specific operating system.
Are publication bans outdated in the Internet era?
The debate over freedom of expression and the impact of social networking on democratic rights in the courts is in focus in Canada after a Facebook group became the centre of controversy when it may have violated a publication ban.
The group, which has more than 7,000 members, was set up to commemorate the murder of a 2-year-old boy in Oshawa, Ontario.
from Breakingviews:
Google cyber-complaint is tip of iceberg
Google’s cyber-complaint is the tip of an iceberg. Coordinated attacks on IT systems are common, yet companies and governments have kept largely silent. The growth of computer services that rely heavily on the Internet means the stakes are growing higher. That may explain why Google spoke up about recent attempts to steal its intellectual property -- and why the U.S. State Department has also taken China to task.
The scope of the recent attacks points to a complex operation. More than 30 companies were attacked simultaneously through an undiscovered software security hole. The incursions appear to have had the blessing of the Chinese government, if not its direct involvement. It is hard to imagine who else would be interested in the email accounts of political dissidents, which Google claims were targeted.
Are mobile networks at risk of a meltdown?
- Steve Nicholson, CEO at The Cloud. -
Five years ago the thought that we could be on the move accessing applications such as You Tube or Facebook, or watching TV or listening to music using our mobile phones was no more than a dream – today it’s a reality.
If we take a step back and assess the journey of the mobile phone over the past few years it has been nothing short of epic. It has progressed from a piece of technology for the modern business person to a must-have item.
