By Bob Bouyea
Executive Editor

I think it would be safe to say that most of us Google. And some of us have even been Googled, whether we realize it or not. But are we Googley?

Since our new corporate citizen, Google, announced it was building a $500 million data center in Berkeley County, we’ve begun hearing this term Googley. Which immediately prompted questions, that is immediately after I stopped giggling over using the term.

“Yes, we use the word with a straight face,” said Matt Dunne, Google’s community affairs manager (maybe; more on titles in a minute). Dunne was in town as the keynote speaker at our Power Breakfast on April 3.

So what is meant by being Googley? Is it a personal characteristic? An environmental trait? Can someone or someplace become Googley? And if so, do they really want to?

The answer to all these questions appears to be “yes.”

Personal characteristics

It’s been only nine years since Google was founded and, in that time, it has evolved from two college students standing on the front steps of a professor’s home holding a $100,000 check from an investor to the world’s leading Internet search engine.

It currently receives 5.3 billion page views per day and has 16,000 employees. And even with this explosive growth, the company is has been selective in whom it hires. The company looks for that person who has Googley characteristics, that is, someone who likes to have fun and who has interests in technology outside of work. They are not just interested in hiring someone with experience but someone who has experience and who goes home at night and rebuilds their computer.

Being Googley also means being an innovator. Google encourages its employees to spend 20% of their time on projects outside their area. And the company wants and expects employees to bring their ideas forward.

I know what you’re thinking. “We are running full out, how do we find the time to cut people loose to work on projects that might not work?”

The issue is not taking what Google is doing and universally applying it. Rather, the issue is to take bits and pieces that could work in your environment. For example, if you’re a manufacturer, are you encouraging your line workers to bring forward ideas for making your product or process better? Is your process of change too cumbersome?

Environmental trait

This spirit of entrepreneurism is indicative of Google’s culture. Google, Dunne said, tends to ignore constraints in favor of developing new ideas and seeing where those ideas will take the company.

The company views the statement “Because we’ve always done it that way” not so much as a problem but as a challenge. It wants to find new and better ways of doing things. It is not satisfied living with good enough.

“Typically, our brainstorming follows a few simple rules. First, focus on the user and revenues will follow; fast is better than slow; there’s always more information out there; and finally, people don’t need to be at their desks to need an answer.”

If they’re not at their desks, where will you find them? First check the rock-climbing walls or maybe the ping-pong tables, or they could be in the video-game area conquering the world. Not there? Then they might be in one of the several cafeterias that feeds the employees at no charge.

OK, so you can’t have a climbing wall on site and if you did, your insurance company would have a fit. But there are many other things you can do, such as offering a discount to a fitness center or holding a company outing or a bring-your-dog-to-work day, to encourage people to get away from their desks to enhance their Googleyness.

The world (of Google) is flat

“We’re a flat organization,” Dunne declared. That became apparent when I first met Dunne. Since I had to introduce him at the Power Breakfast, I asked him what his title was.

He hesitated and finally said, “We really don’t use titles.” In fact, he said, they sort of make fun of titles. One of Dunne’s coworkers goes by the title of Junk Yard Dog.

Others give themselves titles of royalty. (I’m gunning for the title of Mad Dog to use on cards that I pass out to the boys who want to date my daughters.)

Flatness goes beyond titles. It is also about empowering people to move ideas through the process quickly to keep the company ahead of the competition, which is intense with the likes of Yahoo!, MSN Search and Ask.com.

“We like things to be fast and scalable,” Dunne said.

Becoming Googley

While this is all good and well for Google, do we really want to become Googley? Emphatically, yes.

It is hard to do when there are deadlines and quotas to meet, but by keeping the end results in sight, the short-term pain might be well worth it.

In this time when good employees are hard to come by and harder yet to retain, embracing some of what Google does would be good for business all around. Maybe employees will stay longer; maybe they will provide insight, and solutions, to problems in your process.

Maybe creating a culture that encourages employees to get away from their work areas will lead to new products or services. And in the end more profit.

Besides, who do you know that has the corner on good ideas? Not even the Mad Dog does.

Bob Bouyea is executive editor of the Charleston Regional Business Journal. E-mail him at bbouyea@scbiznews.com.

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