Searching For Major Growth

Here is your trivia question of the day: What do tsunami, xbox 360, Brad Pitt, Britney Spears and Harry Potter have in common? (Insert Jeopardy theme music here.) The answer: They were five of the top ten Google News searches in 2005. (Yes, Brad’s current flame also made the list.) When I was nine years old, the word “googol” was the answer to another trivia question, this one posed by my older brother: “What is the world’s biggest number?” After I finally learned the answer, he said, “Nope, it’s a googol-and-one.” Aargh!

Today, of course, most everyone knows about Google. It’s a major part of our Internet culture…both a noun (“Go to Google and find out”) and a verb (“Let’s google it”). With their ever increasing offerings, it appears Google is attempting to become much more than simply the world’s largest search engine. While it seldom “invents” a feature, the ones it adds are usually the best. Other services offered by Google include: Earth; Desktop; Image; Alerts; Froogle; Directory; Book Search; Music; Scholar; Picasa; Video; Gmail; Catalogs; and, Maps.

All this from a company founded eight years ago that gives nearly everything away for free! But Google does make money from those small ads on the right side of search pages, and right now those “Sponsored Links” are the golden goose (doubling revenue to $1.58 billion for the most recently reported quarter). And with $7.6 billion in cash, Google has plenty of ways to gather new technology. For instance, their latest initiative is an alliance with Sun Microsystems to take over the office environment dominated by Microsoft, in which you would someday access all your well-organized business information over the Internet, instead of on your servers.

Success Handler Action: Google went public in August 2004, at an offering price of $85 per share. In early 2006, it topped a dizzying $450, and a major Wall Street firm raised its price target to $600. A recent Forbes article suggested the key to Google’s success is “hiring only the truly brilliant” and pursuing “a rapid-fire food-fight strategy that throws out ideas as fast as possible.” Hire the best; act quickly. Good strategy. After you finish reading this E-Newsletter, ask yourself these questions about the speed in your small business:

~ Who among your team members are the smartest and best?

~ What types of new ideas do they come up with? Think big picture.

~ Where do you send them to improve their personal and professional skills?

~ When was the last time someone took the initiative to fix a problem on their own?

~ How often do you find yourself asking more than once for something you need completed?

Google’s stated mission is to “Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” They see themselves as an “engineering company” focused on creating many new offerings one project at a time. Employees work in small teams, taking new ideas from inspiration to results in less than six weeks, or dropping them completely. One success in 10 tries is acceptable, and one in five is considered superb.

Success Handler Action: Another key to Google’s spectacular results is never allowing anyone to call an idea “stupid.” Employees spend 10 percent of their time dreaming up new things. As long as sufficient data exits to support a vision, Google teams are willing to explore it. To encourage employees to be more involved in setting the course for your small business, consider these five possibilities:

1. Gather your team for a brainstorming session, and choose six initiatives to pursue in 2006.

2. Choose an easy-to-read business book – like “Who Moved My Cheese?” – and work through it together.

3. Focus on communicating, and helping your employees understand the big picture.

4. Pick a critical expense category, and teach everyone how they affect the bottom line.

5. Ask your team members what they would do, if they were in charge. Their creativity will surprise you.

Last month CNN.com asked users to choose the Internet’s most significant development in the last 15 years, and the leading vote-getter by far was the introduction of Google. This mega-empire – with a market cap greater than Disney, Dell or Home Depot – is expanding at a blistering pace by encouraging employees to play a critical role every day. Allowing your team members to join you in developing the vision for your small business will keep you from becoming the answer to a trivia question.

The Coach, David Handler, is the founder of Success Handler, (http://www.successhandler.com), and specializes in helping small business leaders find clarity and take action. He understands the challenges of running a business, because he’s been there – as a small business owner, franchisee, franchisor, corporate leader and trainer. Much like sports coaches, his coaching will show you how to compete on a level playing field in your industry.