[Sigia-l] Issues in the taxonomy of human experience

[Manu Sharma]

Skot Nelson:
> Google's motivations may change.
>
> they are, in fact, now more likely to change given the company's status as
> a publicly traded company with shareholders.

That's a natural assumption to make for a typical company that goes public. 
However, Google is unlike any other company. Right from the day they 
announced the public offering, their stated policy has been to put users' 
interests above those of its stockholders. They've repeatedly said that as 
long as they continue to serve users with exceptional products, the 
stockholders' gain would naturally follow.

This bears out in practice too. Google took the Dutch auction way to go 
public, much to the resentment of Wall Street investment bankers hoping to 
make money on the deal who eventually effectively boycotted the IPO (but did 
come back weeks later to buy the stock when it debuted successfully). Google 
has also said from the start that they choose to focus on long term results 
instead of short term quarter to quarter gains like most companies. Most 
unusually for a public company, Google provides no guidance on future 
quarter earnings. And finally, on its Analyst day presentation, much to the 
disappointment of the press, the company revealed no financial data and 
instead talked about the culture at Google [1].

By not bowing to stockholders' pressure, Google is actually setting a 
remarkable example of how a public company can hold its own and can keep 
customer satisfaction above everything else.

Manu.

[1] Their CFO did appear in the Analyst day presentation but he turned out 
to be the Chief Food Officer!
"What a lot of wheatgrass"
Story on how peeved the financial press is by Google's antics.
http://economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=4135286