Does Google need a Reboot?
ByYou bet! Even game-changing innovators like Google need reboots in this environment. 
Experience has shown, that skills which provide companies their first level of success are not all that’s required to drive the next round of growth. Google’s team knows this and is actively looking to ward off “middle age-dom”–the unfortunate conservative slowness that seeps into organizations when they begin to mature.
Organic innovation that materially drives growth is not easy in large companies. The impetus needs to come from and be committed to by the top—but that is not enough. If you are looking to re-ignite growth and recapture the spark that initially drove your success, then it is time for an innovation reboot.
Begin with innovation from without—not within. Choose a track that focuses on partnership development and acquisitions that can drive your organization into new sectors or create new categories all-together. There are hundreds of examples from big and small organizations. When I was the CEO of autoweb.com, we bought AIC from Thompson and used it to create a new content/search industry standard. Cisco buying Linksys was a market shifting move that drove them into the consumer space.
So what about your company? You still need to foster innovation teams inside and there are thousands of tools and gurus to guide you—but that’s insufficient in today’s competitive climate. Leaders must seek innovation-outside to find next-gen ideas and talent. Reconfiguring ideation to balance inside/outside development is tricky…you need people who are comfortable with that messy ambiguity. For big organizations like AT&T, learning to leapfrog the competition can be painful, because the independence people need to build new markets is often foreign to big organizations.
And what of the new people you may want to attract/hire to join your new efforts? If you want them to stay and impact growth/revenue…they’ll need protection from that middle age corporate malaise. Many companies try to break down and reassemble their idea process/flow and remove what obstacles might have emerged over the years. They should also tap new sources for thoughts and creativity, and as much as gurus say “look inside” for this, for competitive and talent development reasons my bets are outside.
Few companies have been successful at reverse engineering what it was that gave their company its original spark. They focus on rebuilding this all over again in a new and different way. But for many this mostly leads to “incrementalism”—instead of bold new revenue impacting shifts in their direction. Whether it is a key acquisition or a creative partner link up—it is never too early to start rebooting innovation-outside. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, a very creative innovator, knows this. He just paid $1,000,000.00 to the winner of the best new algorithm in their external contest—now that’s putting your innovation-outside money where your mouth is.
This is not just about looking for startups to buy in Silicon Valley—though I believe most big breakthroughs come out of emerging companies. The best balance to strike is to develop the power and passion of startups, inside your organization, that can identify and foster dynamic, productive partnerships on the outside. If you want to drive real strategic innovation, then your reboot efforts need to be well funded and very focused—and in todays market the target list must be global.
Cisco should win an award for innovation-outside reboots. Since John Chambers determined strategic acquisitions were the best way to maintain a competitive edge and hold a long-term market leadership position, they have been on an acquisition rampage. Google has sporadically developed a keiretsu of partners and acquisitions that have helped it grow—but still have not been able to expand revenues significantly beyond the core of search advertising. This Google Map will give you a view into the acquisition tracks they have been on so far. No doubt the bigger they get the more they will innovate outside as they partner and acquire for competitive and talent scouting reasons. With their first acquisition of a public company in process, and the promise of an acquisition a month by Eric Schmidt, it seems that their next reboot is already underway–what about yours?
