Larry and Sergi, the Google guys, founded Google.org three years ago with the aim to have a greater impact on the world than google.com. They have the vision, clout and cash to be very innovative / far from ‘old-school’ in their approaches.
This week the head of Google.org, Dr. Larry Brilliant, is moving aside to be the Chief Philanthropy Evangelist. I’m not sure what that is either but it’s a really cool title.
The blog post announcement is worth a quick read. What I find most interesting is how google.org envisions its next chapter. While they have all the cash in the world they’re pointing to using more ‘in-house’ talent to achieve impact. It looks like the greatest impact has come from trying to leverage what they’re best in the world at — engineering and information technology. This would be akin to Accenture saying, “We have a really strong consulting model to solve problems, the best in the world. We’re going to focus that model (and talent) on solving problems.” I think something more is happening. Google is a talent company. It’s well known for mind bending interviews and recruiting. I think they’re saying, “Time out. We have the smartest people on the planet. We could use them to change the world!”
A nod to Jim Collins’ bus metaphor… get the right people on the bus and in the right seats and you can drive that bus anywhere.
Keep watching google.org – I’m sure we’ll see a lot of innovation in the coming years.
