Larry Page and the Success of Google: New Ideas and Thoughts - Case Study Example

Larry Page Leadership Style Introduction (A Brief Background) Larry Page (Lawrence Page) is one of the co-founders of Google, alongside Sergey Brin. Larry Page, the current chief executive officer for Google, was born on March 26th 1973 in Michigan’s East Lansing. He is the leader of Google’s over 55,000 employees (spread in over 40 nations across the world) and is additionally recognized as the inventor of Google’s most popular search algorithm, the Page Rank. In 2004, he was awarded the Marconi Prize and also elected to the National Academy of Engineering. Furthermore, Larry sits on the board of XPRIZE Corporation (Brandt, 2011). Page developed a passion for technology and computers in his childhood home where there were a lot of computers and related literature material since his father, Carl Vincent Page, a PhD holder in computer science, was a professor in computer science in the State University of Michigan and his mother, Gloria Page, a computer programming instructor in the same university. His elder brother was equally instrumental in aiding his curiosity and mastery of computer parts, working, and software. As it stands, Larry Page currently holds a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering and a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Michigan and Stanford respectively. Page is known as the first student in his elementary school to hand in an assignment in a word document. It was in Stanford University that Larry met Sergey Brin who became a co-founder of Google Corporation (Sapet, 2012). As of January 2015, Larry Page, who has two children with his wife Lucinda Southworth, was reported to worth over USD 29 billion. His official website is Google.com – Larry Page. Early Management Larry Page became Google’s CEO IN 2011 and has retained the position until March 11th 2015. However, this is not his first stint as the CEO of the corporation headquartered in California’s Silicon Valley. His first tenure was not so smooth sailing as he reportedly failed in some aspects of his leadership and implementation. The leader that Larry Page has become right now is not the same leader he was back in 2001 during his maiden reign. He is constantly undergoing metamorphosis and adapting himself into a world class act worthy of imitation with each passing day (following and triggered by his previous failures/ mistakes in management). This is an important personal attribute and philosophy for a leader to posses (to accept failure and follow it up with efforts aimed at bettering oneself) that has seen him safely manage the most popular search engine in the globe (Brandt, 2011). His first stint as CEO is unpalatably remembered for his unsuccessful attempt to have all Google project leaders dismissed and fired. In his proposal, Larry wanted a system in which all engineers would report to the Vice President of engineering who in turn would be directly answerable to him. Some of Larry’s tenets of management in his first reign were unsustainable and caused employee dissatisfaction in all ranks. Some of the principles he championed for in this rather unfriendly model included that employees were not to delegate duties and that workers were to perform functions on their own so that operations would flow faster. Another management tenet he documented instructed employees not to interfere with any process or decision making if they were not involved there in. The only people allowed to contribute on issues were the very persons specifically tasked with the duty. The rest (even those that could have had better innovations) were simply locked out (Sapet, 2012). In this model, Page additionally and significantly diminished any employee respect and tolerance for the elderly work force by explicitly stating that ideas were of more value to age. However, in as much as this period of leadership was one that Larry himself would love to blot out of his otherwise impeccable CV, there are certain positives and milestones that were realized in this first attempt. His opposition of non-engineers managing and supervising engineers was justified and the practice has since been adopted by several other organizations globally. In the modern day workplace (in Silicon Valley and across the world), only engineers are allowed to monitor their fellow engineers (Brezina, 2013). Larry also stressed on lag time and asserted that the faster the search engine for Google yielded results, the more the user base will expand globally. The ensuing improvement on lag time has since ensured that Google receives over 200 million queries on an average day. Furthermore, to help queries load faster, Larry Page insisted that the home page of Google have the least possible features and design so that the loading of search results is speeded up (Brandt, 2011). Contemporary Leadership Style (Strengths in Personality, Influence and Values) Recently named by Fortune Magazine as 2014’s Businessperson of the Year, Larry Page is presently one of the best leaders in the business world. Forbes reckons he is in the top ten world’s most powerful figures with a success track like none other’s. The success of Google, as per the latest figures (2014), back these glorious allegations with record revenues and over two million searches on Google each second cited. Page calls upon his employees to rise above good performance and put out spectacular performances instead. As a person, Larry Page is intelligent and creative. In addition, those who have had the honor of interacting with him describe the gentle man as collaborative, ambitious and driven. His work philosophy (which encourages the workers at Google to create great things that do not currently exist) alongside his personal and organizational values continues to enrich the organization in many ways. It evokes an appreciation and desire for innovation and the need for organization employees to come up with new ideas and thoughts. His traits and philosophies also enable Google to take on the impossible projects and go beyond the realms of traditional rule and possibility (in what he refers to as moon-shots) (Brezina, 2013). Page excites his employees into the dream of enhancing technology and spurs them into aiming for more milestones, with tremendous effect! He inspires his employees and builds them up. Because of his style of leadership, Google does not worry about competition from organizations with similar services and products since the organization will always be one step ahead technologically. Larry Page as a person does not act on a whim and basic trend but comes out as a rather prudent and analytical leader, always considering the benefits of a project/ idea in the long-term rather than focus on fleeting success. He has translated this personal value into the thinking of the Google society, which has resulted in desirable long-term effects (Lowe, 2009). One of Larry Page’s approaches when securing companies and products for Google is to emphasize the aspects of usefulness over profitability, and long-term potential above short-term financial gain. Is the product or company valuable to Google in the short-term or is it something that will last a lifetime? Because of this, Google is able to remain competitive and relevant for centuries to come. Page aligns the strategies of Google in light with the future expectations. When Larry became Google CEO in 2011, for a second time, he instituted L-teams (composed of senior VPs who were answerable to him) which substituted the previously powerful operating committee that was made up of top executives. The L-teams in turn work closely together. This approach effectively fragmented Google into small manageable units and gave these teams the ability/ authority for self-governance. However, Larry Page demands consistent unity, integration and collaboration within and between the teams (Flammang, 2008) with the success of Google+ a conspicuous outcome of this novel approach. Efficient communication, collaboration and understanding in the teams created by Larry and the power accorded to the leaders of each group have catapulted Google into new heights and expanded their horizons into distant shores. There is an apparent chain of command in Google, and each team is answerable to its leader who in turn answers to Larry Page. Another notable strength (value) in Larry Page’s leadership technique is his openness and willingness to listen to other people’s opinions. In the end, the organization is able to utilize the individual creativity of its 50,000 plus employees with considerable gains recorded hence. His introvert nature enables him to effectively manage his employees’ views and ideas. He additionally implores Google workers to believe in their extraordinary ideas and explore avenues aimed at their realization. Larry also encourages faster work rates and decision making within Google so that employees become more efficient on limited time and stay ahead of the competition. In addition, Larry Page encourages the intake of fresh and brilliant graduates into the Google team and his strong and influential personality ensures that the best workforce is retained (and not lost to rivals) simply because they believe in him and what he says (Flammang, 2008). Larry Page’s leadership is also known to be one that prides itself in empowering employees and making them feel emotionally and financially secure. Page is highly interested in the success and wellbeing of each of his staff members and because of Google’s superior work environment, motivation, recognition (of employees), terms and conditions, Google has always been ranked amongst the best organizations to work for. Page encourages his employees to persevere in their attempts to make game changing inventions and ideas, and even after a string of past failures and defeats, Google will still stand by an employee to come good. He is an astounding team builder who is able to squeeze the very best out of all his employees and often calls for setting of clear goals with well highlighted strategies that are useful in engaging workers in all projects on-going. Larry Page successfully finds a balance between laissez-faire and democratic leadership styles (Lowe, 2009). Weaknesses and Changes Necessary in Leadership Style Portrayed Despite all these achievements, Google’s CEO, just like every leader, has room for improvement and growth. For one, his communication rate (to the media, Google partners, employees, and so on) has often comfortably ranged from very low to non-existent. As the CEO of a multi-global enterprise, Larry Page ought to communicate more with the external world, for instance. Failures in communication, such as with investors, have often been blamed for some declines in revenue. Secondly, Page’s reaction to adversity is quite wanting in some cases when he opts to ignore issues such as lawsuits or regulations and dismisses certain critical details as unworthy of attention. This approach may elicit complaints and corrective punitive action from other organizations such as the European Union which may begin to regard Google as untrustworthy (McPherson, 2011). Lastly, Page’s management style focuses on the increase of staff and with minimal releases, which inflates the wage bill of the organization and leaves it vulnerable to financial injury. This high wage bill also lowers Google‘s financial power (which is vital in the current world market) (McPherson, 2011). The organization, for example, intends to employ 6,000 more people in 2015-the largest number hired since Google was founded. References Brandt, R. (2011). The Google guys: Inside the brilliant minds of Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. New York: Portfolio / Penguin. Brezina, C. (2013). Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Eric Schmidt, and Google. New York: Rosen Pub. Flammang, J. (2008). Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Ann Arbor, Mich.: Cherry Lake Pub. Lowe, J. (2009). Google speaks secrets of the worlds greatest billionaire entrepreneurs, Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons. McPherson, S. (2011). Sergey Brin and Larry Page: Founders of Google. Minneapolis: Twenty- First Century Books. Sapet, K. (2012). Google founders: Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Greensboro, N.C.: Morgan Reynolds Pub. Read More