This week the topic is about Google, where we get a sneak peak at workers working for google and how they are treated by the company. Also we discuss about the advantages and disadvantages of such working environment, whether it is really beneficial or actually a bane to the company. We also get to look into Lenovo, China’s Multinational Corporation, and China’s style of management.
The lesson kick-started with a video about Google’s employee’s life in its company. Incentives were offered such as free bus rides to work with internet connection, free scrumptious meals, gyms, spas, massages, subsidized child care, paid maternity leave, a whole lot more of materialistic benefits. However there are actually more important principle’s of Google’s way of management which includes the 20 percent rule, having their ideas actually listened and implemented and also, their own way to produce results. The above has already made some individuals including me to mouth water and have thoughts of working for this large corporation.
I think that Google is a result oriented company where it controls the product more than the process, to put it simplistically, they don’t care what you do or how you do it as long as you produce the good, effective results and meet deadlines. The process I am talking about is the employees’ way of working together to work and how they spent their working days and working times. However, Google did implement measures to help the employees with their work. They put up relaxing facilities and good incentives like subsidized child care or spas for them to really relax and think. I suppose Google feels that when a person is at ease, they can exert their creative juices and can think of a lot more innovative ideas than sitting in a office table for twelve hours and cannot think of much creative projects.
According to PRCs’ testimonial in class about the Chinese workers, China conventional way of management is actually stifling creativity and innovation critical for being the top economic super power. The workers only do what they are told without thinking or questioning. The employees are rather afraid of their bosses and are not comfortable with debating or arguing with the boss or even to raise a suggestion. China is currently still copying products from the west , being a future economic super power, China needs to innovate and create products themselves.
This may come from the influence of Communism where there is a 1 party rule and also about values of Chinese morals like respect and humility. There is also speculation that the China’s way of upbringing and their education system may teach them to listen to teacher and follow what is in the textbook and not question the sources, question the methods and think of new ways.
Having reflected on the working culture and management style in Google and Lenovo, I would like to talk a bit more about Google’s way. Miss Yeo’s said something like, “Most employees don’t spent 100 percent of their time working, and even teachers don’t!” I started to think twice whether these incentives are really that great or it is already there but google is smart enough to package this whole delusion into a nice present for us gullible people to receive. True enough most people do not spent all their time working, even students don’t spend all their times studying too. Having this 20 percent rule is in fact rather redundant. Also, people are not going to think of creative ideas by sitting in an office room but rather, when heir having their life, or relaxing, they can come up with innovations far more creative.
I felt that the whole point of having this topic as a discussion is to question Google’s methodology and whether it has attributed to its success. Why is Google so successful then? Google, starting out as a small company in 1996, has already achieved the most popular search engine in the world, 2.5 billion searches a day, it slowly moved on to make online productivity software, google docs, gmails etc… Partnerships with other corporations soon followed such as the development of android’s operating system, which is competing fiercely with apple’s OS. Some even say that google may have a chance to overtake apple, their prospects of this would be a tinge higher now due to the departure of apple’s mastermind Steve Jobs. The company's mission statement from the outset was "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful". They now have far beyond exceeded their mission in becoming one of the world’s most important tools and indispensible to most people on this earth whether it is checking information on the search engine, checking out the world with google earth or just simply browsing the web with the “self-acclaimed fastest browser in the world” --- google chrome.
There is a question I always wanted to ask, “Is google that great?” Compared to other companies and search engines like Yahoo, BING, ask.com or MSN, is Google really that superior? How is google able to stand out among the other companies and become the world’s top search engine? If I walked on the street and asked strangers for their preference of search engines, I can assure that at least 70% of the people’s choice would be google. This google-mania has even reached the extend that most people will type in “google.com” just to check their wifi or internet connection and not other websites. Other just uses it as a verb! “Lets google this”, or “you can google that!” 89% of smart phone owners uses google search on a daily basis. In http://www.quora.com/How-many-people-use-Google-world-wide, the statistics clearly show how much more people uses google than other companies like yahoo. Google and yahoo’s function is almost the same, useful sites for emails and information etc... For companies that perform almost the same function yet to have such a big margin in terms of popularity, something is definitely wrong here. Is it that GOOGLE is a catchier name that YAHOO! Or is it that “Googling” has been such normality in the previous generations and well liked that it is passed down to the younger generations? Or is Google’s method really that great?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi Yu Xiang, I agree with your point on how Communism and the one party rule in China have affected Lenovo’s management style. It shows me how the environment can affect the company that emerges from it. A company which is shaped in a certain way by the environment may be able to survive in its domestic market, but out in the global world, it may not. Thus I feel that you could have elaborated more on how Google or Lenovo’s way can be improved in order for them to have a competitive edge in the global game. Also, another part which I feel that you could have talked more about is Lenovo’s working style and whether it has its benefits. This is because behind using every style of management, there is a reason. This reason is aimed to benefit the company. Also, from our class discussion and readings we know that Lenovo will have a hard time doing well in the global game, so you could have also talked a bit more about how Lenovo could adapt its working style to suit be more competitive. No working style is perfect, even the Google way has its downsides too.
ReplyDeleteTan Jia Jie