Google Alphabet’s challenge: organising itself
Google’s self-professed mission is to organise the world’s information. But a company known for engineering excellence is still trying to solve the very human problem of how to organise itself. Nearly two years ago, Google co-founder Larry Page announced the tech giant would be remade as Alphabet, a holding company whose units would include Google and an array of pursuits in areas such as healthcare, self-driving cars and urban planning.
Wall Street cheered. Investors would now see Google’s performance independent of its socalled ‘Other Bets’, a collection of 11 ventures. They include Nest, a maker of Wi-Fi enabled thermostats; Calico, which seeks to prolong the human lifespan; and X, the company’s secretive research lab.
Alphabet’s top management also aimed to boost accountability by appointing chief executives to head each of the Other Bets. Few people in Google’s constellation of ventures had ever held the title prior to that.
But so far Alphabet has failed to show it can convert its Other Bets from experiments to businesses with the reach, impact and moneymaking potential of Google’s core search and advertising operations. Interviews with two dozen former Alphabet executives and employees reveal an organisation grappling with how much time and resources Other Bets deserve in the pursuit of profitability.
In the first quarter, which ended March 31, the ventures lost a combined $855 million; that’s on top of a collective $3.6 billion loss for 2016. As a whole, Alphabet generated $90.3 billion in revenue in 2016. Google’s share of that revenue was $89.5 billion, while its 2016 operating income was $27.9 billion.
Alphabet’s early days have seen more pruning than expansion of its holdings.
The company has skinned back plans for Google Fiber, which delivers rapid Internet service in 10 metro areas. This month, Alphabet agreed to sell robotics company Boston Dynamics to Japanese multinational SoftBank Group Corp. It unloaded its Terra Bella satellite imaging business in February.
Last year, it was even looking to sell Nest, the largest of the Other Bets. Google paid an eyepopping $3.2 billion for the start-up in 2014.
Meanwhile, a series of executives have departed since the reorganisation, including the heads of Nest, an Internet operation called Access and a venture capital firm known as GV.
An Alphabet spokeswoman declined repeated requests for comment or to make executives available for interviews. For now, Wall Street isn’t worried: Alphabet’s stock is near an all-time high, having reached $1,000 per share in June.
Some Other Bets have made notable strides. Life sciences initiative Verily recently attracted $800 million in outside investment. Self-driving car project Waymo is considered among the leaders in the burgeoning industry.
Still, it’s not yet clear the structure will enable Alphabet to do what most companies cannot: conceive the next wave of innovation in-house or through the development of key acquisitions.
“The reason Google gets to trade at a decent multiple is because there’s a growth story beyond advertising,” said analyst James Wang of ARK Investment Management.
The Alphabet structure is Google’s stab at an age-old corporate conundrum: sustaining innovation within a giant enterprise.
Alphabet’s strategy is to give entrepreneurs the autonomy of a startup, coupled with the discipline of a traditional corporate structure.
At the same time, Alphabet is establishing separate compensation plans for the Other Bets to reward employees if their ventures succeed, mirroring startup incentives.
The formula has primed Alphabet’s emerging businesses for “global impact,” Alphabet Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt said this month at the annual stockholders meeting.
Still, Alphabet top brass continue to hold sway over key strategy and financing decisions, a dynamic that has chafed Other Bets chief executives who’ve complained they are treated more like chief operating officers than shot callers.