“Basically our goal is to organize the world’s information and to make it universally accessible and useful.”— Larry Page
“To me, this is about preserving history and making it available to everyone” — Sergey Brin
Google announced an overhaul of its corporate make-up on Monday. Alphabet is now going to be the holding company for Google. Shareholders will now get one Alphabet share for every Google share they previously owned. The executives at the helm of affairs of Alphabet will be the good old commanders, Larry Page CEO, Sergey Brin President, Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt, Chief Finance Officer Ruth Porat, and Chief counsel David Drummond who were in charge of Google until this change.
Founded in September 1998, like all breakthrough start-ups, Larry Page and Sergey Brin embarked on this feat in a friend’s garage in Menlo Park, California. Since its incorporation on September 4, 1998, the company has grown to nearly 20,000 full-time employees the world over, and with an increasing stream of new products development and innovation, acquisitions and partnerships, has extended its reach far beyond its modest beginnings as a search engine. Perhaps even more impressive is Google’s image as the epitome of cool, with a reputation for being hip, innovative and wildly successful-all without compromising its “Don’t be evil” philosophy.
Larry Page worked for a few years in the technology industry before deciding at the age of 24, to pursue a Ph.D.in computer science at Stanford University. It was there, as a prospective student, that he met Sergey Brin, who was assigned to show him around the campus. Brin, originally from Moscow, moved to the U.S with his family when he was 6 years old. He was later at Stanford studying how to extract large patterns and relationships from large amounts of data.
LESSONS
1. START WITH A PHILOSOPHY
Google started with a philosophy that, it would be the epitome of cool, with a reputation for being hip, innovative and wildly successful-all without compromising its “Don’t be evil.” It is still sticking to this timeless philosophy even in the face of stiff competition emanating from the ever-innovating tech world. Businesses which lack philosophy in these times stand the chance of not crossing into the next phase. A great philosophy marks you out of the crowd. Google is a market leader in the search engine space and it also stands out.
2. START SMALL
Larry Page and Sergey Brin started Google Inc.in a friend’s garage. Today its corporate headquarters is housed in the famous Googleplex in Mountain View, California. Known for its relaxed atmosphere and envy-inducing employee perks like subsidized massages, on-site stylists, and three free gourmet meals a day. It pays to start small and think big. There is countless number of great brands and corporations and even empires which started out small but are now market leaders in their respective fields. BUILD YOUR CAREER AROUND YOUR INTEREST
Larry Page’s interest in technology began when his father, the late Carl Page- Michigan State professor and pioneer in the fields of computer science and artificial intelligence gave him a computer at the age of 6. He achieved his undergraduate claim to fame by building an inkjet printer out of Lego blocks. His partner Sergey Brin as a technology enthusiast developed the interest for computers at an earlier age. Most successful people build great careers around their interests. Barack Obama, Col. Sanders, Winston Churchill, Henry Ford, Walt Disney, Prince Kofi Amoabeng, Kwesi Twum, Aliko Dangote share a common trait- making an impact with their interests. Identify and develop an interest and build a career around it. It’s a sure bet for success in every field.
3. GET SOME TRAINING
Larry Page worked for a few years in the technology industry before deciding at the age of 24, to pursue a Ph.D.in computer science at Stanford University. Larry was ready to climb up the ladder in his field by going through some training. You’ll acquire some nuggets of experience as you push through the daily rumps of working under somebody. Time management, personnel management, budgeting, decisiveness and leadership skills are all some of the timeless building blocks needed to start on your own.
4. BUILDING LASTING AND WINNABLE PARTNERSHIPS
Larry Page met Sergey Brin, who was assigned to show him around the campus. Brin, originally from Moscow, moved to the U.S with his family when he was 6 years old. There is some great deal of strength in numbers. Larry met so many course-mates back on campus but it was Sergey Brin who he partnered to build one of the world’s greatest corporations-Google. Be ever ready to start out with a partner. In the wake of finding difficulties in raising initial capital to start out partnerships is one was to raise capital. Larry and Sergey ran their operations out of their dorm rooms. But by mid-1998, Google was getting 10,000 searches a day; so, finally convinced, they maxed out $15,000 worth of credit cards to purchase a terabyte of disk space and drafted a business plan.
Things have gone well since then. In August 2004, Google went public with an IPO that raised $1.67 billion, and in typical Google fashion became the first and only company to allocate stocks using computers rather than Wall Street bankers.
By: Paa Swanzy-Essuman || Ghanatalksbusiness.com
