Co-founded a high-profitable business based on knowledge and principles. The company’s capitalization in the end of 2006 was estimated to be $14.1 billion, making Sergei Brin the 26th richest person in the world and 12th richest person in the USA.
Most major companies has a detailed code of corporate conduct which can be estimated at dozens of pages. Google's code of conduct can be boiled down to a mere three words: Don't be evil.
"Evil," says Google CEO Eric Schmidt, "is what Sergey says is evil." Brin, in his role as Google's conscience and head policymaker, spends his days gripping the moral tiller - and in so doing, imposes his worldview on everyone else. Brin also says that it is not enough not to be evil. The company is also trying to be good.
Google has grants that give advertising to nonprofit organizations. The “Be good” concept also comes up when the company designs products. Brin and Page want them to have positive social effects. Social good is simply providing a free and powerful communication service to everyone in the world.
In Google’s history there already were several situations when the company faced rifts between what's good for users and what's good for Google. In 2002 Chinese government decided to shut down all access to Google. Brin was no expert on international diplomacy. So he ordered a half-dozen books about Chinese history, business, and politics and splurged on overnight shipping. He consulted with Schmidt, Page, and David Drummond, Google's general counsel and head of business development, then put in a call to tech industry doyenne Esther Dyson for advice and contacts. Google has no offices in China, so Brin enlisted go-betweens to get the message to Chinese authorities that Google would be very interested in working out a compromise to restore access.
Brin and other Google executives realized that the Chinese firewall allowed them only two choices, neither of which they relished. If Google remained aloof and continued to run its Chinese site from foreign soil, it would face slowdowns from the firewall and the threat of more arbitrary blockades — and eventually, the loss of market share to Baidu and other Chinese search engines. If it opened up a Chinese office and moved its servers onto Chinese territory, it would no longer have to fight to get past the firewall, and its service would speed up. But then Google would be subject to China's self-censorship laws.
Brin and his executives began discussing exactly which compromises they could tolerate. They decided that — unlike Yahoo and Microsoft — they would not offer e-mail or blogging services inside China, since that could put them in a position of being forced to censor blog postings or hand over dissidents' personal information to the secret police. They also decided they would not take down the existing, unfiltered Chinese-language version of the google.com engine. In essence, they would offer two search engines in Chinese. Chinese surfers could still access the old google.com; it would produce uncensored search results, though controversial links would still lead to dead ends, and the site would be slowed down and occasionally blocked entirely by the firewall. The new option would be google.cn, where the results would be censored by Google — but would arrive quickly, reliably and unhindered by the firewall. When Chinese users search for forbidden terms, Brin said, "they can notice what's missing, or at least notice the local control."
The company has succeeded by adhering to one, pure principle: Do good by users. “We deal with all varieties of information” says Brin. “Somebody’s always upset no matter what we do. We have to make a decision; otherwise there’s a never-ending debate. Some issues are crystal clear. When they’re less clear and opinions differ, sometimes we have to break a tie. For example, we don’t accept ads for hard liquor, but we accept ads for wine. It’s just a personal preference. We don’t allow gun ads, and the gun lobby got upset about that. We don’t try to put our sense of ethics into the search results, but we do when it comes to advertising. Our ads are more discreet and off to the side. Yes, the ads are related to what you are looking at, but that can make them more useful. It’s automated. No one is looking, so I don’t think it’s a privacy issue. We need to be protective of the mail and of people’s privacy. If you have people’s e-mail, you have to treat that very seriously. We do. Everyone who handles e-mail has that responsibility”.
When Sergey Brin and Larry Page created their new search technology they didn’t succeed in their afforts to find potential partners who might want to license it. Search engines were not interested in improving technology. The idea to make a new search engine while there already were companies like Yahoo! and Alta Vista seemed very strange. But Brin and Page decided to grow the company themselves and met their first angel investor Andy Bechtolsheim, one of co-founders of Sun Microsystems. They showed him a demo and he said, “Oh we could go on talking, but why don't I just write you a check?” He gave a check for $100,000 to Google Inc., which didn't exist at the time. So Google co-founders had to quickly get a lawyer to set up the company.
But Google succeeded not only doing good by users but also doing good by employees. The company has its own practice in retaining the best and the brightest talents. In 2007 Fortune named Google the best place to work and even key knowledge workers like Kai-Fu Lee from Microsoft jupm of the possibility to work in this company. Ask one what he or she is doing, and it's never "selling ads" or "writing code." No, they're on a quest "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." That's from the actual mission statement, by the way, which employees can and do cite with cloying frequency. Googlers can play beach volleyball on campus. Other fun activities at Google include Foosball, videogames, pool tables, ping pong and roller hockey twice a week in the parking lot. At the Googleplex, it looks as though every day’s a party. They have a fantastic cafeteria, where the food - Chinese, Mexican, deli food, Kosher food, any kind of food - is all free. Google’s founders say that they tried to use elements from different companies, but a lot is “seat-of-your-pants stuff”.
Genentech CEO and Google board member Art Levinson says, "What draws people to both (Genentech and Google) companies is the environment, one where they have an ability to pursue things largely on their own terms."
Sergey Brin (born August 21, 1973) is a Russian American entrepreneur. Born in Moscow, Russia to a Jewish family, Brin studied computer science and mathematics before co-founding Google with Larry Page in 1998.
Background Links
Wired: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.01/google.html?pg=1&topic=&topic_set= This article describes how Google is putting into practice its motto “Don't be evil”. It also contains a story about how company was solving its ethical “China problem”.
The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/23/magazine/23google.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5090&en=972002761056363f&ex=1303444800 Here you can find details about how Google reached a decision to provide services to Chineese users without refusing its ethical principles.
CBS News: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/12/30/60minutes/main664063.shtml Here are some interesting details about Google’s corporate culture. Once people do get hired, Google does everything possible to keep them happy.
Playboy: http://www.kottke.org/plus/misc/google-playboy.html This is an interview in wich Google’s founders illustrate how they put into practice their principles creating new products and services.
Fortune: http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/fortune/0701/gallery.Google_life/index.html This article describes how Google attracts and retains talents by its outstanding corporate culture.
