In my opinion Google should start trying to look inconspicuous. Google’s reality is that it is a middle-sized company that is making an enormous amount of money, i.e. it punches above its weight. If Google were to suddenly cease to exist, it would be an inconvenience for many and a disaster to a few but it’s not systemically important except to the Standard & Poors 500.
O/T. Going way back in the comments sequence……..
I saw some commentary about non-competes, complete with the usual emotional vitriol. Non-competes are very rarely enforceable, sometimes by state law but also in court, so it is usually not even attempted. The short version: you can’t deprive someone of the right to earn a living. And if you do want a NC you have to pay the person.
The principle exception is someone who sells their business. The reason for that should be obvious. Other exceptions are very difficult, usually driven by trade secret protection. And you have to pay. Unless there has been a remarkable change in the law in just the last two years I’d have to see a lot of evidence before believing what was being pedaled there.
Some of the blubbering about enslaving workers was humorous, but not sophisticated. Trust me, fork lift drivers don’t have non-competes.
An interesting take from the publishers side http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/a-serf-on-googles-farm
Is Google really a middle sized company? Its the 27th largest US company by revenue.
Maybe that’s the wrong choice of words. I don’t know that we really have a category for characterizing Google. Yes, it’s #27 in the Fortune 500.
But compare it with #26 (Bank of America) and #28 (Microsoft). BoA has more than 200,000 employees and nearly 5,000 physical premises. Microsoft has 120,000 employees and hundreds of physical premises.
Google on the other hand has 57,000 employees and fewer than 100 physical premises. IMO it is a very wealthy, very profitable company with a footprint that is very small compared to revenues. By my standards a medium-sized company has revenues between $1 billion and $20 billion (a small company is $0-$1 billion). DuPont is something like #123 in the Fortune 500 and whaddaya know? It has about the same number of employees and premises as Google but has a lot less revenue. That’s what I mean by “punching above its weight”.
And compare it with the other FAANGs (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google). Facebook, Apple, and Amazon all have much larger footprints than Google. IMO that makes it vulnerable.
If Google were to disappear suddenly from the face of the earth, there would be some scrambling for a few days or weeks while people found substitutes for it but they would find them and life would go on. If BoA were to disappear, the economy would probably collapse.
IMO that means that if Google becomes too conspicuous and uppity it’s a prime candidate for federal scrutiny. It’s pretty exposed to the federal government. Nearly 15% of its workforce is composed of H-1B visa holders. Maintaining a low profile is a really good idea for Google.
Even through its far from Google’s profit centers – their education offerings are very popular and I think if it dissipeared it would be very disruptive to educational institutions.
One thing Google has going for it that it shares with Facebook and Apple is that it does not require routine testing of job applicants or employees. Though trained as a rocket scientist by the US gummint at great expense, I can’t gain a job at Lockheed, Rockwell, Grumman and a host of other military contractors because I refuse to submit to drug testing on moral, scientific and privacy grounds. May Nancy Reagan be damned.
In my way of thinking, anyone who submits to drug testing is a moral weakling whom I would prefer not to work alongside. Google and the few others probably feel the same way, recognizing that imposition of drug testing would turn away the thoughtful libertarian minds they most want to attract. Military contractors probably realize the same thing, but are constrained by misguided Reagan-era policies that require drug-testing of all their contractors.
Fortunately for smart weapons designers everywhere, there are no doubt countries like Iran, Korea, Pakistan, and India who care more about their security than drug-war nonsense.
Drew-Non-competes are routinely enforced in medicine. In the original article it was noted that Idaho made it the responsibility of the accused to prove that his leaving would not harm the company. Puts a real financial burden on the employee.
Steve
If Google were to disappear suddenly from the face of the earth, there would be some scrambling for a few days or weeks while people found substitutes for it but they would find them and life would go on.
The only way it would take a few weeks would be for people that logged onto a forgotten phone or tablet after a few weeks and said, “Oh yes, I need to switch to Bing.” Android phones would be replaced within the normal cycle of replacement, most likely, and I would really expect M$ or someone of that nature to just buy that part as part of the fire sale.
If BoA were to disappear, the economy would probably collapse.
Such was the premise on which trillions of dollars of bailouts were used to make Warren Buffet whole.