05_Ilona

=Ilona's Page=

Final

In addition to rapid growth, Google faces challenges with; competition, privacy and copy right issues, new products, unsuccessful business mergers, staff migration to Facebook (and others), managing staff, decision-making, and defining a clearer line of authority. Recently Google announced a change in leadership with Eric Schmidt stepping down as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and co-founding member Larry Page filling this role on April 4, 2011. Introducing a new CEO at this stage considering Google is the world’s largest Web company could be complicated and will revise the triumvirate between Schmidt, Page and Brin. Despite the rocky start with Schmidt (mentioned earlier), he became an important part of Google’s triumvirate bringing with him the knowledge of business management and mentoring Page and Sergery Brin (co-founders), “I (Page) have learned innumerable lessons from him. His advice and efforts will be invaluable to me as I start in this new role.” (Sullivan, 2011) Schmidt will stay on as Executive Chairman and will continue to participate “on the deals, partnerships, customers and broader business relationships, government outreach and technology thought leadership that are increasingly important given Google’s global reach; and internally as an advisor to Larry and Sergey.” (Sullivan, 2011) With Schmidt continuing in his role as an advisor to Page and Brin, challenges in leadership may be minimal but in a highly creative environment like Google maintaining their transformational leadership style could prove to be challenging.

One of the questions being asked is “Do founders make good leaders?” (Wall Street Journal, 2011). It’s been noted that while Page is taking over as CEO of Google he is not coming into the role fresh limiting any major leadership changes. Schmidt and Page have indicated the leadership shift has been in the works for awhile and it was time to make the change now thus, “simplify our management structure and speed up decision making”. (Sullivan, 2011) Apple is another company that has, “defied the usual pattern: as companies grow they become more bureaucratic, conservative and slow”. (Sterling, 2011) Google wants to regain a faster more streamlined decision-making process and avoid the bureaucracy that generally happens to large successful companies.

Google’s come a long way in a short period of time and they have been able to maintain a transformational leadership but with issues of rapid growth and changing leadership, will they be able to maintain this environment? Google is built on ideals as well as product as indicated by their mission and goals “Google has realized more quickly than most companies that it needed to make changes and adjustments to ensure that its culture did not become an obstacle to success. When people ask why company X or Y can’t innovate or move quickly enough the answer is rarely people or product it’s almost always culture and organization.” (Sterling, 2011) As Sterling has mentioned, “You can already feel a slight shift in Google’s image, literally embodied in the shift from the generally polished and sometimes aloof Schmidt to the more quirky and Gatesian Page.” (Sterling, 2011) _ - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - -- - - - -

Google Leadership + challenges

Introducing a new CEO can bring with it challenges of different leadership styles. Meeting the needs of the user and employees

As one of the flagships in internet services Google has many challenges in operating such a large organization. As Danny Sullivan says in his article entitled, competition, privacy and copy right issues, new products, failed products, staff migration to facebook, and managing staff (20% time). Recently Google announced a change in leadership with Eric Schmidt stepping down as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and co-founding member Larry Page fill the role. Introducing a new CEO can bring with it challenges of a different leadership styles and could change the landscape within Google. As mentioned earlier Google has a transformational leadership styles allowing more flexibility for leaders and staff alike.

> [] > Eric Schmidt, stepping down as CEO to allow Google co-founder Larry Page to take over. Schmidt says "“We’ve been talking about how best to simplify our management structure and speed up decision making for a long time. By clarifying our individual roles we’ll create clearer responsibility and accountability at the top of the company."
 * 1) ==Google's Greatest Innovation May Be Its Management Practice==
 * 1) http://searchengineland.com/googles-eric-schmidt-stepping-down-cofounder-larry-page-to-be-google-ceo-61883
 * 1) Google vs wikipedia structure and management style - []
 * 2) [] Looks to be a students paper but they might have some good resources cited.
 * 3) HR Leadership by Linda Holbeche, chapter 2 and 5 talk of Google and leadership. []
 * 4) []