patti wilson's blog

Google Grows Up! No Free Food?

Lower Revenues Changes Culture

Looks like this turn of events might be a sea change in corporate culture for this now maturing company. They hired young idealistic employees who worked for lower wages but loved the college dorm culture on the European plan that included free food, free toys, free laundromats, and a chance to change the world. All that is changing.

Anybody who followed my  comments in this blog last year about how Google didn’t deserve to be on the “best companies to work for list” because of their low pay and slave labor mentality will be interested in this turn of events.  Here is a posting from the Webguild blog.

Webguild
Google Tells CNBC Food Not Being Cut
By Reshma Kumar at August 26, 2008   
Google’s cutbacks on its free food made it to the homepage of CNBC and was the fodder for a lengthy discussion amongst the CNBC anchors. Clearly, this was big news. In fact, it was such big news that Google was forced to do damage control and told CNBC’s Jim Goldman that it was not true. And the saga continues. The free food has long been a part of Google’s recruiting strategy, although, it is losing its novelty and is not sustainable in the long-term.
Many Google employees told us they would gladly give up the free food and be paid on par with employees at other Bay Area companies. “We are working for food not money“, said an employee who did not want to be identified for fear of losing their job.  “They work at Google for less money…this is like indentured laborers in the farm…”, said CNBC’s Dennis Kneale.
Why the cut in food? On July 17th, Google shares were down by as much as 12% as their earnings growth reported was below analysts’ expectations. The company might not be as immune as previously suggested to the economic downturn that other companies have been experiencing. If it did not incur the food cost, it could have reduced its operational expenses.
To cut costs, the company was rumored to be testing out a new menu. The new menu is leaner and includes a quarter of a raw onion, lemon, and pita bread. “The food has been in decline since Charlie Ayers walked out the door.” said CNBC’s Jim Goldman. But apparently, this plan has been put on hold until the smoke clears. Google is in a no-win situation. It has to make up for the revenue shortfall due to the bad economy and appease shareholders not happy with having to pick up the tab for gourmet meals. However, if they cut the food costs, they will have to start paying employees market wages or they will leave. If employees walk out, it will eventually hurt the company. However, if Google starts paying market wages, it will take a big hit to its operational costs.

A Maturing Company needs Grown Up Solutions

Google does have a problem because they no longer can just keep hiring to throw more bodies at problems. They need to act like a mature company that doesn’t have an endless vertical revenue curve by hiring selectively and smarter, managing their talent wisely, building well oiled and well-functioning teams, and getting increased productivity out of their current workforce.

It is time to bring in the consultants,finally! And, they can make good use of the 55 year old, incredibility accurate personality assessment that I vendor in Silicon Valley called the Predictive Index. It is one of a handful of such tests that can be used pre-employment during the interview process to screen candidates as well as afterwards to manage and build effective teams. Up until now Google’s hiring screen was if the person was Google enough. A Je ne sais quoi approach for sure. But every hire will now have to really count for more than that. Using a simple, cost-effective, proven tool might be the wiser hiring screen. 

Hey, Google, call me! I can help.

Leveraging Google’s Orkut

The glut of social networking sites can overwhelm your ability to discriminate among them. There are, though, statistics on the big ones that enable anyone to pinpoint their networking goals to demographic targets and geographical areas with at least side-of-the-barn accuracy.

Ecademy was founded by Thomas Powers in Great Britain and is known for a solid European base of members. A recent newcomer to that geo area is multilingual Viadeo having originated in France, it is considered an upcoming competitor to Linkedin for EU professionals.

The most interesting news of late is the Business Week article about Google's plans to expand Orkut, its invitation only social network. The article lamented the fact that Orkut had geographical limitations. Perspective is everything, right? What is one person’s poison is another’s perfume.   

According to Business Week, “…..Asia and Latin America, which account for nearly all of Orkut's 24.6 million monthly users, the site's traffic remains simply anemic—totaling just 600,000 in North America and about 1.2 million in Europe, and not growing very fast.”

This is a problem?

Perhaps for Google it is a business concern but not for recruiters, deal makers, business developers, job seekers and geo-focused networkers who seek contacts in those areas. Orkut is the perfect venue to penetrate Latin American and Asian markets which adds up to about to about 22.6 million potential connections, especially in Brazil.

The old saying goes something like: to catch fish you need to cast your line in water. Same holds true for social networking sites. The idea is to join those sites that most closely target the population that you seek. 

My offer to you to join Orkut.

I was invited to join Orkut when it first started several years ago. If you are interested in networking in Asia and Latin America please add a comment to this post. In return, I will invite you to join Orkut using the email address you left with your comment. Please don’t send me an email, the quid pro quo here is the trade of a comment for an invite.

Who is ZoomInfo? It's Linkedin's Search on Steroids

"ZoomInfo is a search engine that continually scans millions of Web sites, electronic news sources, SEC filings, and other on-line resources and provides results in concise, easy-to-use summaries. ZoomInfo PowerSearch helps recruiters source passive candidates by providing information on more than 36 million business professionals. ZoomInfo JobCast is a campaign tool that uses proven email best practices to help you efficiently reach these candidates. Try out ZoomInfo on some of your own searches!"

ERE the Recruiter's Mother-ship

This ad was included in an email announcement from ERE, a 30,000 member on-line recruitment community and publisher of Electronic Recruitment Daily. ERE is probably the most influential resource for the recruitment industry. 

Zoominfo a big advertiser on ERE's website and newsletters, has grown into a powerhouse resource for recruiters, deal makers and sales/marketing folks. It scrapes websites for data, organizes the information by person and provides depths of detail to users for free or in various fee-based levels similar to Linkedin.

Zoominfo is Raw Capitalism

But that's where the similarity to Linkedin ends. While Linkedin is based on a mutuality, an exchange of value, and the understanding that connections are made through known commodities. Zoominfo is pure raw capitalism, allowing you to gather as much data on a person and their affiliations as possible and go after them freely and relentlessly. Of course how you go after them is up to you as no introductions through shared mutuality and other niceties are available through Zoominfo. It's up to an organization to ferret out the data and drive the deal

This makes Zoominfo one of the most fertile aggregators of data on people and companies existing today outside of Homeland Security's records with potential to seek and recruit talent with speed and efficiencies escalated to the steroid level of employment search on the Internet. It makes even using Google's search tools pale in comparison because Zoominfo does the search for you. They take out the guesswork and the effort.