The decay at Google, the struggle for organization at large scale

(written by Lawrence Krubner, however indented passages are often quotes)

An ex-engineer says that Google should return to its startup roots. Personally, I do not think a large company can behave like a small company. Additional organization is needed. But this sounds like very good advice:

Make it very clear that good, small ideas matter.

This is so important. One of the things I heard over and over was “If your product isn’t a billion-dollar idea, then it’s not worth Google’s time.” This message sucks. What you’re saying is “your great idea that might make millions per year is less important than a small tweak to ads or search”. Even if it’s true, you need to foster innovation of much lesser initial impact.

Google acquisitions of companies in the $5-50mm range means that at some level, small businesses are valued. Make this very clear. It sucks to have someone say “your $5mm idea isn’t big enough” on the one hand, and then watch Google buy up companies for $5mm each. This is bad precedent.

Also interesting conversation about this at Hacker News.