Participate, don’t Spectate – Google uses White Space

by | Feb 10, 2010 | Current Affairs, General, In the Rapids, Innovation, Leadership, Lifecycle, Openness, Web/Tech

Lots of new things are happening with technology.  Everyone knows that.  We see the emergence of new communication vehicles like Facebook, and  new ways to exchange data – like Apple's iPhone and RIM's Blackberry.  Skype replaces the telephone and in-person meetings.  iTunes replaced CDs. The list is pretty long.  But how much of these new technologies do you use regularly, how many do you use in your business, and how many do you use in "mission critical" applications of things you do? 

Most of us watch new markets develop.  Many even think the smart thing to do is to wait, let things evolve, see what happens.  Be a late adopter when technology is "stabilized" and prices are lower.  These are spectators to the world of innovation, doing what they've always done and waiting for some future time when it will seem better to switch.

Then there are participants.  The participants are learning.  While others  watch, they actually learn how to get new customers, how to sell more product, how to apply technology to lower cost while improving the solution, how to be more competitive, how to read market shifts (and prepare) – how to make more money.  Like Google.

Google just launched Buzz ("Google Betting on Mo Better Buzz" at Mediapost.com.  Buzz is a new product that links up to social media sites for a variety of functions – one of which is its ability to deliver ads (imagine that) while also adding benefits to users like location tagging and enhancing email.  It does new things, and some things already available via Facebook or Yelp.  That it's market position, or even its functional position in the technology environment, isn't clear is not terribly important to Google management.  In "A Buzz and A Shrug: Why Should Google Kill Anything?" MediaPost.com goes on to describe that at the launch meeting management went out of its way refusing to declare a specific position, or competitive plan, for Buzz.  Google is in the market, trying something, learning and participating – being part of making Disruptions happen and seeing if it can find a way to create sales and profits.

And that's what White Space, and participation, is all about.  While spectators watch and get left behind, participants are in the market.  Spectators fall off the S-curve, as their capabilities fall away from market needs they become less relevant, sell less and profits fall.  Participants use White Space to jump the curve – to move from an old product/market S curve to a new one.  They are in the market learning, and adapting, and moving toward that point where the technologies and solutions collide – thus they are ready and able to move to the next new thing.  While spectators are stuck, doing the same old thing, falling farther behind.

Being a participant isn't hard, nor is it all that expensive.  It requires the willingness to get in the game.  To start.  To do less "planning" and instead get in there and do it – like the NIke ad recommends.  Instead of devoting all your money to defending and extending what you know, take some and invest in the places where growth is rampant.  The learning will pay for itself as it allows your business to move into new markets and generate new revenues.  You will have to Disrupt your thinking and processes to do this, but the payoff is it could save your company!

Long ago business education started with a lot of focus on industrial engineering.  Improving operations to get more stuff out the door.  This was augmented by sales and marketing, to help sell stuff so we could get more out the door.  And finance was added as a way to understand cash flow and funding in order to get more stuff out the door.  All of that was predicated on endless demand for the stuff.  But today, it's not about making lots of your stuff and cramming it down customer throats.  Instead, winners have to be adaptable to market needs – to be part of creating new solutions that generate more revenues and higher profit rates.

You don't need all the answers.  White Space is about having a plan, and goals, based upon scenarios.  But then avoiding analytical paralysis and getting into the market.  Google is phenomenal at this.  Not everything Google launches is a big hit.  Google Wave appears to be struggling.  But that's OK.  If you don't put all your eggs in one basket, because you get into markets earlier and faster, you can afford to have misses.  You still get the benefits of market learning – and move forward to possibly jumping the next S curve.  Google's Buzz is another stereotypical White Space entry into the market.  A product with a lot of possibilities, looking for how to fit into a quickly shifting market, teaching Google more about the marketplace and aiding the company toward maintaining its torrid growth pace.

Google’s innovation continues

by | Sep 18, 2009 | Current Affairs, Disruptions, In the Rapids, Innovation, Leadership, Lifecycle, Openness, Web/Tech

This week The Economist reviewed the innovation processes at Google.  In "Google's Corporate Culture – Creative Tension" the magazine overviews several recent innovations, and actions senior leaders are taking regarding innovation management.

While Mr. Anthony recently chastised Google for its "immature" innovation management in a Harvard Business School blog post, and somewhat The Economist does as well, for not producing more revenue from its innovations – nobody can refute that the company released yet 3 more very important innovations this week – an updated Chrome web brower, new software that allows viewing on-line newspapers in a more natural way (Fast Flip) and Google Wave for collaborative project development.  For most companies any one of these would be vaunted to market on piles of ad and PR sending.  Products less significant cause Microsoft to throw their Marketing/PR machine into overdrive.  But innovative launches are frequent enough at Google that you can completely miss some of them.  Even when they continue to change whole industries – like Google has been doing to newspaper publishers and continues.

The best line in the article says that senior Google leadership is very actively trying to counter "the conservatism that can set in as companies mature."  The good news is that even though it has 20,000 employees, Google is not "mature."  Thankfully, it remains in the Rapids of growth.  Size does not equal "maturity."  That word is more applicable to companies that begin truncating ideas and activities to optimize their existing business.  This is the direction Scott Anthony recently proposed on his HBS blog.  And it gets companies into serious trouble.

Instead, Google is working hard to keep ideas from being truncated by hierarchy or people who are focused on narrow opportunities.  Senior leaders are making themselves available to everyone in order to make sure ideas get attention – rather than vetted.  Through this they are giving permission for ideas to be developed, even when many in the company aren't supportive.  This top-level focus on granting permission to new ideas which are unconventional is a CRITICAL component of innovation success.  Second, they aren't relying on a priority process for funding (something Mr. Anthony recommends).  Instead they are making ample dollars available for ideas to push them to market quickly – and see if the innovation is accepted by the market or needs more work. 

By personally engaging at the top levels in this process, Mr. Schmidt and his team are being Disruptive.  They aren't allowing structural impediments like strategy formulation, hiring practices, tight IT systems, large historical investments or internal "experts" to Lock-in Google to its past.  This is demonstrably exceptional behavior that pushes Google into new markets and growth.  Then, by focusing on granting permission – even for things the "organization" may not initially support – and adding resources from outside normal resource allocation systems they are doing the 2 things necessary to keep White Space alive and thriving at Google.

Google has been growing, even in this very tough economy.  More importantly, it has not slowed down its releases of innovation on the marketplace that can generate future growth.  Mobile phones using its Android software are just now getting to market, and offer (along with other innovations) potentially very large revenue gains in new areas.  With smart phones and Kindle-like e-readers to outsell PCs in late 2010 Google is squarely positioned to be part of the "next wave" of personal digital productivity (along with Apple.)  And this can be explained by the company's willingness to remain Disruptive and push White Space projects — even with 20,000 employees.