I have a good relationship with Google, you probably do too. Google has changed my life. They provide information on almost everything you could want to know, and they do it fast. Their mission is, “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” – cool! Their mantra is, “Don’t Be Evil” – awesome! The combination of a great product, cool mission and clear values has helped them become the fastest growing company in the history of the world. In a world of big company greed and corruption, it’s refreshing and I bought the whole story… I love Google.
However, lately I am starting to question this relationship. Using the trust scale, I would rate me and Google at the friendship level, but I am no longer confident that is true. The good news is, when a company puts its values out there, people who are attracted to those values (like me) show up. The bad news is, these same stakeholders will hold you to the promise. The new world is about transparency and Google has done more to make that happen than anyone else. So it seems natural to hold them up to the light and see if they pass the test. I have some real concerns about Google’s recent behavior, here are my issues:
Issue #1) According to Wired Magazine after announcing the iPad, Steve Jobs held a town hall style meeting with his employees. It became clear he was very unhappy with Apple’s current relationship with Google. You might remember that the CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, was also on the Board for Apple. He recently resigned over issues of too many conflicts between the companies competing products. This encroachment of Google’s products on Apple territory might be a huge understatement. In that town hall meeting, Steve Jobs made reference to Google and their new iphone clone Nexus One. He went on to suggest that Apple was betrayed saying, “We did not enter the search business, they entered the phone business. Make no mistake, they want to kill the iPhone. We won’t let them and this “don’t be evil” mantra is bull@*#.”
Issue #2) According to Wikipedia in December 2009 Schmidt was asked in an interview on CNBC whether Google’s users should treat the search engine as a “trusted friend.” Schmidt’s reply was in part, “Judgment matters.[...] If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place. If you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines — including Google — do retain this information for some time… it’s important, for example, that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act and it is possible that all that information could be made available to the authorities”. I have never known anyone to site the Patriot Act in reply to the question, “Are you a trusted friend?”.
Issue #3) According to the Washington Post, China launched sophisticated cyber attacks on Google and several other American companies in the last few weeks. They were looking to steal software code as well as gain access to the email accounts of Chinese human rights activists. If you are not familiar with the background of Google in China, the short version is, in order to operate in China, American companies such as Apple, Microsoft and Google have agreed to censor information from the Chinese people. The most common example is, if you search Tianiaman Square in China you would be delivered the history minus the 1989 uprising. Schmidt explained to Congress, that this decision to censor was as the lesser of two evils meaning… some of Google was better than none of Google. We know that Google receives about 300 million in revenue from China and many people believe Google compromised both its core mission and it values by agreeing to the censorship rule. After the cyber attacks Google said it will no longer censor data and China has threatened to kick them out of the country.
I am only 66 days into the Trust Tour but I am starting to understand something more clearly. It is the small cracks in integrity that lead to the earthquakes of trust disasters. I have never had reason to question the leadership of Google, but now one of the most powerful and influential companies ever created is starting to show some of these cracks. They are in a leadership position so important that these cracks cannot go unnoticed. There are few things worse than when someone in a trustee position betrays that trust and I have three questions I’d like Google to answer:
1. Did you take advantage of your position with Apple to develop your own competing phone?
2. Based on your response to the trusted friend question …. How can I trust that you will look out for my best interest?
3. You started living by your own values only after a tangible threat from China, why?
I await your answers.
