Google open mind.

The first thing that comes to your mind when entering the main lobby at Google is the something like: "wow, that's different". I personally haven't expected to come to an office which also could have been a Kindergarden or a leisure center at first sight. Bright colors, different interior, open spaces and room to think - all that seems to be strange for someone who only knows modern and plain office buildings and leads to the question: "How do they keep up their professionalism?"

But as our two hosts at Google Megan Danielson and Matt Jones began to speak and talk about their company the picture of a distinct corporate culture started to make sense. The entire culture is about open your mind. Work-life-balance is really important such as enough recreational activities when you need to clear your mind. Furthermore, time to think play a major role at Google. Google has applied a model known as "20%-time" that allows "googlers" to spend 20% of their time on something different than their actual project. As innovations are a key resource it's crucial to come up with new ideas - and that's the way to face it and get there. To round it up employees are provided with healthy organic food which again supports their mental and physical abilities.


"Make the world a better place"

"Don't be evil"

"Be transparent"

"Do cool things that matter"

"Take risks"


Missions and visions that come along with google and their employees. Hearing Megan and Matt conveying this strongly shows how googlers have internalized these. One strong team with low hierarchies where everybody is supposed to interact with everybody and a culture that leaves enough room to step out and think out of the box - that's what makes google strong!

If I'm thinking of our own venture "foodentity" the google culture is really admirable but not required for our business. I'd say it's great to have all those benefits and room to open your mind but for us as a start-up the most important thing is just team-spirit. The low hierarchies and the openness to all others is something we will apply to our venture. But especially in the food business "taking risks" should be vehemently avoided.

We all know that google is one of the largest firms on earth, we all know how much power and influence they have and we all know how much google knows about us. It is hard to believe that they don't take advantage out of that. But how strong the spirit and internal culture is and how strongly googlers stick to their missions Megan and Matt demonstrated perfectly.

Making the world a better place - not the worst mission to stand up for everyday, isn't it?