Can Google Keep Growing?
“GOOGLE is not a conventional company. We do not intend to become one,” – Larry Page & Sergey Brin
As a company, Google has grown rapidly since its creation 12 years ago to now have a market capitalization of $180 billion. The word “Google” became a word in the Oxford English language dictionary in 2006 and become synonymous with searching. Much of their growth has been due to impressive organic innovation, however especially recently this innovation has been largely from acquisitions. The company has taken over, among others, YouTube and DoubleClick, with talk of taking over a localized marketing firm Groupon, with the goal of horizontal expansion.
Their manner expansion could potentially be a limiting factor for future growth and innovation as their workforce is now numbered at 23,000 and the company has been forced to increasingly look at taking over companies for access to new ideas and employees. HP has encountered similar problems as a company founded in a garage coming up with new ideas has been forced into buying out other companies to prevent stagnation. Google’s concept of running a venture capitalist enterprise as part of their business may fall outside of their core-competence but could solve some of their bureaucratic issues.
Source: http://www.economist.com/node/17633138