How Google Manages KnowledgeOn how the world’s most innovative company manages knowledge

Google – The Innovation Machine;Innovation, the way to create;Knowledge Creation – Enabling Conditions;Google , in the lens of Nonaka;Lessons for the business.

Agenda

We are looking at “How Google manages knowledge” only with respect to knowledge creation.

We have adapted Nonaka’s theory as a lens of seeing the case and have identified that his theory on “enabling conditions for knowledge creation” to be the most apt for the case.

The research is on how Google has enabled its environment for knowledge creation through innovation.

Scope of Study

In Jan 2010, Google launched Nexus One – an elegant touch phone with comprehensive voice recognition. Since Fall 2008, Google’s Android operating system has powered

various phones. But, Nexus One is an extension of aspirations. A reach of passion. Google.

Google – The Innovation Machine

A constant innovator;The technology leader in internet business;World’s best search engine;A pioneer of the new generation businesses.

Innovation in Google

Intention Formulation of organizational intention through collective commitment.

Autonomy Autonomous acts that bring about unexpected opportunities and increases employee motivation.

Fluctuation & Creative Chaos

“Breakdown” of routines, habits, or cognitive frameworks leading to intentional chaos. Aids to externalize tacit knowledge.

Redundancy Intentional overlapping of information about business activities, management responsibilities, and the company as a whole

Requisite Variety

Internal diversity to match the complexity of environment by combining information differently, flexibly, and quickly.

Knowledge Creation (Nonaka)

Getting the most out of the knowledge worker..

At least half a dozen interviews to select the best candidatesAn emphasis on rapid execution with intentional small teamsLetting a thousand flowers bloom – finding ideas all over the place

Intention @ Google

Leaders know that it is important for them to create environment favorable to innovation

Giving the space to work and the idea to build..Low managerial control and higher degree of autonomyGiving the time to create – explicit investment in innovationNearly half of new products – Adsense,Gmail, Google news are discoveries of skunk time.Focus is on upstream objectives and downstream results.

Autonomy @ Google

To sustain high quality employees and to create a huge bank of ideas, motivation is a pre-requisite

Fluctuation @ Google

Promoting the spiral by strengthening commitments

A freedom to work across teamsPutting smart minds together and allowing them to figure out who they want to work withThe ability to do things across projects without managerial intervention

A taste to allow changes and to encourage movements across teams

Looking for a hit but encouraging a miss..

Creativity comes from people bumping into each other and not from ordered travel plans.A culture which says “Please fail very quickly, so that you can try again”Yields and impressive number of new products ( over 130 as per latest info)

Chaos @ Google

A taste of failure and chaos with a aptitude to recoup from mistakes is seen across Google.

Making data a multi purpose ingredient..

Focus is on data and analytics, and not always chaoticInsights gained from one product are used for development of anotherDeployment of a prediction market to reiterate new ideas across employees

Redundancy @ Google

Technology platforms were shared, knowledge was made open for learning

Allowing diversity to foster new ideas…

Understanding the need for innovation and information across boundaries – Google in 110 languages

Striving to reach consensus by making the manager as an “aggregator of decisions” and not a “ dictator”Allowing all employees access to information ( internal and NPD)

Understanding that “many” means good and “different” means innovative

Requisite Variety @ Google

So, what is unique?

A Culture for Innovation

Making money without being evil.Understanding that there is “so much out there to do”Taking data driven decisionsHaving open communication spots – real and virtualAllowing chaotic, random and fluctuated ways of working.Catering to every need – to try and remove any obstacle from work.Budgeting innovation into job descriptions for all employees.A paternalistic, analytical method of evaluating performance

A effective combination of select principles has allowed Google to be the innovation machine. We have identified them as

Technocratic principles for excellenceUsage of prediction markets to tap knowledgeProviding budgeted innovation timeMaking intellectual stimulation a mandateCreating an environment of comfort – better designed offices, comfortable fringe benefitsEncouraging all-hands meetings often – opening doors of communicationUsing scientific methods to foster a culture of growth, optimism and innovation

Business Lessons

Enabling conditions of Knowledge creation, as extracted from http://www.trainmor-knowmore.eu/C4F51A9A.en.aspx

Edelman Benjamin, E. T. (2011, April 11). Google Inc. Harvard Business Review, pp. 3 - 21.

Euchner James, H. A. (2011). The Practice of Innovation: Innovation as Management of Constraints. Pitney Bowes.

INSEAD. (2009, November). Powering the Google engine: innovation is key. Retrieved from INSEAD Knowledge Portal: http://knowledge.insead.edu/innovation-google-091123.cfm?vid=339

Iyer Bala, D. T. (2008, April). Reverse Engineering Google's Innovation Machine. Harvard Business Review.

Jason, K. (2009, 10 13). How Google really does it. Quarterly, T. (2010, March). How the Internet will change the nature of

competition, innovation, and company operations . (E. Schimdt, Interviewer)

References

Image source: http://bhavya163.blogspot.com/2010/12/thank-you-google.htmla