Going into today’s trip to Google, I had a predisposed bias against the company. I have always been a fan of Apple products over Google products, I tend to think that their treatment of ethics is questionable at best, and I can not stand their advertising campaigns. With all of that being said, Google is an undeniably successful company, and I was interested to hear what their business practices had to offer compared to Ernst & Young’s. I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised, and even more shocking, I was the only person in the fellowship who favored Google’s team practices, culture, and workplace environment over that of Ernst & Young’s.

Now, taking a step back to reflect, my primary takeaways from Ernst & Young were about two things: teamwork and culture. Their entire team is given equal amounts of respect; their culture is that of hard work and consistency, emergent from their workers.   I would argue that both of these things are important drivers of E&Y’s success, but when I was able to contrast these practices against those of Google, I felt that Google improved upon them.

Employees at Google can put virtually anything they want at their workstations, the company default answer to requests tends to be affirmative so long as the request is not blatantly superfluous, and their executives answer difficult questions from employees weekly. The net result of these policies is a stronger level of individualization within the framework of an extremely collaborative space. Ernst & Young, on the other hand, gave equal respect to employees, but had what I would consider an overbearing structure around their employees, which could lead to a loss of individualism. Whether or not this is a bad thing is up for debate; my argument is that individuals within a team framework with outperform a team with a weaker sense of individuality because of the diversity of ideas, willingness to disagree, and drive to improve that is endemic to competitive workplace environments. Furthermore, while E&Y attempts to encourage a sense of belonging to the firm through flexible schedules and collaboration, Google takes these ideas to the extreme. Rather than simply make a job more comfortable, Google made a job count not only as the second place besides home, but also as the third place. Google employees in Pittsburgh have access to subsidized massages, a fitness center, themed floors, and many other amenities that keep their office from feeling like an office. Employees are encouraged to use twenty percent of their time to do something completely unrelated to work. There is a physical, staffed coffee shop on the fourth floor. In other words, Google’s entire culture and work environment serve as systems of support to the passions of their employees, while E&Y’s culture and environment serve only as bulwarks against discomfort.

Google further impressed me with their support of community development; honestly, I did not expect for Google to be a company  that supported the local community to the extent that it does. It seems far too often that companies which are stuck on improving the future forget about the present, and yet our tour leader specifically mentioned their commitment to counteract the gentrification that they contribute to. What was even more thrilling was that Mike did not mention a single benefit for the company of economic development; while I am sure that the company does benefit, and that Google is very self-interested in this regard, it is still nice to see them approach economic development in a way that at least appears humanitarian

Finally, Dr. Atkin’s class was an absolute thrill. I thought that I had a very good understanding of the material covered thus far until the man who wrote the textbook started lecturing me. His explanation of Porter’s five forces was incredible, and thinking about those forces in tangible ways through his examples, rather than in abstract ways was a huge help to me. The connections between the five forces, forward and backward integration, substitution, and so on are more clear to me than they have been at any point during the course.

Here’s to a long weekend of reading the textbook!