Cultural insights at Google

by LeBeOnAir

Wow, what an inspiring excursion! We just came back from a tour to Google (Chicago) where we, as a group of Master students, were told a lot about Google’s history, products, and where we got valuable insights of its culture and leadership.

Not only what Megan (Danielson, Head of Industry Travel) and Matt (Jones, Team Lead Travel) told us, especially from how they talked to each other we experienced the cooperation at Google. Since this is not only about Megan and Matt but about Google’s culture:

As you might know, Google is a multibillion dollar company and a huge global player that connects people around the world every time – everywhere. However, although having more than 50.000 employees in total, it has a low hierarchy. According to Matt this is one aspect that makes Google special. Everyone can talk to everyone – no matter of the person’s position. Whenever Matt wants to talk to Megan’s boss about something he will talk to him and so do all employees at Google. The example of Larry and Sergey, Google’s founders, walking in the cafeteria at the office in Mountain View and asking “random” employees if they could join them for lunch just emphasizes this.

Thinking of our vegan restaurant chain Green|Dish at Kendall College that we are about to found – at least theoretically however you never know… - I really would want to have this kind of atmosphere where there are no boundaries felt within the people in the company, as well. Of course this is not the only interesting part I could take home of Google through its presentation. Google actually does a lot for its employees. Of course Google does. Beneficial offers for employees  become more and more a “must have” rather than a “nice to have”. And it is actually pretty positive for both parties – Google’s employees AND Google itself. Let me give you an example of how this looks like:

Google has great cafeterias at their offices that serve FREE food for Google’s employees (we went through the one in the Chicago office and the food looked just delicious!!!). This is very nice for everyone who works at Google (it tastes very well and it saves money). But why does Google offer this?

For several reasons: Eating at Google’s office makes people stay at the office and be more productive, eating healthy food at Google’s cafeteria supports employee’s health and makes them work more efficiently (everyone probably knows how sleepy you get after a greasy lunch – in German we call it “soup-coma”) AND last but definitely not least employees eating at Google’s cafeteria talk to each other when waiting in line (at least 4 to 5 minutes) and then sitting together. Thus they exchange ideas and thoughts and build a network within the company.

These are definitely aspects that I want to keep in mind for our company. Another thing, that really impressed me and that I would wish to have at Green|Dish as well is how much employees indentify with their employer. This was shown for example by one of the employees wearing a “Google”-T-Shirt – actually one the first ones we met at the office. Although Megan and Matt were not wearing clothes that said “Google” on it they showed how much they enjoy working at Google and that they are proud of being part of the team. They appreciate Google caring about them “when they are at work as well as when they are at home” as Matt put it.

There are so many more inspiring things about Google’s culture, such as the “20% time”, which encourages employees to think out of the box (and their daily routines) to find new solutions, create new products, and services, which I found just great and which really elated me. It shows appreciation to the employees, they get the freedom and opportunity to self-fulfillment, and the company takes advantage of its human resources or rather its “human capital”.

All in all – regarding my impressions from visiting Google - I would want Green|Dish to be a workplace where people come to work every day because they want to do WHAT they do and WHERE they want to do it, where employees talking to each other and treating each other at eyelevel no matter of their position, and I would want it to be a workplace that treats employees very respectful and supports them in several regards.

Why? Because treating employees very well and offering them a certain freedom to think about innovations and improvement, and creating an atmosphere that allows them to do so, does not only keep them happy but it also helps the business, as it does help Google.