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You Won’t Believe Work Gets Done at These Three Google Offices

By Katherine McLaughlin

Google offices may have slides, climbing walls, nap pods, and basketball courts, but they aren’t adult playgrounds, at least not wholly. “I think that the assumptions are very surface level,” Joshua Bridie, Google’s director of global interior design, tells  AD . Movies like  The Internship and video tours of the tech giant’s workspaces have long offered glimpses into the home bases of Googlers across the globe, prompting common adjectives to surface when discussing the infamous spaces: colorful, playful, animated, or fun. And though these descriptions are true, social media or theatrical adaptations often fail to encapsulate the most essential adjective required to detail the Google offices: intentional. 

“From day one, Google’s founding principles with our products were that they had to be user first,” Michelle Kaufmann, Google’s director of research and development for the built environment, says. “And that’s certainly how we think about our spaces too.” In Google’s 24 years, the company has pushed the office to its limits, operating on a belief that if the people who are working there are happy, healthy, and comfortable, then the company itself will thrive too. It’s in this idea that the jungle-gym-like elements that Google offices are known for become as integral as a desk or a filing cabinet. “They’re there because there is a need for the brain to disconnect and reconnect, so you can refocus your energies in an incredibly productive way,” Bridie says. 

Of course, it’s not just playful and whimsical design that makes a Google office—many factors inform the look and feel of these notable spaces. Below, Kaufmann and Bridie take AD through three of the company’s workspaces to show just what makes a Google office. 

Pier 57 (New York City)  

A 300-foot-long ramp that once transported cargo and buses was converted to provide a multimedia experience to welcome both Googlers and visitors. 

Whether working on a ground-up building or renovating an existing structure, the goal of every Google office is longevity and timelessness. “We think about every office very similarly, which is ‘how can we make a building that is functional and vibrant for hopefully centuries?’” Kaufmann says. Unable to predict the future, the company opts to look to the past for buildings that have achieved this lofty objective. “It turns out there were five main common properties,” Kaufmann explains: high ceilings, double-height space, access to daylight, long span between columns, and exposed structure. It’s largely this design skeleton that defines almost any Google space. 

Exposed structure is a common element of Google offices. 

A cantilevered room with views of the Hudson River at Pier 57. 

From this core, Google designers look to incorporate three types of spaces: those designed for deep focus work, for collaboration and meetings, and to build community and spark innovation. Many of these core elements of a Google space are on display at the company’s Pier 57 office in New York City: large windows open up to incredible views of the Hudson River, “neighborhoods” for teams are created within the relatively open floor plan, and numerous cafés and informal meeting spaces make room to decompress or ignite curiosity. 

Bay View (Mountain View, California)  

The central courtyard at Bay View features mariposa-inspired artwork, while skylights along the canopy roof allow plenty of natural light in. 

Designed by Bjarke Ingels Group and Heatherwick Studios, Google’s Bay View campus is the company’s first completed ground-up project. “We had always been in existing buildings, and it’s only really been in the past five to seven years that we’ve actually been designing ground-up buildings for ourselves,” Kaufmann says. With a tent-like ceiling and floor-to-ceiling windows throughout the building, the Bay View campus is easily one of the most unique offerings in the company’s real estate portfolio. However, it also represents Google’s push for sustainability. “We have this crazy, audacious goal of being carbon neutral by 2030 on a 24/7 basis with all of our buildings, including data centers,” Kaufmann explains, adding that Bay View exemplifies many of the strategies the tech company plans to implement to achieve this. 

90,000 silver solar panels make up the canopy roof at Google’s Bay View campus. 

Courtyards connect the collaboration and amenity-focused lower floors with the second-floor focus areas. Here, Googlers gather around the Dinosaur District courtyard and its towering T-Rex sculpture by Marianela Fuentes.

Instead of checking off standard environmentally friendly boxes—like using recycled materials—Google designers look to make their sustainability efforts just as beautiful and exciting for employees as they are for the Earth. “It’s about being sustainable while thinking about how we can create an extraordinary user experience,” Kaufmann explains. At the Bay View building, solar panels on the roof mimic a dragon’s scale in a visually interesting and original way, while a landscaped retention pond acts as an on-site wastewater treatment center, for example. “Thinking about sustainability from a user-first perspective is our unique approach,” Kaufmann says. 

Peachtree (Atlanta)  

A custom Google Atlanta sign and peach-shaped arch welcome guests and employees. 

Though the Google offices all have similar backbones, they each have their own flair too. “We want our spaces to be cousins, not identical twins,” Bridie says, adding this is often done by leaning into the design vernacular of the local community. Often, the company partners with local design firms and artists to not only better understand the area, but to truly embed the community in the office. “We’re tying to understand that local community and establish an aesthetic that is truly part of that region versus my interpretation of that region,” he says. In the newest Atlanta office, murals painted by local artists don the walls of a coffee bar, a peach-shaped arch welcomes employees to the office every morning, and upcycled cassettes donated by local Googlers reference the city’s musical history in a creative mural. 

Murals from local artists inspired by various themes in Atlanta’s history decorate this coffee bar and several others at the Peachtree offices. 

A mural made from recycled cassettes donated by Atlanta Googlers. 

Still, despite the purposeful designs, what truly makes each office unique is the people who move in. “Sometimes the spaces that resonate the least with me become the most popular with the Googlers,” Bridie says. “There are some things that might make design professionals uncomfortable, but I celebrate because it truly means that they now feel like they own the space, and that, to me, is success.” 

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By Alia Akkam

By Perri Ormont Blumberg

By Benjamin Reynaert

Google’s Plan for the Future of Work: Privacy Robots and Balloon Walls

The company that helped popularize open office plans and lavish employee perks is trying to reinvent office spaces to cope with workplace sensibilities changed by the pandemic.

Credit... By Cayce Clifford

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By Daisuke Wakabayashi

Photographs and Video by Cayce Clifford

• Published April 30, 2021 Updated Oct. 7, 2021

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Google ’s first office was a cluttered Silicon Valley garage crammed with desks resting on sawhorses.

In 2003, five years after its founding, the company moved into a sprawling campus called the Googleplex. The airy, open offices and whimsical common spaces set a standard for what an innovative workplace was supposed to look like. Over the years, the amenities piled up. The food was free, and so were buses to and from work: Getting to the office, and staying there all day, was easy.

Now, the company that once redefined how an employer treats its workers is trying to redefine the office itself. Google is creating a post-pandemic workplace that will accommodate employees who got used to working from home over the past year and don’t want to be in the office all the time anymore.

The company will encourage — but not mandate — that employees be vaccinated when they start returning to the office, probably in September. At first, the interior of Google’s buildings may not appear all that different. But over the next year or so, Google will try out new office designs in millions of square feet of space, or about 10 percent of its global work spaces.

The plans build on work that began before the coronavirus crisis sent Google ’s work force home, when the company asked a diverse group of consultants — including sociologists who study “Generation Z” and how junior high students socialize and learn — to imagine what future workers would want.

The answer seems to be Ikea meets Lego. Instead of rows of desks next to cookie-cutter meeting rooms, Google is designing “Team Pods.” Each pod is a blank canvas: Chairs, desks, whiteboards and storage units on casters can be wheeled into various arrangements, and in some cases rearranged in a matter of hours.

To deal with an expected blend of remote and office workers, the company is also creating a new meeting room called Campfire, where in-person attendees sit in a circle interspersed with impossible-to-ignore, large vertical displays. The displays show the faces of people dialing in by videoconference so virtual participants are on the same footing as those physically present.

In a handful of locations around the world, Google is building outdoor work areas to respond to concerns that coronavirus easily spreads in traditional offices. At its Silicon Valley headquarters, where the weather is pleasant most of the year, it has converted a parking lot and lawn area into “Camp Charleston” — a fenced-in mix of grass and wooden deck flooring about the size of four tennis courts with Wi-Fi throughout.

There are clusters of tables and chairs under open-air tents. In larger teepees, there are meeting areas with the décor of a California nature retreat and state-of-the-art videoconferencing equipment. Each tent has a camp-themed name such as “kindling,” “s’mores” and “canoe.” Camp Charleston has been open since March for teams who wanted to get together. Google said it was building outdoor work spaces in London, Los Angeles, Munich, New York and Sydney, Australia, and possibly more locations.

Employees can return to their permanent desks on a rotation schedule that assigns people to come into the office on a specific day to ensure that no one is there on the same day as their immediate desk neighbors.

Despite the company’s freewheeling corporate culture, coming into the office regularly had been one of Google’s few enduring rules.

That was a big reason Google offered its lavish perks, said Allison Arieff, an architectural and design writer who has studied corporate campuses. “They get to keep everyone on campus for as long as possible and they’re keeping someone at work,” said Ms. Arieff, who was a contributing writer for the Opinion section of The New York Times.

But as Google’s work force topped 100,000 employees all over the world, face-to-face collaboration was often impossible. Employees found it harder to focus with so many distractions inside Google’s open offices. The company had outgrown its longtime setup.

In 2018, Google’s real estate group began to consider what it could do differently. It turned to the company’s research and development team for “built environments.” It was an eclectic group of architects, industrial and interior designers, structural engineers, builders and tech specialists led by Michelle Kaufmann, who worked with the renowned architect Frank Gehry before joining Google a decade ago.

Google focused on three trends: Work happens anywhere and not just in the office; what employees need from a workplace is changing constantly; and workplaces need to be more than desks, meeting rooms and amenities.

“The future of work that we thought was 10 years out,” Ms. Kaufmann said, “Covid brought us to that future now.”

Two of the most rigid elements in an office design are walls and the heating and cooling systems. Google is trying to change that. It is developing an array of different movable walls that can be packed up and shipped flat to offices around the world.

It has a prototype of a fabric-based overhead air duct system that attaches with zippers and can be moved over a weekend for different seating arrangements. Google is also trying to end the fight over the office temperature. This system allows every seat to have its own air diffuser to control the direction or amount of air blowing on them.

If a meeting requires privacy, a robot that looks like the innards of a computer on wheels and is equipped with sensors to detect its surroundings comes over to inflate a translucent, cellophane balloon wall to keep prying eyes away.

“A key part of our thinking is moving from what’s been our traditional office,” said Ms. Kaufmann.

Google is also trying to reduce distractions. It has designed different leaf-shaped partitions called “petals” that can attach to the edge of a desk to eliminate glare. An office chair with directional speakers in the headrest plays white noise to muffle nearby audio.

For people who may no longer require a permanent desk, Google also built a prototype desk that adjusts to an employee’s personal preferences with a swipe of a work badge — a handy feature for workers who don’t have assigned desks because they only drop into the office once in a while. It calibrates the height and tilt of the monitor, brings up family photos on a display, and even adjusts the nearby temperature.

In the early days of the pandemic, “it seemed daunting to move a 100,000-plus person organization to virtual, but now it seems even more daunting to figure out how to bring them back safely,” said David Radcliffe, Google’s vice president for real estate and workplace services.

In its current office configurations, Google said it would be able to use only one out of every three desks in order to keep people six feet apart. Mr. Radcliffe said six feet would remain an important threshold in case of the next pandemic or even the annual flu.

Psychologically, he said, employees will not want to sit in a long row of desks, and also Google may need to “de-densify” offices with white space such as furniture or plants. The company is essentially unwinding years of open-office plan theory popularized by Silicon Valley — that cramming more workers into smaller spaces and taking away their privacy leads to better collaboration.

Real estate costs for the company aren’t expected to change very much. Though there will be fewer employees in the office, they’ll need more room.

There will be other changes. The company cafeterias, famous for their free, catered food, will move from buffet style to boxed, grab-and-go meals. Snacks will be packed individually and not scooped up from large bins. Massage rooms and fitness centers will be closed. Shuttle buses will be suspended.

Smaller conference rooms will be turned into private work spaces that can be reserved. The offices will use only fresh air through vents controlled by its building management software, doing away with its usual mix of outside and recirculated air.

In larger bathrooms, Google will reduce the number of available sinks, toilets and urinals and install more sensor-based equipment that doesn’t require touching a surface with hands.

A pair of new buildings on Google’s campus, now under construction in Mountain View, Calif., and expected to be finished as early as next year, will give the company more flexibility to incorporate some of the now-experimental office plans.

Google is trying to get a handle on how employees will react to so-called hybrid work. In July, the company asked workers how many days a week they would need to come to the office to be effective. The answers were divided evenly in a range of zero to five days a week, said Mr. Radcliffe.

The majority of Google employees are in no hurry to return. In its annual survey of employees called Googlegeist, about 70 percent of roughly 110,000 employees surveyed said they had a “favorable” view about working from home compared with roughly 15 percent who had an “unfavorable” opinion.

Another 15 percent had a “neutral” perspective, according to results viewed by The New York Times. The survey was sent out in February and the results were announced in late March.

Many Google employees have gotten used to life without time-consuming commutes, and with more time for family and life outside of the office. The company appears to be realizing its employees may not be so willing to go back to the old life.

“Work-life balance is not eating three meals a day at your office, going to the gym there, having all your errands done there,” said Ms. Arieff. “Ultimately, people want flexibility and autonomy and the more that Google takes that away, the harder it is going to be.”

Google has offices in 170 cities and 60 countries around the world, and some of them have already reopened. In Australia, New Zealand, China, Taiwan and Vietnam, Google’s offices have reopened with occupancy allowed to exceed 70 percent. But the bulk of the 140,000 employees who work for Google and its parent company, Alphabet, are based in the United States, with roughly half of them in the Bay Area.

Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Alphabet, said at a Reuters conference in December that the company was committed to making hybrid work possible, because there was an opportunity for “tremendous improvement” in productivity and the ability to pull in more people to the work force.

“No company at our scale has ever created a fully hybrid work force model,” Mr. Pichai wrote in an email a few weeks later announcing the flexible workweek. “It will be interesting to try.”

Daisuke Wakabayashi covers technology from San Francisco, including Google and other companies. Previously, he spent eight years at The Wall Street Journal, first as a foreign correspondent in Japan and then covering technology in San Francisco. More about Daisuke Wakabayashi

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Origami: Accomodating a shift in business demands with easy-to-use Google communication tools

Ospedali Riuniti di Ancona: Delivering first class healthcare around the clock with Google Workspace

PGA of America: Seeing green with modernized collaboration

POPULAR VEHICLES: Driving secure, seamless collaboration across the organization

Pegadaian: Steering a digital transformation program toward workflow efficiency, with Google Workspace

Picnic health: revolutionizing healthcare with google workspace and google cloud.

Picnic: Delivering on its next-day promise with easy collaboration on Google Workspace

Piramis: Connecting TLC with clients from north to south with a more personal touch

PrestaShop: Building a flexible “work-from-anywhere” culture with Google Workspace

Pulse Secure: Growing and protecting revenue with Google Cloud Platform Marketplace

Questrade Financial Group (QFG): Maintaining a people-focused company culture of care

Quimmco: Elevating team collaboration during a pandemic and beyond

RLE International

RSPCA: Rescuing animals with the help of Google Workspace

RZB: Putting innovation and collaboration in the spotlight with Google Workspace

Raisely: expanding digital channels to help nonprofits reach more donors and maximize fundraising.

Randstad: Applying HR expertise through Google Workspace features

Rawson Properties: Adding tech value for real estate franchisees

Red Hat: Instant access to enterprise knowledge improves performance

RedDoorz: Boosting work productivity via collaborative and secure workspaces enabled by Google Workspace

RelianceUnited: Boosting productivity and patient experience, with Google Workspace and Google Cloud

Rentokil Initial

Revolut revolutionizes the financial services industry to make money management easy and accessible for all

Revolutionizing production control with Appsheet

Rovaniemi: Collaboration in the Finnish Arctic with Google Workspace

Royal Government of Bhutan: Enabling sustainable development and social well-being with Google Workspace

SADA Systems: Building a successful business on Google Cloud

SADA: Driving real transformation for thousands of global companies with Google Workspace

SCL Health: Modernizing patient and provider experiences with advanced productivity and collaboration tools

SDIS 41: Providing Loir-et-Cher's volunteer firefighters with equal access to collaborative tools

SGAG: Creating engaging content to put a smile on Singaporean faces

Safetec: Helping customers thrive, grow, and save with Google Workspace

Salesforce: Driving business and positive change through collaboration

Samudera Indonesia: Consolidating email and enhancing collaboration with Google Workspace

Sanmina: Making collaboration a competitive advantage

Savoir Faire Ensemble: Building the fabric of COVID-19 protection with Google Workspace

Schnucks: Improving operational efficiency with seamless collaboration

Scienaptic: Safeguarding data assets with Google Workspace to drive the future of global credit

Seeff Properties: Building better communications with Google Workspace

Shaw Industries

Sheboygan County: Embracing new tools for county responsiveness

Simplifying Healthcare Communication: The Power of Gmail

Singapore Press Holdings: Going paperless and generating efficiencies with Google Workspace and Google Cloud

Sompo Insurance (Hong Kong): Expanding into retail insurance business

Sony Pictures Imageworks: Making cinematic magic through modern collaboration

Southern Cross Care (SA, NT & VIC) Inc: Transforming the aged care experience with Google Cloud and Google Workspace

Southern cross care champions of change, southern cross care: solving for providing consistent care to patients.

SproutLoud: Transforming channel marketing with cloud IT

St. luke’s medical center: delivering quality healthcare with secure online collaboration to keep patients and staff safe.

State of Arizona: Enhancing productivity and security with cloud collaboration

State of Guanajuato: Improving fiscal audit efficiency with Google Workspace automation

Supr Daily: Empowering teams to streamline processes and improve morning grocery deliveries with AppSheet

TCG: Streamlining loan approval processes with team collaboration on Google Workspace to help more SMEs receive funding

Telus and google cloud partner to create a more sustainable future.

Team Olivia: Creating cost-efficient collaboration with Google Workspace

Teréga: Designing a productivity platform for better collaboration and mobility

Testing and launching applications faster using Appsheet

The F.C. Tucker Company: Revolutionizing real estate sales in Indiana

The FA: Transforming the world’s oldest football association

The Government of Tamaulipas: Example of innovation with Google Workspace and AppSheet

The knot worldwide starts testing duet ai in google workspace.

The Printers Mysore: Bringing 70 years of journalism tradition to the digital age with Google Workspace

The Roche Group

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company: Planting a cloud-based future

The case for change: a business-value framework for technology choices, the new era of work with gemini for google workspace with etsy, fox sports, and thoughtworks.

Thirdware: Unifying 25 years of knowledge to give technology services a competitive advantage

Thoughtworks: Delivering Software Solutions from the Cloud to Clients

Tiger analytics champions of change.

Toho Gas: Creating a safe mobile work environment and gaining foothold to a broader DX business expansion

Toolquip & Allied: Choosing the right collaborative tools for the job

Tradebridge: Connecting three businesses with one cloud culture

TransContainer: Saving time and money to build a better workforce with Google Workspace

Transforming to a collaborative enterprise with Google Workspace

Transworld Group Singapore: Improving communication between customers and employees to speed up container shipping

Travis Perkins PLC transforms the workspace and embraces a digital future

Treebo Hotels: Transforming India's budget hotel experience with a pioneering digital platform

Trondheim Kommune: Working smarter, easier, and together in the cloud

TrueCar: Making work a smooth drive

Twinkl: Getting top marks for global growth with Google Workspace and Hire by Google

U.s. army chooses google workspace to deliver cutting-edge collaboration, u.s. navy: building bridges (and ships), ukrgasbank: how ukraine’s fourth largest bank relies on google workspace during unprecedented times.

Unify: Uniting top online brands on one collaboration platform

Unlocking productivity and collaboration with Google Workspace

Uplers solutions pvt. ltd. champions of change, vtech gives its global development teams a new way to collaborate.

Veolia Australia and New Zealand: Improving employee collaboration, mobility and security more effectively with technology

Vichy Catalan Corporation rejuvenates its workforce with more than mineral water

Vidio: Innovating the future of video streaming for Indonesia with Google Workspace

Viessmann: Promoting global collaboration to build tomorrow’s sustainable energy solutions

Virgin Active: Building a culture of collaboration with Google Workspace

Vodafone idea limited champions of change.

Vonage: Driving productivity and sales through digital transformation

Wayfair: Furnishing personalized online buying experiences through cloud collaboration

Wayfair: google workspace | how it’s done, webfx: redefining productivity in the new era of gen ai.

Weiss + Appetito: Matching mobility with peace of mind

Xero: Delivering communications and collaboration at scale with Google Workspace including Google Meet hardware

York: Behind every good outcome

ZALORA: Supporting sustainable, secure business expansion with Google Workspace

Zerodha: improving the retail investment experience with seamless collaboration on google workspace, acommerce champions of change.

eir: Supporting staff to keep more than 2 million customers connected, from home

flaconi: Giving collaboration a makeover with an innovative, customer-first solution on Google Workspace

Ifood: google workspace | how it’s done.

iOPEX Technologies: Driving digital transformation for large enterprises with enhanced security and increased team productivity

kfzteile24: Reducing costs and boosting productivity with Google Workspace

Nurture.farm champions of change, how teams of all sizes connect, create and collaborate.

1. Google Workspace Customer Story: HMH

2. Google Workspace Customer Story: Celestica

3. Google Workspace Customer Story: MullenLowe Group

• Our Thinking

April 19, 2016

What can we learn from Google’s offices about workplace design?

Office putting-greens, vintage subway cars and revolving bookcases are among the zany features that can be found in Google’s charismatic offices. Google is renowned for its unusual and extraordinary workspace designs as part of its model of motivation.

Although the offices may look cool, there is in fact reasoning behind their take on workspace. In this blog, we will explore the ways that Google makes use of its office space to “create the happiest, most productive workplace in the world.”

Those that sit together, work together

Over the decades there has been a great deal of research investigating the importance of physical space within the workplace and how it affects employee motivation. Studies showed that within a workplace that encourages collaborative working, that productivity increases by 15%.

In contrary to old fashioned office structures designed by hierarchy (senior management on the upper floors and juniors on the lower floors), studies show that it’s necessary for people of all levels to work together to create and share information. This concept has slowly, but surely, started to infiltrate office culture.

Employee motivation – the Google way

At Google, office culture promotes “casual collision” between employees. This is paramount in demonstrating how collaboration promotes creativity and drives production.

Google’s culture focuses more on their employees rather than the results themselves. While Google also provides the standard perks including no-cost health and vacation benefits, and in keeping with its philosophy that “life at Google is not all work”, what contributes to this culture is its unconventional workspace design.

Is this unconventional design productive?

While some of Google’s offices across the world may seem somewhat alternative: an office putting-green and authentic jungle (Dublin), beach volleyball and climbing walls (California), an authentic New York apartment styled conference room and a virtual library with secret, revolving bookcases leading to other departments (New York), such extremity does have its benefits. But, how does work actually get done?

To ensure that Google creates the perfect workspaces for their employees, everything from the corridors and ornaments to the colours of paint are carefully analysed.

Each workspace is designed to stimulate creativity and ultimately encourage social interaction with members from structurally separate teams – someone who an employee wouldn’t normally network with. Google intentionally hires people who are ambitious and that have established accolades of fantastic achievement. They can therefore be confident that through a combination of vigilant hiring and delivering an employee-friendly workplace environment, their staff will always perform to the best of their ability.

The 150 feet from food rule

If we take a look at Google’s New York headquarters, Googlers believe that there is an energy of diversity in the city itself and that is reflected in the workspace. No part of the office is more than “150 feet from food”. Whether there is a restaurant, coffee lounge or cafeteria, employees are encouraged to snack more, chat more and, most importantly, inspire more.

This ‘casual collision’ reinforces that all employees are there to work and help one another, just as New York itself is a hub for interaction. Regardless of common interests and values, neighbouring colleagues are more likely to get on.

And in an office where ‘casual collisions’ are encouraged (Google’s New York office has a number of notoriously slow elevators forcing workers to use ladders and corridors), people from different departments are more likely to engage in unexpected conversations and generate new, inspiring ideas.

Are these ‘out-there’ designs worth it?

So, what can we learn from Google’s wacky workspace designs? The design of an office has to reflect today’s evolving work environment, and collaborative working is becoming increasingly popular. And as the world’s number one search engine, Google must be doing something right!

At Workspace Design, we understand that collaborative working could coincide with your office’s culture. Here are a number of key features that make for a collaborative workspace:

• An open plan to encourage collaborative collisions • Additional common areas – coffee bars, cafeterias, lounge rooms etc. • Areas that are designed for more than one person, rather than single-occupancy

For more advice on how to make the most of your collaborative workspace, get in touch today.

And if you can think of any more benefits of Google’s unique workspace designs, be sure to send us a tweet or send a message on Facebook – we always love to hear from you.

Office Chit Chat: Getting the Right Balance

Five office design ideas for a small office.

• Original Article
• Open access
• Published: 19 December 2017

GOOGLE: a reflection of culture, leader, and management

• Sang Kim Tran 1 , 2  

International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility volume  2 , Article number:  10 ( 2017 ) Cite this article

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This paper provides a viewpoint of the culture and subcultures at Google Inc., which is a famous global company, and has a huge engineering staff and many talented leaders. Through its history of development, it has had positive impacts on society; however; there have been management challenges. The Board of Directors (BoDs) developed and implemented a way to measure the abilities of their managers, which helped to identify problems. This paper will analyze the case study of Harvard Business Review, Oxygen Project, and clarify the management problem in Google’s organization. It will also compare Google with Zappos, a much smaller organization, and present how the BoDs of Zappos assesses its culture and subcultures. In this paper, we will recommend eight important points to building an organizational culture that is positive for stable growth of a company. We believe that much of what be learned could be useful to other business leaders, regardless of company scale.

Introduction

In a large society, each company is considered a miniature society (Mawere 2011 ). Similar to large societies with large cultures, small societies also need to build their own cultures. A culture is influenced by many factors and determines if it is a great culture. Corporate culture requires both the attention to the efficiency of production and business and to the relationship among people in the organization closely (Bhagat et al. 2012 ). Regardless if it is a large or a small organization, it must encounter issues of cooperation among individuals and groups. There are many factors leading to the success of business process re-engineering in higher education (BPR), the main four elements are culture, processes, structure, and technology. Culture is listed as number one (Ahmad et al. 2007 ). Hence, culture becomes the most important factor to the success of the development of a business. Organizational culture is the set of shared beliefs (Steiber and Alänge 2016 ), values, and norms that influence the way members think, feel, and behave. Culture is created by means of terminal and instrumental values, heroes, rites and rituals, and communication networks (Barman n.d. ). The primary methods of maintaining organizational culture are through the socialization process by which an individual learns the values, expected behaviors, and necessary social knowledge to assume their roles in the organization. In addition, (Gupta and Govindarajan 2000 ) and Fig.  1 in (Ismail Al-Alawi et al. 2007 ) illustrates that culture was established by six major factors, such as information systems, people, process, leadership, rewarding system, and organization structure. Therefore, there is a wide variety of combined and sophisticated cultures in the workplace, especially in big corporations like Google, Facebook, Proctor & Gamble, etc. Each organization tends to have a common goal, which is to create a culture that is different from other companies and to promote their teams to be creative in developing a distinctive culture (Stimpson and Farquharson 2014 ). Clearly, we can see that Google’s culture is different than others. What makes this company unique and different from others, as well as the dominant cultures and subcultures existing at this company? How do leadership behaviors impact the organizational culture? By operating a case study of a Harvard Business Review to analyze its organizational culture, subsequently, having compared it with Zappos’ culture, this paper will clarify the similarities and differences in managing organizational cultures between them and consider whether the solutions for the problems can be applied to other business models, and for tomorrow leaders or not?

Trends of using product by information searching

Company overview

This part shows how Google became famous in the world and its culture and subcultures made it a special case for others to take into consideration. Google is one of the few technology companies which continue to have one of the fastest growth rates in the world. It began by creating a search engine that combined PageRank system, developed by Larry Page (ranking the importance of websites based on external links), and Web search engine, created by Sergey Brin (accessing a website and recording its content), two co-founders of the company (Jarvis 2011 ; Downes 2007 ). Google’s achievements absolutely do not come from any luck. Google has made extra efforts in creating an index of a number of websites, which have been up to 25 billion websites. This also includes 17 million images and one billion messages to Usenet group (Downes 2007 ). Besides searching for websites, Google users are able to search for PDF files, PostScript, documents, as well as Microsoft, Lotus, PowerPoint and Shockwave files. Google processes nearly 50% of search queries all over the world. Moreover, it is the number one search option for web users and is one of the top five websites on the Internet, which have more than 380 million users and 28 billion visits every month, and more than 50% of access from countries outside the US (Desjardins 2017 ). Google’s technology is rather special: it can analyze millions of different variables of users and businesses who place advertisements. It then connects them with millions of potential advertisements and gives messages of advertisement, which is closest to objects in less than one second. Thus, Google has the higher rate of users clicking advertisements than its opponent Yahoo, from 50 to 100%, and it dominates over 70% market share of paid advertisements (Rosenberg 2016 ). Google’s self-stated mission: “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful (Alves n.d. ).” Nowadays, it is believed that people in the world like “Google” with words “the useful-lively information storage”.

Predominant culture at Google

The dominant culture in the organization depends on the environment in which the company operates the organization’s objectives, the belief system of the employees, and the company’s management style. Therefore, there are many organizational cultures (Schein 2017 ). The Exhibit 3.1 at page 39 in (Schein 2009 ) provides what culture is about. For example, employee follows a standard procedure with a strict adherence to hierarchy and well-defined individual roles and responsibilities. Those in competitive environments, such as sales may forget strict hierarchies and follow a competitive culture where the focus is on maintaining strong relationships with external parties. In this instance, the strategy is to attain competitive advantages over the competition. The collaborative culture is yet another organizational way of life. This culture presents a decentralized workforce with integrated units working together to find solutions to problems or failure.

Why do many large companies buy its innovation? Because its dominant culture of 99% defect-free operational excellence squashes any attempts at innovation, just like a Sumo wrestler sitting on a small gymnast (Grossman-Kahn and Rosensweig 2012 ). They cannot accept failures. In fact, failure is a necessary part of innovation and Google took this change by Oxygen Project to measure the abilities of their multicultural managers. This means that Google itself possesses multiple different cultures (see Google’s clips). Like Zappos, Google had established a common, organizational culture for the whole offices that are distinctive from the others. The predominant culture aimed at Google is an open culture, where everybody and customer can freely contribute their ideas and opinions to create more comfortable and friendly working environment (Hsieh 2010a ).

The fig.  2 .1 in chapter two of (Schein 2009 ) and page 17 in part one of (Schein 2017 ) provide us three levels of culture which are Artifacts, Espoused values and Underlying assumptions helping us to understand the culture at Google. At page 84, in (Schein 2009 ), the “artifacts” are identified such as dress codes, level of formality in authority relationships, working hours, meeting (how often, how run, timing), how are decisions made, communication, social events, jargon, uniforms, identity symbols, rites and rituals, disagreements and conflicts, balance between work and family . It seems that Google is quite open in these artifacts by showing a respect for uniform and national culture of each staff individually and giving them the right to wear traditional clothes.

Ad Blocking Incidence

Working at Google, employees enjoy free food served throughout the day, a volleyball court, a swimming pool, a car wash, an oil change, a haircut, free health care, and many other benefits. The biggest benefit for the staff is to be picked up on the day of work. As assessed by many traffic experts, the system set up by Google is considered to be a great transport network. Tad Widby, a project manager and a traffic system researcher throughout the United States, said: “I have not seen any larger projects in the Bay Area as well as in urban areas across the country” (Helft 2007 ). Of course, it is impossible for Google to “cover up the sky”, so Yahoo also started implementing the bus project for employees in 2005. On peak days, Yahoo’s bus also took off. Pick up about 350 employees in San Francisco, as well as Berkeley, Oakland, etc. These buses run on biofuels and have Wi-Fi coverage. Yet, Danielle Bricker, the Yahoo bus coordinator of Yahoo, has also admitted that the program is “indirectly” inspired by Google’s initiative (Helft 2007 ). Along with that, eBay recently also piloted shuttle bus transfers at five points in San Francisco. Some other corporations are also emerging ideas for treatment of staff is equally unique. Facebook is an example, instead of facilitating employees far from the workplace; it helps people in the immediate neighborhood by offering an additional $10,000 for an employee to live close to the pillar within 10 miles, nearby the Palo Alto Department (Hall 2015 ).

When it comes to Google, people often ask what the formula for success is. The answer here is the employees of Google. They create their own unique workplace culture rules to create an effective work environment for their employees. And here are the most valuable things to learn from Google’s corporate culture (Scott 2008 ) that we should know:

Tolerate with mistakes and help staff correct

At Google, paying attention to how employees work and helping them correct mistakes is critical. Instead of pointing out the damage and blaming a person who caused the mistake, the company would be interested in what the cause of the problem was and how to fix it as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Also as its culture, we understand that if we want to make breakthroughs in the workplace, we need to have experimentation, failure and repeat the test. Therefore, mistakes and failures are not terrible there. We have the right to be wrong and have the opportunity to overcome failure in the support of our superiors and colleagues. Good ideas are always encouraged at Google. However, before it is accepted and put into use, there is a clear procedure to confirm whether it is a real new idea and practical or not?

Exponential thought

Google developed in the direction of a holding company - a company that does not directly produce products or provide services but simply invest in capital by buying back capital. In the company, the criteria for setting the ten exponential function in lieu of focusing only on the change in the general increase. This approach helps Google improve its technology and deliver great products to consumers continuously.

Of course, every company wants to hire talented people to work for them. However, being talented is an art in which there must be voluntary work and enthusiasm for the work of the devotees. At page 555 in (Saffold 1988 ) illustrated that distinctive cultures dramatically influencing performance do exist. Likewise, Google, Apple, Netflix, and Dell are 40% more productive than the average company which attracts top-tier employees and high performers (Vozza 2017 ). Recognizing this impact, Google created a distinctive corporate culture when the company attracted people from prestigious colleges around the world (West 2016 ; Lazear and Gibbs 2014 ).

Build a stimulating work environment

When it comes to the elements that create creativity and innovation, we can easily recognize that the working environment is one of the most important things. Google has succeeded in building an image of a creative working. Google offices are individually designed, not duplicated in any type of office. In fact, working environment at Google is so comfortable so that employees will not think of it as a working room, with a full area of ​​work, relaxation, exercise, reading, watching movies. Is the orientation of Google’s corporate culture to stimulate creativity and to show interest in the lives of employees so that volunteers contribute freely (Battelle 2011 )?

Subculture is also a culture, but for a smaller group or community in a big organization (Crosset and Beal 1997 ). Google, known as the global company with many more offices, so there are many subcultures created among groups of people who work together, from subcultures among work groups to subcultures among ethnic groups and nations, multi-national groups, as well as multiple occupations, functions, geographies, echelons in the hierarchy and product lines. For example, six years ago, when it bought 100 Huffys for employees to use around the sprawling campus, has since exploded into its own subculture. Google now has a seven-person staff of bicycle mechanics that maintains a fleet of about 1300 brightly-colored Google bikes. The company also encourages employees to cycle to work by providing locker rooms, showers and places to securely park bikes during working hours. And, for those who want to combine meetings with bike-riding, Googlers can use one of several seven-person (Crowley 2013 ).

Leadership influences on the culture at Google

From the definition of leadership and its influence on culture; so what does leader directly influence the culture existed? According to Schein, “culture and leadership are two sides of the same coin and one cannot understand one without the other”, page three in (Schein 2009 ). If one of us has never read the article “Google and the Quest to create a better boss” in the New York Times, it is listed in a priority reading. It breaks the notion that managers have no change. The manager really makes a difference (Axinn 1988 ; Carver 2011 ). In fact, a leader has a massive impact on the culture of the company, and Google is not an exception. The leaders of Google concerned more about the demands and abilities of each individual, the study of the nature of human being, an appreciation their employees as their customers. At Google, the founders thought they could create a company that people would want to work at when creating a home-like environment. It is real that they focus on the workplace brings the comfort to staff creatively and freely (Lebowitz 2013 ).

In my opinion, a successful business cannot be attributed solely from a single star; that needs the brightness of all employees. It depends very much on the capacity and ability to attract talented people. It is the way in which the leader manages these talents, is the cornerstone of corporate culture. One thing that no one can deny is that a good leader must be a creator of a corporate culture so that the employees can maximize capabilities themselves (Driscoll and McKee 2007 ; Kotter 2008 ).

To brief, through the view of Google’s culture, BoDs tended and designed to encourage loyalty and creativity, based on an unusual organizational culture because culture is not only able to create an environment, but it also adapts to diverse and changes circumstances (Bulygo 2013 ).

Company growth and its impact

“Rearrange information around the world, make them accessible everywhere and be useful.” This was one of the main purposes set by Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they first launched Google on September 4th, 1998, as a private company (Schmidt and Rosenberg 2014 ). Since then, Google has expanded its reach, stepped into the mobile operating system, provided mapping services and cloud computing applications, launched its own hardware, and prepared it to enter the wearable device market. However, no matter how varied and rich these products are, they are all about the one thing, the root of Google: online searching.

1998–2001: Focus on search

In its early years, Google.com was simply one with extreme iconic images: a colorful Google logo, a long text box in the middle of the screen, a button to execute. One button for searching and the other button are “I’m feeling lucky” to lead users to a random Google site. By May 2000, Google added ten additional languages to Google.com , including French, German, Italian, Swedish, Finnish, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Norwegian and Danish, etc. This is one of the milestones in Google’s journey into the world. Google.com is available in over 150 languages (Scott 2008 ; Lee 2017 ).

2001–2007: Interface card

A very important event with Google around this time was the sale of shares to the public (IPO). In October 2003, Microsoft heard news of the IPO, so it quickly approached Google to discuss a buyout or business deal. Nevertheless, that intention was not materialized. In 2004, it was also the time when Google held a market share of 84.7% globally through collaboration with major Internet companies, such as Yahoo, AOL, and CNN. By February 2004, Yahoo stopped working with Google and separately stood out for engine search. This has led Google to lose some market share, but it has shown the importance and distinctness of Google. Nowadays, the term “Google” has been used as a verb just by visiting Google.com and doing an online search (Smith 2010 ). Not stopping at the homepage search, Google’s interface tag began to be brought to Gmail and Calendar with the links at the top of the page. Google homepage itself continues to use this style.

In 2006, Google also made an important acquisition to buy YouTube for $1.65 billion (Burgess and Green 2013 ). However, the company decided to keep YouTube as a separate brand and not to include it in Google Video search. Thanks to the backing of an Internet industry giant, YouTube has grown to become the world’s largest online video sharing service (Cha et al. 2007 ).

2007–2012: Navigation bar, Google menu, Google now

Google began to deploy a new navigation bar located at the edge of the screen. It includes links to a place where to look for photos, videos, news, maps, as well as buttons to switch to Gmail, Calendar, and other services developed by the company. In the upper left corner, Google added a box displaying Google + notifications and user accounts’ image. Google Now not only appeared on Android and it’s also brought to Chrome on a computer as well as iOS. All have the same operating principle, and the interface card still appears as Android it is.

2013–2014: Simplified interface

Google has moved all of the icons that lead to its other applications and services to an App Drawer button in the upper right hand, at the corner of the screen. In addition, Google.com also supports better voice search through the Chrome browser. Google has experimented with other markets, such as radio and print publications, and in selling advertisements from its advertisers within offline newspapers and magazines. As of November 2014, Google operates over 70 offices over 40 countries (Jarvis 2011 ; Vise 2007 ).

2014–2017: Chrome development and facing challenges

In 2015, Google would turn HTTPS into the default. The better website is, the more users will trust search engine. In 2016, Google announced Android version 7, introduced a new VR platform called Daydream, and its new virtual assistant, Google Assistant.

Most of Google’s revenue comes from advertising (Rosenberg 2016 ). However, this “golden” business is entering a difficult period with many warning signs of its future. Google Search is the dominant strength of Google and bringing great revenue for the company. Nonetheless, when Amazon surpassed Google to become the world’s leading product in the search engine in last December, this advantage began to wobble. This is considered a fatal blow to Google when iOS devices account for 75% of their mobile advertising revenue (Rosenberg 2016 ).

By 2016, the number of people installing software to block ads on phones has increased 102% from 2015. Figure  1 illustrates that by the year’s end, about 16% of smart phone users around the world blocked their ads whilst surfing the web. These were also two groups having the most time on the Internet, high-earners and young people; however, these people have disliked ads (see Fig. 1 ).

Figure  2 shows the young people have the highest ad blocking rates. It is drawing a gloomy picture for the sustainable development of the online advertising industry in general and Google in particular. Therefore, in early 2017, Google has strategies to build an ad blocking tool, built into the Chrome browser. This tool allows users to access ads that have passed the “Coalition for Better Ads” filter so as to limit the sense of discomfort (see Fig. 2 ).

For the company impact, the history shows that speedy development of Google creates both economic and social impacts to followers in a new way of people connection (Savitz 2013 ). In this modern world, it seems that people cannot spend a day without searching any information in Google (Chen et al. 2014 ; Fast and Campbell 2004 ), a tool serves human information seeking needs. Even though when addressing this paper, it is also in need the information from Google search and uses it as a supporting tool. Nobody can deny the convenience of Google as a fast and easy way to search (Schalkwyk et al. 2010 ; Jones 2001 ; Langville and Meyer 2011 ).

Research question and methodology

In order to get the most comprehensive data and information for this case analysis, a number of methods are used, including:

Research data and collect information were mostly from the Harvard Study (Project Oxygen), which has been selected because it is related to the purpose of our study.

Data collection and analysis has been taken from Google Scholar and various websites related researches. We look at the history of appearance, development, and recognize the impacts of this company, as well as the challenges and the way the Board of Directors measures the abilities of their manager when the problem is found.

Analyzing: It was begun by considering expectations from the Harvard Study. Subsequently, considering the smaller organization (Zappos) in comparison of how its cultures and subcultures are accessed as well. Since then, the paper has clarified the management problem that Google and Zappos confront and deal with it so as to help other businesses apply this theoretical practice and achieve its goal beyond expectations.

In our paper, we mainly use the inductive method approach by compiling and describing the other authors’ theories of corporate culture, especially Google and Zappos in merging and comparing, analyzing them and making our own results.

From the aspects of the research, the questions are suggested as below:

What is the most instrumental element found from the Harvard study?

Is there any difference and similarity between a huge company and a smaller enterprise in perspective of culture and subculture?

What makes Google different from others, the dominant cultures as well as subcultures existing? How do leadership behaviors impact on the organizational culture?

How organizational culture impacts on business achievements?

The Harvard study

Project oxygen summary.

This project began in 2009 known as “the manager project” with the People and Innovation Lab (PiLab) team researching questions, which helped the employee of Google become a better manager. The case study was conducted by Garvin (2013) about a behavior measurement to Google’s manager, why managers matter and what the best manager s do. In early days of Google, there are not many managers. In a flat structure, most employees are engineers and technical experts. In fact, in 2002 a few hundred engineers reported to only four managers. But over time and out of necessity, the number of managers increased. Then, in 2009, people and team culture at Google noticed a disturbing trend. Exit interview data cited low satisfaction with their manager as a reason for leaving Google. Because Google has accessed so much online data, Google’s statisticians are asked to analyze and identify the top attributes of a good manager mentioned with an unsolved question: “Do managers matter?” It always concerns all stakeholders at Google and requires a data-based survey project called Project Oxygen to clarify employees’ concern, to measure key management behaviors and cultivate staff through communication and training (Bryant 2011 ; Garvin et al. 2013 ). Research −1 Exit Interviews, ratings, and semiannual reviews. The purpose is to identify high-scoring managers and low-scoring managers resulted in the former, less turnover on their teams, and its connection (manager quality and employee’s happiness). As for “what the best managers do”, Research-2 is to interview high and low scoring managers and to review their performance. The findings with 8 key behaviors illustrated by the most effective managers.

The Oxygen Project mirrors the managers’ decision-making criteria, respects their needs for rigorous analysis, and makes it a priority to measure impact. In the case study, the findings prove that managers really have mattered. Google, initially, must figure out what the best manager is by asking high and low scoring managers such questions about communication, vision, etc. Its project identifies eight behaviors (Bulygo 2013 ; Garvin et al. 2013 ) of a good manager that considered as quite simple that the best manager at Google should have. In a case of management problem and solution, as well as discussing four- key theoretical concepts, they will be analyzed, including formal organizational training system, how culture influences behavior, the role of “flow” and building capacity for innovation, and the role of a leader and its difference from the manager.

Formal organizational training system to create a different culture: Ethical culture

If the organizational culture represents “how we do things around here,” the ethical culture represents “how we do things around here in relation to ethics and ethical behavior in the organization” (Key 1999 ). Alison Taylor (The Five Levels of an Ethical Culture, 2017) reported five levels of an ethical culture, from an individual, interpersonal, group, intergroup to inter-organizational (Taylor 2017 ). In (Nelson and Treviño 2004 ), ethical culture should be thought of in terms of a multi-system framework included formal and informal systems, which must be aligned to support ethical judgment and action. Leadership is essential to driving the ethical culture from a formal and informal perspective (Schwartz 2013 ; Trevino and Nelson 2011 ). Formally, a leader provides the resources to implement structures and programs that support ethics. More informally, through their own behaviors, leadership is a role model whose actions speak louder than their words, conveying “how we do things around here.” Other formal systems include selection systems, policies and codes, orientation and training programs, performance management systems, authority structures, and formal decision processes. On the informal side are the organization’s role models and heroes, the norms of daily behavior, organizational rituals that support or do not support ethical conduct, the stories people tell about the organization and their implications for conduct, and the language people use, etc. Is it okay to talk about ethics? Or is ethical fading the norm?

The formal and informal training is very important. The ethical context in organizations helps the organizational culture have a tendency to the positive or negative viewpoints (Treviño et al. 1998 ). The leader should focus on providing an understanding of the nature and reasons for the organization’s values and rules, on providing an opportunity for question and challenge values for sincerity/practicality, and on teaching ethical decision-making skills related to encountered issues commonly. The more specific and customized training, the more effective it is likely to be. Google seemed to apply this theory when addressed the Oxygen Project.

How culture influences behavior

Whenever we approach a new organization, there is no doubt that we will try to get more about the culture of that place, the way of thinking, working, as well as behavior. And it is likely that the more diverse culture of a place is, the more difficult for outsiders to assess its culture becomes (Mosakowski 2004 ).

Realizing culture in (Schein 2009 ) including artifacts, espoused valued and shared underlying assumptions. It is easier for outsiders to see the artifacts (visual objects) that a group uses as the symbol for a group; however, it does not express more about the espoused values, as well as tacit assumptions. In (Schein et al. 2010 ), the author stated: “For a culture assessment to be valuable, it must get to the assumptions level. If the client system does not get to assumptions, it cannot explain the discrepancies almost always surface between the espoused values and the observed behavioral artifacts” (Schein et al. 2010 ). Hence, in order to be able to assess other cultures well, it is necessary for us to learn each other’s languages, as well as adapt to a common language. Moreover, we also need to look at the context of working, the solution for shared problems because these will facilitate to understand the culture better.

According to the OCP (Organizational Culture Profile) framework (Saremi and Nejad 2013 ), an organization is with possessing the innovation of culture, flexible and adaptable with fresh ideas, which is figured by flat hierarchy and title. For instance, Gore-Tex is an innovative product of W. L. Gore & Associates Inc., considered as the company has the most impact on its innovative culture (Boudreau and Lakhani 2009 ). Looking at the examples of Fast Company, Genentech Inc., and Google, they also encourage their employees to take challenges or risks by allowing them to take 20% of their time to comprehend the projects of their own (Saremi and Nejad 2013 ). In (Aldrich n.d. ), it is recorded that 25%–55% of employees are fully encouraged and giving a maximum value.

The famous quote by Peter Drucker , “Culture eats strategy for Breakfast” at page 67 has created a lot of interest in (Manning and Bodine 2012 ; Coffman and Sorensen 2013 ; Bock 2015 ). Despite we all know how important culture is, we have successively failed to address it (O'Reilly et al. 1991 ). The organizational research change process from the view of Schein ( 2009 ); it is a fact that whenever an organization has the intention of changing the culture, it really takes time. As we all acknowledge, to build an organizational culture, both leader and subordinate spend most of their time on learning, relearning, experiencing, as well as considering the most appropriate features. Sometimes, some changes are inevitable in terms of economic, political, technological, legal and moral threats, as well as internal discomfort (Kavanagh and Ashkanasy 2006 ; Schein 1983 ). As the case in (Schein 2009 ), when a CEO would like to make an innovation which is proved no effective response, given that he did not get to know well about the tacit implications at the place he has just come. It is illustrated that whatsoever change should need time and a process to happen (Blog 2015 ; Makhlouk and Shevchuk 2008 ). In conclusion, a new culture can be learned (Schein 1984 ), but with an appropriate route and the profits for all stakeholders should be concerned by the change manager (Sathe 1983 ).

It is true that people’s behavior managed by their types of culture (Kollmuss and Agyeman 2002 ). All tacit assumptions of insiders are not easy for outsiders to grasp the meaning completely (Schein 2009 ). It is not also an exception at any organization. Google is an example of the multicultural organization coming from various regions of the world, and the national or regional cultures making this multicultural organization with an official culture for the whole company.

In this case, the organizational culture of Google has an influence on the behaviors of manager and employee. In addition, as for such a company specializes in information technology, all engineers prefer to work on everything with data-evidence to get them involved in the meaningful survey about manager (Davenport et al. 2010 ). Eventually, Google discovered 8 good behaviors of manager, which effect to the role of “flow” also (Bulygo 2013 ; Garvin et al. 2013 ).

The role of the “flow” and building capacity for innovation

More and more people are using the term of “patient flow”. This overview describes patient flow and links to theories about flow. Patient flow underpins many improvement tools and techniques. The term “flow” describes the progressive movement of products, information, and people through a sequence of the process. In simple terms, flow is about uninterrupted movement (Nave 2002 ), like driving steadily along the motorway without interruptions or being stuck in a traffic jam. In healthcare, flow is the movement of patients, information or equipment between departments, office groups or organizations as a part of a patient’s care pathway (Bessant and Maher 2009 ). In fact, flow plays a vital role in getting stakeholders involved in working creatively and innovatively (Adams 2005 ; Amabile 1997 ; Forest et al. 2011 ). An effective ethical leader must create flow in work before transfer it to employees for changing the best of their effort to maintain, keep and develop “flow” in an engineering job, which job be easier to get stress. Definitely, Google gets it done very well.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the knowledge from my Master course, a credit of managing culture which helps me to write this paper. The author also gratefully acknowledges the helpful comments and suggestions of the reviewers and Associate Professor Khuong- Ho Van, who provided general technical help that all have improved the article.

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INTERVIEW WITH THE STUDIO RESPONSIBLE FOR GOOGLE’S OFFICES DESIGN

20 August, 2015

Evolution Design is the architectural studio responsible for many of the Google’s office designs. Recently, Design Boom had an interview with the executive director Stefan Camenzind and the creative director Tanya Ruegg. They tell designboom how they respond to the changing communal office space, and convey the tech company’s strong culture of open communication and creative collaboration into work environments that foster innovation.

1. What original made you want to study architecture?

Stefan Camenzind: I was always interested in understanding why things are the way they are – therefore it was very often a mystery to me why buildings looked the way they looked. So I think it was first of all my desire to better understand the built environment in which we live, which made me study architecture. Having said that, it still puzzles me today why many buildings look the way they do.

Tanya Ruegg: I have always wanted to create something that will make people feel better, happier, something that will enhance their personality. Designing innovative architectural solutions that are tailor made to suit people’s needs and reflect their values seemed to be the perfect challenge for me.

2. What particular aspects of your background and upbringing have shaped your design principles and philosophies?

SC: People are very much shaped by the values they have been brought up with. In my case these were very much the values of fairness and respect for others opinions, which still drives my design philosophy today.

TR: I grew up in a loving family with great values of respect and understanding. This has given me the necessary stamina, and lots of positive energy, to create for other people. this is why ‘human centered architecture’ is the architecture I believe in.

3. Your firm is responsible for designing several google offices across europe. How did you start collaborating with the technology company?

SC: As often, this happened by chance. We were invited to pitch for the google zurich office and as we had never designed an office interior before we had to think about it from fresh.

TR: Therefore we didn’t suggest to google a design concept but a design process! A process, which would enable the google office to be the best possible workplace for their staff.

4. Were there specific requirements or themes that google wanted you to maintain across each office site?

TR: No. Google is very much aware that their staff is their most valuable asset and therefore we always interact only with the local googler’s to make their office totally unique for them and provide them with the best possible functional requirements they need.

SC: Google has such a strong company culture which is all about open communication and collaboration, creativity and innovation, food and fun. Once you are designing the ‘look & feel’, the offices start having a similar language, which naturally connects them all.

5. Your portfolio also includes the designs of workplaces for other important global brands such as unilever and Hugo Boss. What is the most common client request you receive regarding the spatial scheme of a workplace?

SC: Most clients who come to us want us to help them to develop their workplace strategy for the future. This means we normally don’t have a brief, but develop it together with the client.

TR: For this we do quite a lot of research, for which we have developed specific tools for, desk and meeting room utilization studies, workstyle research, workshops and interviews. This is not only about the functional requirements, but also very much about the vision for the future and the company culture and values. Only based on this we start developing our design concepts.

6. How have you as architects responded to the evolution of the communal office space in your designs?

TR: It is usually the other way round – based on our research we understand what the current and future needs of people are and we create designs, which enable this. Already when we researched our first google office in Zurich we understood clearly that more creative spaces to meet, collaborate and exchange were needed in the future. Accordingly we designed a large number of very different creative spaces to meet, play, drink coffee and exchange ideas.

SC: During the last years the need for this kind of spaces has increased dramatically and in google tel aviv already half of the office floor is dedicated to these kind of creative communication hubs.

7. What are some of the approaches you take to ensure that both individual and group activities can be carried out within the same space?

SC: Whatever you do, always create a sufficient amount of quiet working areas, which enable people to get away from all the hustle and bustle. Being distracted by noise is the biggest problem people face in an open plan office concept.

TR: More importantly this brings us to the question ‘how has work changed’. We can clearly see in all our research the trend that people are less and less at their desk and much more active in different places in and outside the office. Instead on their desk they are in workshops, team meetings, project work, or are collaborating with others. Clearly the standard office, which has mainly desks, cannot be the solution for these changing requirements. Therefore much more creative workplace solutions are required with a multitude of different work settings to support optimally all these new activities as mentioned above.

8. In what ways have technological advancements affected the way you design and complete projects?

SC: Technology is clearly the key! 1. to the way business is changing on a global and local level. 2. to the way the workplace can respond the theses fast changes.

all our projects therefore follow the simple IT principles of < everything everywhere > : – all employees with laptops, soft phones and mobile phones – excellent WiFi bandwidth everywhere – electricity not just on the table and in meeting rooms but also in all informal places – laptop chargers also provided in in all informal and break out areas – screens to connect to in all informal and break out spaces as well – security settings enable working from anywhere outside the office

9. As architects, could you outline your own work habits on a day-to-day basis?

SC: In our office it is very simple – we give our team the IT tools they need and thereafter everybody decide themselves where and how they want to work. I for example are answering these questions while working from abroad and while having numerous whatsapp and skype video calls with the different teams in the office and our clients.

TR: But of course we are normally in the office because we work very much collaboratively. This means we have for each project a large scrum meeting project wall where we plane the daily and weekly activities and deadlines. For example, I switch constantly between focused work on my own to collaborative work with others.

10. In your opinion, what is the future of the workplace?

SC: The future of the workspace is certainly more and faster collaboration and interaction with less and less borders of companies and countries. The future advancements in technology will dictate the speed of the change. All we know today is that we already need to design for the future change.

TR: As the world of business is constantly changing with little certainty, people have a much stronger ‘desire to belong’. This is why it will be even more important in the future that office design creates unique identities, which are reflecting the company culture and values. Thus enabling people to identify and be proud of their workspace and the company they work for.

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Why Google’s hybrid work experiment is a case study for all companies on return-to-office policy

If you’re up for a challenge, try orchestrating a hybrid work system for tens of thousands of employees. It’s a tall order for any company, and an especially onerous one for Google—the 165,000-person-strong tech giant that desperately wants to avoid the “corporate” label.

That’s according to a new feature published this week by my colleague Beth Kowitt. In May of last year, Alphabet first revealed its intentions to employees to bring them back into the office in a 3/2 fashion (three days in the office, two from home). Staffers can also apply to work remote full-time, although that might trigger a pay cut. This whole experiment officially began last month.

Google’s struggle with back-to-work is a case study for all companies—as are the approaches at Goldman Sachs or Airbnb . Employees don’t seem thrilled with any one method, and the jury’s out for which model will ultimately make the most sense. That’s the thing: Where you work, and where you want to work, are questions that have gotten complicated.

At Google, it took some time for even the executives to all get on board with the model. The company’s Chief People Officer—who was one of the 50,000 hires Google made during the pandemic, and who had never stepped into any of the company’s U.S. offices when the company first announced its new hybrid plans last year—seems to think Google’s plan isn’t lax enough. “To her, it’s a starting point while employees figure out what works best,” Kowitt writes.

As for what employees told Kowitt, it’s a mixed bag: Some were thrilled (free food!), some wanted more flexibility, some said Google’s management hadn’t been forthcoming about how the company determined it was safe to go back.

But most controversial is the matter of compensation. For the 17,000 Googlers who have relocated or gone fully remote during COVID, it could mean a pay cut—depending on where they landed, as they are subject to Google’s pre-existing comp plan. Google employees in New York or Mountain View are paid the most. Those in level two cities, like Chicago, are paid 15% less, while employees in cities like Raleigh-Durham make 25% less. “The premise of having your salary adjusted for doing the same exact thing, just in a different zip code, has become perhaps the biggest sticking point for employees—even those who are grateful for the option,” Kowitt writes.

The transition hasn’t been seamless. The first week of April—after two years of remote work—Google called its employees back into the office. That week, roadwork caused hour-long traffic for staffers trying to leave the main campus in Mountain View. And people were missing desks in a few locations.

But about a month in, employees seem to be adjusting, or moving on altogether. And perks like Lizzo concerts are reminding some employees why they liked the office in the first place.

You can read Kowitt’s full story here .

See you tomorrow,

Jessica Mathews Twitter: @jessicakmathews Email: [email protected] Submit a deal for the Term Sheet newsletter here .

Jackson Fordyce curated the deals section of today’s newsletter.

VENTURE DEALS

- Glean , a Palo Alto-based virtual work assistant, raised $100 million in Series C funding led by Sequoia Capital . 

- Masterschool , a Tel Aviv-based network of tech career-training schools, raised $100 million in seed funding led by Group 11 and was joined by investors including Target Global , Pitango Ventures , Dynamic Loop Capital , Sir Ronald Cohen , and others. 

- Infinitum Electric , an Austin-based air-core motor creator company, raised $80 million in Series D funding led by Riverstone Holdings and was joined by investors including Alliance Resource Partners , Applied Ventures , Cottonwood Technology Fund , Chevron Technology Ventures , Aventurine Partners , Energy Innovation Capital , and Ajax Strategies . 

- Forma.ai , a Toronto-based sales performance management solution, raised $45 million in Series B funding led by ACME Capital and was joined by investors including Crosslink Capital , Golden Ventures , Uncork Capital , Xfund , and Gaingels . 

- Seclore , a Milpitas, Calif.-based security and rights management platform for data, raised $27 million in Series C funding led by Origami Capital Partners and Oquirrh Ventures . 

- Heartex , a San Francisco-based data labeling platform, raised $25 million in Series A funding led by Redpoint and was joined by investors including Unusual Ventures , Bow Capital , Swift Ventures , and other angels. 

- Azra Games , a Sacramento-based blockchain games company, raised $15 million in seed funding led by Andreessen Horowitz and was joined by investors including NFX , Coinbase Ventures , Play Ventures , and Franklin Templeton Investments . 

- FreshCut , a Los Angeles-based Web3 short-form gaming content platform, raised $15 million in funding from investors including Galaxy Interactive , Polygon , Animoca Brands , Republic Crypto , and Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin . 

- Greater Good Health , a Manhattan Beach, Calif.-based health care startup, raised $10 million in funding led by LRVHealth and was joined by investors including Martin Ventures , Health Velocity Capital , Optum Ventures , and other angels.

- CipherMode Labs , a Los Angeles-based data privacy and sharing encryption platform, raised $6.7 million in seed funding led by Innovation Endeavors and was joined by investors including Pillar VC , the National Science Foundation , and others. 

- Adgile Media Group , a New York-based advertising company, raised $5 million in seed funding led by Brand Foundry Ventures and was joined by investors including Amity Supply , Finn Capital Partners , Consumer Ventures , and others. 

- Candor , a New York-based professional network platform, raised $5 million in funding from investors including Contrary Capital , Afore Capital , Worklife , Village Global , Global Founders Capital , Banana Capital , and other angels. 

- Blinq , a Melbourne-based digital business card company, raised AUD$5 million ($3.5 million) from investors including Blackbird and Square Peg Capital . 

PRIVATE EQUITY

- Ara Partners invested $80 million in Blue Whale Materials , a Washington D.C.-based lithium-ion battery recycling platform.

- Alliance Pharma , a portfolio company of Ampersand , agreed to acquire DDS , a Cambridge and Sandwich, U.K.-based drug developer. KKR and Ampersand Capital Partners will become equal shareholders in the deal.

- Futura Healthcare , backed by Renovus Capital Partners , acquired Winola Lake Health IT , a Pipersville, Pa.-based health IT company. Financial terms were not disclosed. 

- KKR acquired a majority stake in Alchemer , a Louisville, Colo.-based feedback and data collection platform. Financial terms were not disclosed.  

- North Sixth Group acquired America Oggi , a Norwood, N.J.-based publishing brand, and Il Progresso , a New York-based publishing brand. Financial terms were not disclosed.  

- Planview , backed by TPG and TA Associates , agreed to acquire Tasktop , a Vancouver-based value stream management platform. Financial terms were not disclosed.

- MannKind Corporation acquired V-Go , an insulin wearable patch, from Danbury, Conn. and Westlake Village, Calif.-based Zealand Pharma for $10 million upfront plus sales-based milestones.

- Strava acquired Recover Athletics , a Boston-based injury prevention app for runners. Financial terms were not disclosed. 

- Surf Air Mobility , a Los Angeles-based electric aviation and air travel company, agreed to go public via a merger with Tuscan Holdings Corporation II , a SPAC. A deal is valued at $1.42 billion. 

- Carousell , a Singapore-based online classifieds marketplace operator, withdrew its plans to go public via a merger with L Catterton Asia Acquisition Corp. , a SPAC, amid market volatility, according to Bloomberg.

- Marti , a Turkey-based electric scooter and bike-sharing app, agreed to go public via a merger with Galata Acquisition Corp. , a SPAC, according to Bloomberg. 

FUNDS + FUNDS OF FUNDS

- Clearlake Capital Group , a Santa Monica-based investment firm, raised $14.1 billion for a seventh fund focused on the technology, industrial, and consumer sectors.

- Generation Investment Management , a London and San Francisco-based investment firm, raised $1.7 billion for a fourth fund focused on planetary health, people health, and financial inclusion growth-stage companies. 

- HealthQuest Capital , a Belmont, Calif.-based venture fund, raised $675 million for a fourth fund focused on growth-stage companies in the health care industry.

- Andreessen Horowitz , a Menlo Park-based venture capital firm, raised $600 million for a new fund focused on the gaming industry.

- Lightrock , a London-based private equity platform, raised $300 million for a fund focused on Latin America. 

- Good Growth Capital , a Boston and Charleston, S.C.-based venture capital fund, raised $102 million for a fund focused on data science, green tech, hard science, fintech, food tech, and energy efficiency companies.

- Flying Fish Partners , a Seattle-based venture capital firm, raised $70 million for a second fund focused on entrepreneurs and early-stage companies in the A.I. and ML sectors in the U.S. and Canada.

- Angeles Equity Partners , a Santa Monica-based private investment firm, hired Te'Rhon O'Neal and Jamie Brown as vice presidents. Formerly, O’Neal was with Westhook Capital and Brown was with Stonepeak Infrastructure Partners .  

- Antler , a Singapore-founded venture capital firm, hired Lisa Potocsnak as an associate partner. Formerly, she was with Tribe Capital .

- Building Ventures , a Boston-based venture capital firm, promoted Heather Widman to partner. 

- FTV Capital , a New York and San Francisco-based growth equity investor, hired Kapil Venkatachalam as partner. Formerly, he was with TCV .

- Genoa Ventures , a San Francisco-based venture capital fund, promoted Vikram Chaudhery to partner and hired Amy Harris as vice president of finance. Formerly, Harris was with Village Global . 

- Numeta Capital , a Los Angeles-based growth equity firm, hired Jared Johnson as an associate. Formerly, he was with Barclays .

- Tusk Ventures , a New York-based venture capital firm, promoted Rachel Livingston to head of digital platform. 

This is the web version of Term Sheet , a daily newsletter on the biggest deals and dealmakers. Sign up to get it delivered free to your inbox.

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Offices and Workplaces: Examples in Plan

• Written by Fabian Dejtiar
• Published on March 07, 2019

The functional distribution plays a fundamental role in the contemporary design of offices and places for work. The study of the architecture plan shows an interesting form of approach; not only allows for proper logistics and circulation but find efficient variations and innovations that will enable better workspaces that adapt to the current needs.

We have selected more than 50 plans of projects that will inspire you , recognizing the different ways in which architects have faced the challenge to design offices, in all different scale ranges.

• How Coworking and Coliving are Redefining Space as a Service
• Most Architects Prefer Working in Organized Spaces, But Some Opt for "Organized Chaos"

100 m2 to 300 m2

Chichi office / koyori + atelier salt 45 m2.

Oficinas Ruales Izurieta Publicidad / Arquitectura X 82 m2

Oficina estudio IGLOO / estudio IGLOO 85 m2

VE GRANDE Headquarters / Punto Arquitectónico + VE GRANDE 100 m2

SISII / Yuko Nagayama & Associates 114 m2

LoCa Studio Office / LoCa Studio 130 m2

SMOG / Sebastián Bravo 140 m2

Apos2 / Apostrophy’s 176 m2

Co-Working Office / APPAREIL 205 m2

Social Tailors / SuperLimão Studio 250 m2

Tectonic / Graham Baba Architects 254 m2

Loft Office / jvantspijker

Cadena + Asociados Concept Design Headquarters / Cadena Concept Design 300 m2

ZAMNESS / nook architects 300 m2

300  m2 to 600 m2

Part studio / xutai design and reseach 320 m2.

Oficinas Hub Madrid / CH+QS arquitectos

Capital One Lab / Studio O+A 325 m2

DECERTO / MOKO Architects + MFRMGR 400 m2

Impact Hub Berlin / Leroux Sichrovsky Architects 400 m2

WIX.COM Office in Vilnius / INBLUM 456 m2

Lookup HQ / Bhumiputra Architecture

Tech901 / archimania 460 m2

Nikken Space Design Osaka Office 464 m2

9GAG Office / LAAB Architects 465 m2

Factory Office Renovation / Vo Trong Nghia Architects 486 m2

FINE / Bora Architects 508 m2

Hybrid Office / Edward Ogosta Architecture 557 m2

Gazeta.ru News Agency Office / Nefa Architects 600m2

Google Mexico / SPACE 600 m2

600  m2 to 800 m2

Remodelación edificio ma / azul celeste.

SWhouse_Office and house in Nha Trang / Chon.a 640 m2

Autogasco Headquarters / Nicolás Maino Gaete 660 m2

Capco and Bold Rocket Offices / D+DS architecture office

Sony Music Entertainment Amsterdam / Space Encounters BV 700 m2

Ironhack 22@ / Mariana de Delás + Meta Studio 711 m2

Hungry Man Productions / FreelandBuck 740 m2

Buzzfeed LA Office / JIDK 743 m2

CLOUD Coworking / MESURA 750 m2

Cargo / Group8 780 m2

Oficinas Prodigy MSN / SPACE 800 m2

Connekt / Ateliers 800 m2

800  m2 to 1500 m2

Factory life / julie d'aubioul 860 m2.

Oficinas Cheap Monday / Uglycute 900 m2

Dinamarca 399 / Joaquín Velasco Rubio 985 m2

Hubba-to / Supermachine Studio 989 m2

Edificio Urban Station San Telmo / Felipe Francisco Aguirre Arquitecto 1000 m2

Uniplaces Headquarters / Paralelo Zero 1000 m2

Oficinas No Picnic / Elding Oscarson 1100 m2

Estudio de abogados EGL / GOAA 1400 m2

Slack Toronto Office / Dubbeldam Architecture + Design 2100 m2

Office of RD Construction / IND Architects 2200 m2

CDLE Offices / R-Zero 2330 m2

Second Home London Office / Selgascano 2400 m2

Äripäev Office / Arhitekt 11 2700m2

Calowiz&CO / RoarcRenew 4200 m2

Autodesk HQ / Mackenzie 5500 m2

Lowe Campbell Ewald Headquarters / Neumann/Smith Architecture 11300 m2

Airbnb Office - 999 Brannan / Airbnb Environments 14000 m2

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Arriving on Platform G: Google’s new King’s Cross office

Google’s landmark ‘Platform G’ office development will be arriving in King’s Cross, London in 2024. Andy Pearson talks to building services consultant Atelier Ten to find out how a BIM model was used to coordinate the highly innovative buildings services design along its 330-metre length

Posted in March 2023

Google’s new London HQ – the multinational technology company’s first purpose-built office in Europe – takes a new approach to the traditional office. Designed by Heatherwick Studio and Bjarke Ingels Group, and currently being delivered by BDP, the team has taken a subtle and considered approach, with a low-rise scheme that sits proudly within the urban context of London’s King’s Cross.

Currently being built, the huge 60,000m 2 wedge-shaped ‘landscraper’ known as ‘Platform G’ stretches 330m along the length of the pedestrianised boulevard connecting King’s Cross station with Granary Square, to the north. Among its standout features are extensive landscaped roof terraces, a running track, and a swimming pool.

Project team

Client: Google Concept architects: Heatherwick Studio and Bjarke Ingles Design delivery architect: BDP Building services design, energy analysis and environmental design: Atelier Ten Main contractor: Lendlease Structural engineer: AKT II Cost management: Gardiner & Theobald

Building information modelling (BIM) was a client requirement and essential to coordinate the services within the floor voids. It also enabled early involvement of specialist contractors, which gave the project team more scope for prefabrication and meant access for plant-maintenance needs could be baked into the model at an early stage.

The workers are housed across eight office floors at its 60m-wide northern end, tapering down to five floors at its narrower, southern elevation, where it faces the station.

To further minimise the building’s presence on the streetscape, the design lifts the mass of office floors two-storeys above the street, to enable the west façade to accommodate retail buildings beneath.

The approach is continued inside the building, where workspace flexibility and a loose-fit servicing strategy will enable the technology business to adapt and evolve the office spaces over time.

The structure is unusual in that every third floorplate stretches the full width of the building. These are constructed using reinforced concrete and are stepped along the length of the building, with the varying levels connected by a feature staircase.

The wedge-shaped ‘landscraper’ stretches the entire length of the pedestrianised boulevard connecting King’s Cross station with Granary Square

Between these wide concrete structures, additional floors of cross-laminated timber (CLT) have been inserted. These interstitial floors are set back from the glazed façades to create double- and triple-height workspaces, increasing flexibility while opening up the volume to allow daylight deep into the floor plates.

Atelier Ten, the project’s base-build MEP engineers, worked with the concept architects and delivery architect, BDP, to develop the façade design to complement the triple-height concept. Daylight analysis and extensive parametric modelling were used to establish thermal gains and losses. Sunlight and glare were also modelled; these are mitigated using a top-down/bottom-up blind system controlled by the occupants.

The offices also feature an energy efficient LED lighting scheme incorporating daylight dimming to prioritise natural daylight over artificial illumination.

The façade incorporates a saw-tooth detail, where giant timber mullions shade the angled, glazed elements. Glazing is high-performance, low solar-transmission and high visible light-transmittance, to further reduce the need for artificial lighting while minimising heating and cooling loads.

Electrifying experience

The building’s incoming, high-voltage 11kV power supply comes from a dual ring-circuit to provide 8.5MVA capacity in a resilient N+1 arrangement. Two standby 1MVA generator sets, located in the basement, provide a secondary supply to support life-safety and firefighting systems. Extensive sub-metering is provided to monitor energy use on a zone-by-zone basis.  

In addition, the building is fitted with a roof-level photovoltaic array with the potential to generate up to 19,800kWh of electrical power annually.

‘We analysed several different iterations of the saw-tooth design to develop the orientation of the fins on the east- and west-facing façades, to ensure there is no direct solar gain on the office floors, while allowing daylight in,’ says Gita Maruthayanar, associate director at Atelier Ten.

To deal with façade-generated heating and cooling loads at source, the floor plates incorporate perimeter four-pipe trench units to provide additional heating or cooling.

Atelier Ten refined the design of the internal office spaces using a mix of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models to analyse internal air distribution and stratification, along with multi-zone thermal dynamic simulation to ensure occupant comfort. The engineer also undertook CIBSE TM54 modelling to assess the building’s operational energy performance.

Air displacement ventilation

To keep workspaces comfortable, while ensuring future workspace change can be accommodated, Atelier Ten developed a full fresh-air displacement ventilation system concealed in the floor void. ‘This solution provides additional benefits, including improved air quality and increased comfort levels within the occupied space, while also reducing energy use because of free cooling opportunities,’ says Maruthayanar.

Airflow rates are modulated locally using variable air volume (VAV) boxes in response to carbon dioxide levels in the offices. Lengths of flexible ductwork connect each VAV to floor diffusers. ‘The use of floor-based air supplies provides a denser distribution of outlets, which can go a long way to improving flexibility and simplifying workspace reconfiguration,’ Maruthayanar says.

A plantroom has been formed in the void created by the giant steel roof trusses that span east-west above the office floors”

Indoor air quality was an essential element of Google’s brief. It specified a fresh-air supply rate of 16L·s -1 per person, an impressively high volume given the brief was established pre-Covid. According to Maruthayanar, the air-supply rate is equivalent to providing 4.6L·s -1 of outside air per m 2 of floor area, which, she adds, is well above the British Council for Offices standard. ‘The brief challenges industry norms in terms of provision of fresh air in contributing to the health and wellness of staff, which should lead to better productivity,’ she says.

In an attempt to minimise duct sizes within the floor void, Atelier Ten initially proposed combining the fresh-air ventilation system with either ceiling-mounted passive chilled beams or cooling pipework embedded within the soffits. However, the decision was made not to have water-based systems on office floors. ‘That meant we had to push up the ventilation rate to deliver sufficient cooling through the underfloor ventilation system, which is why we have bigger ducts and a larger floor void,’ Maruthayanar says.

Interstitial floors are set back from the glazed façades to create double- and triple-height workspaces

To minimise the length of ductwork concealed beneath the floors, the engineer investigated pressurising the floor voids. However, Maruthayanar says, there were concerns about potentially high levels of air leakage on the interstitial CLT floors, which could have compromised the volume of conditioned air delivered to workspaces on these floors. ‘If you pressurise the plenums, you would have had air leakage on the CLT floors because their design means they are not fully sealed,’ she explains.

55 air handling units (AHUs), located in what Maruthayanar calls the ‘roof-truss plantroom’, provide conditioned air to the office floors. This plantroom has been formed in the void created by the giant steel roof trusses that span east-west above the office floors. The trusses carry the weight of the landscaped roof garden above and the weight of the floor plates below on the western elevation, which are suspended from them.

Material evidence

While the architectural design pushes boundaries with the building’s form, it is also striving to push boundaries with its approach to sustainability and occupant wellbeing. Construction materials for the project were chosen based on Google’s healthy materials programme. This evaluates building products and materials based on established industry standards that value transparency and occupant health.

‘We looked at moving away from steel ducts to using cardboard ducts, but – because of the challenge of dealing with the extensive amount of ductwork – we decided not to push forward with this option,’ Maruthayanar says. ‘We did look at other materials for ducts and pipework, but the building is quite large, so to move away from conventional materials would have been quite difficult.’

‘To incorporate the rooftop garden, it was necessary to concentrate the majority of engineering services equipment within basement plantrooms or in air handling rooms directly below the garden,’ says Maruthayanar.

The AHUs are sized to slot between the trusses. They incorporate cooling and heating coils to temper the supply air and a heat recovery unit to reclaim energy from the exhaust air.

Chiller approach

Cooling is provided by high-efficiency Turbocor water-cooled chillers. These are located beneath the building in a two-level basement plantroom; this space also accommodates the ventilation plant for the basement and ground-floor operations. The chillers are served by cooling towers discreetly located at the perimeter or the wider, northern end of the roof.

Maruthayanar says that Atelier Ten did look at alternative cooling technologies, including air source heat pumps, but ‘based on the loads, we calculated that the Turbocor chillers were the most cost- and energy-efficient option, particularly as their efficiency at part load is quite high.’

The chilled water system is described by Maruthayanar as variable speed. ‘From the chillers, we have a pump set circulating chilled water around the AHU circuit; a pump set that supplies the perimeter trench units on the office floors; and a pump set serving the ground-level spaces.’ Dividing the system into three allows the pumps to turn off if there is no load on a particular circuit.

Prefabrication halved the construction time of plantrooms

Heat for the AHU coils (and domestic hot water) is supplied from the combined heat and power (CHP) and boiler plant forming the King’s Cross district energy centre. ‘Although King’s Cross Energy Centre generates heating and cooling, it could only supply heat to this building, which is why we have the chillers,’ Maruthayanar says.

The AHUs are fitted with carbon filters and F9 filters to maximise indoor air quality. ‘This is an enhancement on what is the norm for London office buildings,’ Maruthayanar says. The filtered, tempered fresh air is ducted to the floor plates via risers formed in the building’s five concrete cores.

The benefits of BIM

BIM was a project requirement. Modelling was key to coordinating the mass of services within the floor voids, a task made more challenging because the voids incorporate a structural grid of castellated up-stand beams, on the concrete and CLT floors, through which many of the services had to pass.

‘The best way we could see to coordinate everything was to use the BIM model to position the openings in every up-stand beam, to ensure the services could pass through the castellations,’ Maruthayanar says. There are more than 10,000 such openings. ‘It was quite an intense information process,’ she recalls.

BIM also enabled early specialist contractor involvement, which was helpful in finalising the MEP base-build design. ‘The trade contractors took our RIBA 4A level design and evolved it to a RIBA 4B design with greater specificity over fabrication and installation, which we then adopted back into our BIM model,’ Maruthayanar explains.

Early involvement of the specialist contractors ensured appropriate access for plant maintenance was incorporated into the model at an early stage, along with MEP secondary steelwork and support systems. Maruthayanar says: ‘Involvement of the trade contractors enabled us to provide detailed RIBA Stage 4B drawings, which were a step beyond the standard for MEP projects. This helped reduce the construction programme and smooth the installation process on site.’

Early involvement of specialist contractors ensured access for plant maintenance was incorporated into the model at an early stage

BIM also enabled extensive use of MEP prefabrication in the basement plantrooms and risers. ‘We had allowed zones for the installation of prefabricated service modules within the risers, but we had not developed the structural support system for the modules,’ say Maruthayanar. ‘When the 4B process occurred, the trade contractor responsible for the multi-service modules was able to add all the supporting steelwork, gantries and walkways to the model.’

As well as being able to spatially coordinate the secondary steelwork, its addition to the BIM model enabled the weight of the prefabricated modules to be established, which was useful in helping finalise the structural model. ‘Prefabrication was beneficial, as it meant the modules were worked on off site by various trades simultaneously, which helped speed construction on site,’ says Maruthayanar.

Needless to say, the building will be smart. Maruthayanar says Google ‘will be developing its own network infrastructure to integrate the engineering systems and give users with tools to improve productivity and create a platform of accessible information, to make the building more flexible’.

The giant building is aiming for Breeam Outstanding and Leed Gold certification. According to Maruthayanar, the impact of Atelier Ten’s passive, active and renewable measures is calculated to achieve an overall reduction in CO 2  emissions of 22% against Part L 2013 target emissions.

Case study: Dubai’s award-winning Museum of the Future

How BIM helped restore the Spanish City pleasure palace in Whitley Bay

Using cloud-based BIM to design London’s Royal Wharf development

Monumental feat: BIM Level 2 on The Monument Building

A message from our CEO

A hybrid approach to work

May 05, 2021

Sundar sent the following email to Google employees earlier today. 

Hi Googlers,

We’ve spent the last year focused on supporting employees during the pandemic. I hope the extra benefits such as Carer’s Leave, the work-from-home allowance, the extra reset days, and the ability to work from wherever you need have been helpful in getting through this tough time.

And we’re not through it yet. It’s heartbreaking to see COVID surging in places like  India, Brazil, and many others around the world. If you live in one of these places, please focus on taking care of yourselves and your loved ones right now. We are here to support however we can. 

In other areas, conditions are less dire and people are beginning to open up their lives and think about returning to the office. In fact, in places where we’ve been able to reopen Google offices in a voluntary capacity, we’ve seen nearly 60% of Googlers choosing to come back to the office. 

For more than 20 years, our employees have been coming to the office to solve interesting problems — in a cafe, around a whiteboard, or during a pickup game of beach volleyball or cricket. Our campuses have been at the heart of our Google community and the majority of our employees still want to be on campus some of the time. Yet many of us would also enjoy the flexibility of working from home a couple days of week, spending time in another city for part of the year, or even moving there permanently. Google’s future workplace will have room for all of these possibilities. 

Over the last year, a team within REWS has been reimagining a hybrid workplace to help us collaborate effectively across many work environments. They’re testing new multi-purpose offices and private workspaces, and working with teams to develop advanced video technology that creates greater equity between employees in the office and those joining virtually. All of these efforts will help us work with greater flexibility and choice once we’re able to return to our offices globally. 

One of the spaces being tested by Google's Real Estate and Workplace Services team is "Camp Charleston," an outdoor space for holding larger team gatherings.

"Team Pods" spaces can be reconfigured in multiple ways to support focused work and collaboration.

"Campfire" is another experiment being tested to help ensure equal participation among those in person and remote.

That flexibility will come in a few different forms — and your product areas and functions will share more details on all of these changes by mid-June. Here are the key principles: 

A more flexible work week: 

We’ll move to a hybrid work week where most Googlers spend approximately three days in the office and two days wherever they work best. Since in-office time will be focused on collaboration, your product areas and functions will help decide which days teams will come together in the office. There will also be roles that may need to be on site more than three days a week due to the nature of the work. 

More choice around where you work: 

More locations globally: One of Google's biggest advantages is our global footprint. We are investing in many great communities globally — which creates more opportunity for employees to move around throughout their careers. By mid-June your PAs and functions will come back with a process by which you can apply to move to another office. In granting approvals, they’ll take into account whether business goals can be met in the new location and whether your team has the right infrastructure in the site to support your work. 

Remote work: We’ll also offer opportunities for you to apply for completely remote work (away from your team or office) based on your role and team needs. Before the pandemic, we had thousands of people working in locations separate from their core teams. I fully expect those numbers to increase in the coming months as we develop more remote roles, including fully all-remote sub teams. You’ll be able to apply for remote work within your product area or function. As with location transfers, your leads will evaluate whether remote work can support the goals of the team and business. Whether you choose to transfer to a different office or opt for completely remote work, your compensation will be adjusted according to your new location. 

Taken together these changes will result in a workforce where around 60% of Googlers are coming together in the office a few days a week, another 20% are working in new office locations, and 20% are working from home. 

More flexibility for your life: 

Work-from-anywhere weeks: Going forward, Googlers will be able to temporarily work from a location other than their main office for up to 4 weeks per year (with manager approval). The goal here is to give everyone more flexibility around summer and holiday travel. 

Focus time: Product areas and functions will also offer focus hours so we limit internal meetings during times when people need to be heads down on projects.

Reset days: We’ll continue offering extra “reset” days to help employees recharge during the pandemic in 2021. Our next global day off will be on Friday, May 28 (or the following work day if you’re already not working on the 28th). Please enjoy it!

I know this past year hasn’t been easy for anyone and many Googlers are still suffering as the pandemic wears on. We will get through it — together — as a Google community. 

I am profoundly optimistic that once we do, we will be able to come back together in our offices to see all the people we have missed. And we’ll be able to work together in entirely new ways that improve both our work and our lives. 

The future of work is flexibility. The changes above are a starting point to help us do our very best work and have fun doing it. 

 Look forward to continuing the conversation with all of you. 

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Case Study: How Google handles hybrid working

Like so many other companies, Google is trying to get a handle on how employees will react to so-called hybrid work. The majority of employees are in no hurry to return to the physical workplace. In its annual survey of Google employees, about 70 per cent of the 110,000 employees surveyed said they had a “favourable” opinion of working from home, compared with about 15 per cent who had an “unfavourable” opinion. Another 15 per cent had a “neutral” perspective, according to results viewed by The New York Times. The survey was sent out in February and the results were released at the end of March.

Many employees have now become accustomed to a life without a time-consuming commute, and with more time for family and other aspects of life outside the office. Companies seem to be slowly realising that employees may not be so willing to return to the old life.

Fortunately, Google has some ideas for the post-pandemic office. One of those ideas is to make the workplace happier and more productive.

Google has come a long way.

The first office was a cluttered garage in Silicon Valley, crammed with desks. In 2003, five years after its founding, the company moved to a sprawling campus called the Googleplex. The airy, open offices and creative common areas set a standard for what an innovative workplace could look like. Over the years, the amenities piled up. Food was free, as were buses to and from work: getting to the office, and staying there all day, was easy.

And then.. corona. Throughout 2020 and early 2021, Google employees worked primarily from home. The company learned a lot from this period. Not only did some colleagues find it pleasant not to work at the office, Google was surprised at how productive the employees were. Nonetheless, a few challenges arose. Executives cited the lack of creativity and collaboration, and the difficulty of building a work culture and trust when people were not physically together.

When workers are able to fully return to the office, Google wants to experiment with ways of empowering them by focusing on hybrid working. The aim is to redefine “the office” and paint a new picture of a happier and more productive workplace. Google wants a post-pandemic workplace that accommodates workers who have become accustomed to working from home and no longer want to be in the office all the time.

Three trends

These plans have been built on initiatives that already started before the corona crisis sent Google’s staff home. Back in 2018, the organisation became convinced that the office environment it had at the time was at the end of its rope. Some employees said they had difficulty concentrating in the office because there were too many people as well as distractions. And some of Google’s office complexes were so sprawling that it took people a long time to travel from one building to another. Office work did not work for many people.

Google wondered how they could do better and focused on three trends to create the best possible workplace:

• Work happens everywhere and not only in the office
• What employees need from a workplace is constantly changing;
• Workplaces should be more than desks, meeting rooms and facilities.

How Google defines the future of work

Covid has taken the question about the future of work to the next level. The answer seems to be Ikea and Lego. The key word: flexibility. Instead of rows of desks next to ready-made meeting rooms, Google designs “Team Pods”. Each pod is an empty canvas: chairs, desks, whiteboards and cabinets on wheels can be placed in different configurations and completely rearranged.

The criteria that determine the future of work according to Google:

• Provide more security or the feeling of security by spreading who is at the office at what time, in order to reduce the number of people physically present. Google is thinking ahead to annual flu seasons and possible future pandemics and wants to reduce infection risks. Moreover, lower occupancy levels also benefit concentration.
• Organisations can no longer demand that people come to the office five days a week. Google wants to be able to respond more flexibly to the changing needs of employees: workstations that can be adapted for a particular team or project, personal heating and cooling systems at desks, outdoor meeting rooms in camp themes,
• Companies must be able to cope with a certain mix of external and office workers. For example, Google introduced “Campfire”, a new meeting room where attendees sit in a circle, interspersed with large screens that are impossible to ignore. The screens allow virtual participants to dial in via video conference, who are also visually at the same height as those who are physically present.

Source: Google Blog ‘A hybrid approach to work’ Image credit: Google Campfire

• Outdoor workplaces can address concerns about the spread of (future) viruses in traditional offices. For example, at its headquarters in Silicon Valley, where the weather is pleasant most of the year, Google converted a car park into “Camp Charleston” – a fenced-in mix of grass and wooden floors the size of about four tennis courts with Wi-Fi everywhere.

Source: Google Blog ‘A hybrid approach to work’ Image Credit: Google Camp Charleston Outdoor Spaces

No more rigid elements

Google shows a lot of creativity when it comes to both flexible and useful office design.  The walls and the heating and cooling systems are two of the most rigid elements in an office design are and Google is trying to change that:

• A prototype air duct system made of fabric can be attached with zips and moved over a weekend for different seating arrangements.
• As for ending the battle over the temperature at the office: Google is developing a system whereby each chair has its own air diffuser to control the direction or amount of air blowing on it.
• If a meeting requires privacy, a robot comes along and inflates a translucent, cellophane balloon wall to keep prying eyes away.
• Distractions are reduced by leaf-shaped partitions that can be attached to the edge of a desk to reduce glare. An office chair with directional speakers in the headrest plays white noise to muffle nearby noise.
• For those who no longer need a fixed desk, Google also built a prototype of a desk that adapts to an employee’s personal preferences with a swipe of a work badge: it calibrates the height and tilt of the monitor, shows family photos on a display and even adjusts the temperature in the area.

Learning from Google

The company is essentially abandoning the popularised theory of the open office plan – that cramming more workers into smaller spaces and taking away their privacy leads to better collaboration.

Real estate costs for the company are not expected to change much. Although there will be fewer workers in the office, they will need more space for their safety and productivity. This is likely to cost Google billions of dollars, which most companies cannot afford.

However, Google has long been a trendsetter in labour practices and office design. Tech companies like them have helped spread the concept of wide-open office spaces with high ceilings and desks crammed tightly together. If these new ideas of a hybrid office environment prove to be successful, Google can of course inspire other organisations once again.

Source links

Google Blog – A hybrid approach to work NYTimes – Google’s plan for the future of work NYTimes – Ikea meets Lego: Google redesigns its office space ET Telecom – Google has some ideas for the post-pandemic office

Article as originally published on happinessatwork.blog by Griet Deca.

This blog article is linked to “The Cactus Files #4: Workplace trends in a hybrid future” .

If you want to know more about The Cactus Files, check out this article  or watch the series on Youtube.

Watch the whole series.

Case Study: How Google Boosts its Employees’ Engagement

You might have heard about this mantra: ‘happy employees produce better results.’ this is the mindset of google to keep its employees productive and satisfied. this article explains more..

Let’s say you’re a company providing software development services . If your developer’s team isn’t enthusiastic about their projects every day, you’re not going to achieve excellence. This is productivity’s power. But remember productivity is dependent on the company’s culture.

Why is everyone talking about Google’s culture or work environment? We know that Google is one of the most influential and powerful companies around the globe. The company follows a pretty well unique culture instead of corporate culture.

It has something that every big organisation needs to follow to level up their employees’ engagement or morale. The culture of any company is vital to its success and Google is perfectly right on the track.

It has one sole purpose:  Keep the employees happy and keep up the productivity.

Google has been at number ONE place from the past six years and featured on  Fortune’s  annual list of  ‘Best Companies to Work For.’  And this is not it. Google has also been named as the tech company with the best culture. (Reported by Forbes) Furthermore, Google has a 4.4 rating on  Glassdoor  based on 6000+ employees reviews.   

Google’s morale

This is what the employees of Google answered the questions asked about their work culture.

• Acknowledged for the efforts?

Yes: 61 % Employees

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No: 39% Employees

• Job Security?

Very Secure: 34 % Employees

Neutral: 19% Employees

Insecure: 8% Employees

Very insecure: 5% Employees

• Work Environment?

Positive: 85% Employees

Negative: 15% Employees

• Excited about going to work daily?

Yes: 80% Employees

No: 20% Employees

So, without further ado, let’s move towards the ways Google uses to boost its employees’ engagement .

“There are way easier places to work, but nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week. But if you love what you do, it (mostly) doesn’t feel like work.”- Elon Musk.

How Google Keeps Its Employees Productive And Engaged?

Exclusive perks.

Today, employees want a job in a company that makes them love what they do. Never for financial benefit or intellectual recognition. Yet instead of chance to add to the common good.

The major differentiator is to make a real difference.

Google offers different perks to its employees to show them that they are not only investing in their overall health but their future as well.

• Chef-prepared free organic food (breakfast, lunch, and dinner);
• Free dental and health checkup;
• Free and unlimited dry cleaning;
• Subsidised massages;
• Several foosball, ping pong, video games stations;
• On-site physicians;
• Gyms/swimming pools memberships;
• Free haircuts from professional hairdressers;
• In-house nap pods;
• Death benefits to deceased employees’ families, and;
• Hybrid car subsidies.

Flexibility

Google has been one of the very first companies that had a vision of understanding the employees’ needs. It lets its workers have a flexible schedule so that they can work on their terms and enhance creativity and productivity. They have given their employees complete freedom to work in a way that is most suitable to them.

Knowing the employees well

Google had gone through a series of laboratory tests to figure out the productivity of their employees. They had four different experiments that included 700 participants. All the employees were treated to free drinks, fruits, and chocolates or shown a comedy movie clip.

They also enquired some of the participants about the family tragedies as a part of their assessment. After this, they found that happiness is the reason for 12% more productivity.

Google promotes an innovative and diverse organisational culture that has been a part of its employee’s life. A positive creative atmosphere and a safe working space offered by Google to its workers keep them comfortable and happy at work. The concept that being a part of Google is about being smart and wise encourages the employees to think openly and keeps them productive.

Nowadays, there are different creative coworking spaces which are known to be a perfect alternate to a workplace. These spaces are believed to deliver various advantages such as strong networking and increased engagement.

Google’s founders were researchers who had a belief in innovation and freedom of thinking. This is one of the main factors that influenced the style of Google’s leadership.

According to Brassfield, 2013, a positive leadership style stimulates inspiring and motivating employees to develop innovative ideas and inventions.

Keeping people inspired

Future Workplace, in 2017, demonstrated in a study that one of the biggest threats to employees’ engagement is employee burnout. It has also been found out that many proficient workers are often overburdened with the tasks that lead to halted innovation, incomplete work, etc.

What does Google do about keeping its employees productive, inspired, or motivated? Google’s strategy for this is  20% time . Every employee devours up to 20% of his time at work each week on ventures that inspire him.

This concept inspires employees as it allows them to concentrate on things they love or are passionate about. It can prevent burnout, decrease turnover, increase engagement.

Image: Pexels

Career development

Google provides an extensive professional growth program that is successful and creative and guarantees long-term performance for all the employees. The career development program of Google is one that ensures incentives are provided to employees to meet their professional and personal progression.

Google has adopted a unique way to promote the professional development of all its employees. CareerGuru  is a career coaching that provides all the details to the employees by Google’s leaders about working at a specific role in the company.

Creativity Encouragement

The companies that believe in fostering a culture of creativity have happy, satisfied, and motivated employees. Google leads the way in promoting creativity in their employees.

They are free to express their ideas as a solution to any problem. Moreover, employees are encouraged to work wherever they are comfortable in the workplace. Google has a set up where rather than just considering an applicant’s professional background, they look to recruit people who are normally inquisitive and fond of learning.

Trusting Employees

Google believes in trusting their workers because trusted employees feel more valuable. It can also boost the sense of job satisfaction and can also decrease the rate of staff turnover.

In a survey by PwC, reliable employees are 76% more engaged in their work than those in a low trusting environment. Trusted employees are happier and they have the urge to go the extra miles.

Culture based on qualitative data

Google has always been searching out different ways to optimise the performance of its employees while ensuring their happiness and satisfaction. Everything done at Google is based on real data. They use the qualitative and quantitative facts to set up processes and every single rule that is streamlined.

Google has additionally performed researches to discover how much paid time off new mothers would need and ways of building an improvised and better culture.

Fun workplace

Have you ever been allowed to design your own workstation at your company?

Probably not. But Google does it. It lets the employees design their desks or workstations.

When you see the pictures of the workplace, it seems an interesting adult play and work area and not a dull and lifeless space.

Google has always tried to push the boundaries of its workspace.

Collaboration of coworkers

At Google, the employees are urged to collaborate. They have a program called ‘Googler to Googler’ to keep them productive and promote skills such as management, public speaking, orientation, or extracurricular activities.

It is crucial to build a sense of community to create a positive culture. The company has arranged several micro kitchens around the whole workspace where coworkers can have a little chit-chat session. No one has to spend time on deciding where to eat because Google has various break-out spaces for lunch.

Google’s way of listening

Google employees have developed great software and projects that include Gmail, AdSense, Google News, etc. and all these big projects were originated because of its staff productivity approach. Google has a way of collecting employees’ feedback and listening to their suggestions that is  gDNA.

• The employees utilise a device ‘Google Moderator’ , the result of 20% time strategy, to inquire about something and vote on inquiries of others;
• The company holds a meeting, every Friday, where the managers react to the most famous inquiries of the week;
• Leaders or managers utilise a charting instrument called Google-O-Meter to measure the prominence of various worker bits of advice;
• Leaders likewise plan “Fixits” to comprehend huge, critical issues; and,
• Fixits are 24-hour runs where team members give their full focus around discovering solutions for explicit issues.

So, can Google teach us anything?

If you are planning to adopt these learnings at your organisation just like Google keeps its employees productive, it’s essential to test the progressions first and measure the results.

It’s a great deal of work, however, the engagement advantages will make the difficult function admirably justified.

About the Author

Usman Akram is a digital marketer and SEO specialist who’s passionate about experimenting and discovering new SEO tactics and strategies to dominate search rankings while bringing an unmatched user-experience. As of now Usman is serving Buzz Interactive , a leading digital marketing agency as the head of SEO.

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Free Google Docs Case Study Templates

By Kate Eby | January 18, 2024

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We’ve collected several free, customizable case study templates in Google Docs format for marketing managers, content creators, sales reps, and product managers. Use these templates for customer stories, sales collateral, and product development.

On this page, you’ll find eight dynamic Google Docs case study templates, including a  case study report template , a  project case study template , a  marketing case study template , and a  one-page case study template .

Google Docs Simple Case Study Template

Download the Sample Simple Case Study Template for Google Docs Download the Blank Simple Case Study Template for Google Docs

When to Use This Template: Marketing managers and content creators can use this template — with or without sample data — to deliver clear and short case studies. First-time case study writers will appreciate the template’s straightforward approach. 

Notable Template Features:  This simple case study template focuses on the main points and results, so it's not overly detailed. You’ll find room to include an introduction, customer challenges, marketing strategies, and results.

See this selection of free marketing case studies available in PowerPoint format that are ready to use in presentations.

Google Docs Case Study Report Template

Download the Sample Case Study Report Template for Google Docs Download the Blank Case Study Report Template for Google Docs

When to Use This Template: Use this case study report template for Google Docs to make a detailed report. Download the version with sample text to get an idea of how to complete the template. It's perfect for marketing managers or product managers who want to dive deep into their analysis and show lots of data and insights. 

Notable Template Features: The report-style format of this template features a comprehensive layout with plenty of room to go into detail and depth. When complete, it helps you look closely at complex marketing issues, evaluate lots of data, and put together clear, professional reports. 

Check out these free marketing case study templates in various formats, ideal for highlighting marketing achievements and tactics.

Google Docs Project Case Study Template

Download the Sample Project Case Study Template for Google Docs Download the Blank Project Case Study Template for Google Docs

When to Use This Template:  Choose this project case study template when you want to show off how well you managed and executed your project. Project managers or content creators who need some guidance on how to complete this template should download the version with sample text. 

Notable Template Features:  The visually driven template format renders the content easier to grasp and effectively communicates the success of your marketing tactics. Use visuals such as line charts, pie charts, and bar charts to explain your project's success in a clear, easy-to-understand way. 

For additional sales tools, take a look at our selection of free case study templates available in Microsoft Word format.

Google Docs Marketing Case Study Template

Download the Sample Marketing Case Study Template for Google Docs Download the Blank Marketing Case Study Template for Google Docs

When to Use This Template:  Marketing managers, sales representatives, and content creators who want to demonstrate how their efforts have positively impacted the business should use this marketing case study template. Download the version with sample text for guidance on completing your own case study. 

Notable Template Features: This template includes additional sections specifically designed for marketing stories. You’ll find space to provide information about the company, challenge, solution, what happened, and benefits. Its visually appealing format helps explain complex marketing information simply.

Google Docs One-Page Case Study Template

Download the Sample One-Page Case Study Template for Google Docs Download the Blank One-Page Case Study Template for Google Docs

When to Use This Template:  Select this one-page case study template — with or without sample data — when you need to make a strong impression fast. It's great for sales representatives or marketing managers who want to grab the attention of busy decision-makers with a short, impactful summary. 

Notable Template Features: The template’s concise one-page format helps you get straight to the point. Add information about key results and any highlights and use it as part of a sales pitch or other business presentation.

Google Docs Problem-Solution-Impact Case Study Template

Download the Sample Problem-Solution-Impact Case Study Template for Google Docs Download the Blank Problem-Solution-Impact Case Study Template for Google Docs

When to Use This Template: Choose this problem-solution-impact case study template to outline a clear sequence of events. Download the version with sample text to see how to identify the problem and reveal the solution and its effects in a straightforward way.

Notable Template Features:  This template’s linear narrative structure sets it apart. Complete the  Problem, Solution , and  Impact  sections to end up with a straightforward, chronological approach to storytelling.

Google Docs Comparative Study Template

Download the Sample Comparative Study Template for Google Docs Download the Blank Comparative Study Template for Google Docs

When to Use This Template: Use this comparative study template to compare such items as marketing campaigns or strategies. Download the version with sample data to quickly see an example that highlights changes over time or how different approaches stack up against each other. 

Notable Template Features: This template layout is ideal for side-by-side comparisons. You can easily put two items next to each other to see how they compare, making it a useful tool for looking at changes and trends clearly.

Google Docs Case Study Storyboard Template

Download the Sample Case Study Storyboard Template for Google Docs Download the Blank Case Study Storyboard Template for Google Docs

When to Use This Template:  Pick this case study storyboard template when you want to present your case study like a visual story. It’s perfect for marketing teams that prefer using more pictures and fewer words in their case study.

Notable Template Features: This template focuses on storytelling with visuals. Unlike other templates, it uses images and graphics to walk through the case study, making it stand out for presentations.

Streamline and Collect All the Elements Needed for a Case Study with Smartsheet

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The Smartsheet platform makes it easy to plan, capture, manage, and report on work from anywhere, helping your team be more effective and get more done. Report on key metrics and get real-time visibility into work as it happens with roll-up reports, dashboards, and automated workflows built to keep your team connected and informed. 

When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time.  Try Smartsheet for free, today.

Discover why over 90% of Fortune 100 companies trust Smartsheet to get work done.

Corporate Office Design Case Studies - Steelcase

La-z-boy reflects culture in new office.

When you’re almost a hundred years old, being a little dated is to be expected. The 1920’s vintage headquarters of La-Z-Boy, however, didn’t just look out of date, it was holding the company back.

Steelcase Teams with Microsoft to Optimize Surface Hub 2

Relationship brings people, place + technology together to enable workers to collaborate in new ways.

Reinventing La-Z-Boy in New Headquarters

Leadership credits the new work environment with driving important changes at La-Z-Boy: greater employee enthusiasm, more communication and more frequent collaboration.

For many years, architectural firm HDR told clients the workplace of the future should support a mobile workforce. Yet their own office was hardly a model of that vision. Learn how that all changed.

BASF: Redesign For a New Way of Working

BASF, the world’s leading chemical company, recently unveiled a redesigned office for its regional headquarters in Hong Kong, that not

Quarles & Brady: New Innovative Office

A key design feature of this approximately 20,000-square-foot new workplace: It provides for flexibility in a way that also sends a clear message about the Quarles & Brady culture.

Integreon Redesign Drives Innovation

When Integreon planned a new building for Fargo, one that would bring both Fargo offices together under one roof, the initial workplace layout offered rows of workstations in a very traditional approach, hardly what a global, interconnected business needed.

TAQA Redesign: Collaboration meets Privacy

If one word can sum up the strategic intent behind the creation of flagship headquarters for TAQA, the global energy company, it is Majlis—which in Arabic signifies a place where people gather and are welcomed by their hosts.

Creating an Engaging Workplace at Groove

Because most of Groove’s work is collaborative in nature, the majority of the new space is designed for co-creation and brainstorming. Nicknamed “the pit,” this main area is open and collaborative, uniting the team.

Enhancing Company Culture at Orbea

Culture, the reigning champ of hip offices everywhere, promises to fuel employee positivity, productivity and loyalty in small businesses—but do we have proof it actually delivers results? We do now.

Driving Culture Change at Steelcase’s HQ

The company’s leadership decided on a bold plan: reinvent their global headquarters campus in Grand Rapids, MI, leverage the workplace to drive a more mobile, agile and innovative company culture, and use this transformation as a platform for testing new ways of leveraging space to add value to an organization.

Kennedy Space Center Upgrades Seating

NASA tried out the different chairs for a week and, not surprisingly, selected a chair that reflects both ergonomic and design innovation: Siento.

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Google Case Study: SWOT Analysis

Looking for a case study on Google? The essay below focuses on SWOT analysis of Google’s strategic management. Get inspired to make your own case study of Google company with us!

Google Case Study: Defining the Issue

Google business strategy analysis, swot analysis of google company, google case study: solution & recommendations.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin created Google in 1998 during their college days at Stanford University. Over the last one decade, Google has grown into a globally acknowledged market force for its service provision, business model, efforts in development of technology, and human life influence.

Since inception of internet and development of information technology, Google’s record is impressive in the way it has charmed people regardless of their ethnic, religious, and political affiliations.

The company has also reached out to different social and economic classes across the world through its numerous products.

Google identifies among the leading search engines available in the world market. Its reliability in terms of matching results and simple design of their website has attracted a respectable fraction of global population, which is increasingly warming up to the contemporary world of internet.

Some of the main competitors of Google are Yahoo, Amazon, MSN and Bing. Google has managed to fight off competition from these companies to command close to 85% of internet searches.

In 2005, Google’s search engine was the best performing product from the company ahead of email services. Other products by Google include Google profiles, Google maps, Google talk, Google gadgets and Google trends.

This essay will analyze Google’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It will also identify and discuss Google’s business strategy and organizational culture.

Google has demonstrated how fast a business can grow if it develops an effective operational strategy, and an inclusive corporate culture. In 2000, a company that started with two individuals grew fast to include a workforce of 60 workers.

Google has a business strategy that aims to help penetrate major global economies by providing products and services that meet primary needs of their customers. Google provides its services in America, Europe, Asia, and other parts of the world through ten other languages apart from English.

Google’s corporate values and business strategy help to promote innovation within its workforce, thus the company’s rapid growth.

Through innovations such as Google toolbar browser, keyword-targeted advertising, and expansion of search capabilities to include 28 languages, the company earned a annual revenue of $86 million for the 2001 fiscal year.

This figure was very high compared to their annual revenue of $220,000 two years earlier.

The company’s Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer, Eric Schmidt was definitely doing his job effectively. He managed to build a corporate culture for Google, which has made it a striking, favorable, fitting, and exquisite place to work.

It promotes cultural and talent diversity in its workforce. It also nurtures a spirit of togetherness among workers.

The inclusive nature of the work environment at Google motivates employees towards achieving organizational goals, as they develop a certain level of attachment to activities and processes within the company.

Google has developed its business model along this culture, thus the reason it stands out from its competitors. The focus of their business model is to improve access to information by providing quality, reliable and effective means of doing so.

This is a management tool used by organizations to make decisions through assessment of organizational structure and corporate culture. It entails identifying internal strengths and weaknesses of an organization, as well as external opportunities and threats.

The cardinal focus of applying SWOT analysis in an organization is to build on strengths, do away with weaknesses, take hold of available opportunities, and respond to possible threats.

Google has several internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as opportunities and threats from the external environment.

A strength that has enhanced Google’s fast growth is an effective market strategy. The market strategy applied by Google entails innovation, a large portfolio of products, broad market coverage, and effective marketing.

Google has created a global customer base covering various types of customers of varied age, social and economic class, as well as political and religious affiliations.

The second strength is good human resource planning and management strategies. Google has demonstrated strong ability to create a cohesive and inclusive work environment that helps maintain high employee morale.

They have effective employee motivation and retention strategies that include good remuneration packages and workplace benefits.

The third strength is effective change management strategies. Innovation creates need for regular change implementation at Google, and it has effectively managed to introduce without compromising its corporate culture.

Other notable strengths of Google include effective leadership and management strategies, financial stability, customer goodwill, and a strong corporate culture.

The first weakness is poor recruitment strategies. The human resource department at Google receives numerous applications from potential employees from various parts of the world.

Google ignores these applications because its owners prefer to hire graduates from Stanford University, their alma mater.

This strategy locks out very qualified and competent individuals who could bring a new dimension into Google’s way of conducting business.

The second weakness is poor implementation of employee retention strategies. Although the company has developed strategies for reducing employee turnover, poor implementation has forced some top managers to leave and join their competitors.

When employees leave and join a competitor, the competitor most likely counters their efforts in the market.

The third weakness is unreliable partnerships. Google formed numerous partnerships with many companies in a bid to increase its market share. Some of these partnerships failed to fulfill their desired potential, leading to poor management of some portfolios.

Opportunities

The outside environment offers Google numerous opportunities that can be exploited to improve stability in the market.

The first opportunity is to integrate its services with computer software in order to attract more users. This means that Google can form partnerships with computer software developers like Microsoft to have their products integrated during production.

Google plans to launch an operating system called chrome that will enable it compete effectively with companies such as Microsoft.

Although it will be challenging to convince people to try out a new operating system for their personal computers, Google can look up to its operating system for smart phones that has been a huge success. This will motivate them to go ahead with the launch.

The operating system is cost effective, reliable and its usability suits needs of many internet users. This is an opportunity Google can exploit and stamp its control of the internet service market.

Other opportunities include expansion of global market presence, integration of research and development skill in its activities, as well as development of new business partnerships for growth of its brand.

The first threat is Google’s inability to provide enough motivation to part time employees who work on various projects. Many of these employees do not receive allowances and this might derail their human resource development strategies.

The second threat is court battles instigated by its major competitors. Yahoo, Amazon, and Microsoft among other companies have filed a case to stop Google from digitizing and getting exclusive rights for the concept of online advertising.

The third threat faced by Google is the dynamic nature of competition in the industry. There is need for increased innovation to ensure that the company does not lose its market leadership to emerging competitors.

Google needs to apply certain approaches to ensure that it makes the best out of its strengths, do away with weaknesses, seize available opportunities, and eliminate all threats from the external environment.

The first recommendation is need for Google to further reflect on its mission statement and develop it. It is important for Google to know that all their competitors are seeking to provide the best services on the market. Thus, it needs to rethink how it can maintain its market leadership.

The second recommendation is that Google needs to reorient its organizational structure and culture to promote development of its brand. Google needs to develop effective strategies for change management, which is an effective tool for organizational success.

Thirdly, Google needs to revise its recruitment strategy to include graduates from other institutions who can provide an extra dimension to its organizational development.

Google currently applies a strategy that its founders started, of picking their employees from Stanford University, as they believe its graduates have the essential competencies.

Maintaining market leadership is a function of human resource management that involves applying effective recruitment strategies.

Employee recruitment entails developing an attractive remuneration and benefits package for all workers. This helps to reduce employee turnover because they will be satisfied and motivated to work.

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IvyPanda. (2023, October 29). Google Case Study: SWOT Analysis. https://ivypanda.com/essays/google-case-study-analysis/

"Google Case Study: SWOT Analysis." IvyPanda , 29 Oct. 2023, ivypanda.com/essays/google-case-study-analysis/.

IvyPanda . (2023) 'Google Case Study: SWOT Analysis'. 29 October.

IvyPanda . 2023. "Google Case Study: SWOT Analysis." October 29, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/google-case-study-analysis/.

1. IvyPanda . "Google Case Study: SWOT Analysis." October 29, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/google-case-study-analysis/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Google Case Study: SWOT Analysis." October 29, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/essays/google-case-study-analysis/.

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Staples: helping customers easily locate stores

About Staples

Staples helps the world work better with work solutions that deliver industry-leading products, services and expertise across office supplies, facilities, breakroom, furniture, technology, promotional products, and print & marketing services. The company supports businesses of all sizes from solopreneurs to the Fortune 100 and everything in between. Headquartered near Boston, MA, Staples operates in North America.

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Staples has more than 1,600 stores throughout north america. the company wanted to help customers easily find the nearest store, along with driving directions and distances. while this service was a priority, the team didn't want to spend excessive time, money and resources building their own mapping infrastructure., google maps platform results.

• Customers can quickly find nearby Staples stores and seamlessly display driving directions
• Customers can quickly search and buy products online, then pick-up orders in store
• The address autocomplete feature helps ensure that delivery locations are accurate when customers shop online

Helps customers locate one of 1,600 stores

"Google Maps was a natural choice for Staples. It has the most familiar interface and the most useful APIs. With Google Maps, we've been able to very easily build a website and mobile apps that let people quickly find a nearby Staples store and get directions to it."

Staples chose Google Maps and Google Maps Platform because of their familiar mapping interface and tools for easy integration with Staples' website and mobile apps. To help people find stores near them, Staples used the Maps Javascript API to build a location-finder map on its website. The iOS mobile app uses the Maps SDK for iOS for the store locator, and the Android app uses the Maps SDK for Android. To make it easier to find stores, the website uses the autocomplete feature to fill in the full name of a location when a user types in only the first few letters.

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You won’t believe work gets done at these three Google offices

By Katherine McLaughlin

Google offices may have slides, climbing walls, nap pods, and basketball courts, but they aren’t adult playgrounds, at least not wholly. “I think that the assumptions are very surface level,” Joshua Bridie, Google’s director of global interior design, tells  AD . Movies like  The Internship and video tours of the tech giant’s workspaces have long offered glimpses into the home bases of Googlers across the globe, prompting common adjectives to surface when discussing the infamous spaces: colourful, playful, animated, or fun. And though these descriptions are true, social media or theatrical adaptations often fail to encapsulate the most essential adjective required to detail the Google offices: intentional. 

“From day one, Google’s founding principles with our products were that they had to be user first,” Michelle Kaufmann, Google’s director of research and development for the built environment, says. “And that’s certainly how we think about our spaces too.” In Google’s 24 years, the company has pushed the office to its limits, operating on a belief that if the people who are working there are happy, healthy, and comfortable, then the company itself will thrive too. It’s in this idea that the jungle-gym-like elements that Google offices are known for become as integral as a desk or a filing cabinet. “They’re there because there is a need for the brain to disconnect and reconnect, so you can refocus your energies in an incredibly productive way,” Bridie says. 

Of course, it’s not just playful and whimsical design that makes a Google office—many factors inform the look and feel of these notable spaces. Below, Kaufmann and Bridie take AD through three of the company’s workspaces to show just what makes a Google office. 

Pier 57 (New York City) 

A 300-foot-long ramp that once transported cargo and buses was converted to provide a multimedia experience to welcome both Googlers and visitors.  

Whether working on a ground-up building or renovating an existing structure, the goal of every Google office is longevity and timelessness. “We think about every office very similarly, which is ‘how can we make a building that is functional and vibrant for hopefully centuries?’” Kaufmann says. Unable to predict the future, the company opts to look to the past for buildings that have achieved this lofty objective. “It turns out there were five main common properties,” Kaufmann explains: high ceilings, double-height space , access to daylight, long span between columns, and exposed structure. It’s largely this design skeleton that defines almost any Google space. 

By AD Staff

By Rupali Sebastian

Also read: Chandigarh: A boutique office where modernism meets sustainable design

Exposed structure is a common element of Google offices.  

A cantilevered room with views of the Hudson River at Pier 57. 

From this core, Google designers look to incorporate three types of spaces: those designed for deep focus work, for collaboration and meetings, and to build community and spark innovation. Many of these core elements of a Google space are on display at the company’s Pier 57 office in New York City: large windows open up to incredible views of the Hudson River, “neighbourhoods” for teams are created within the relatively open floor plan , and numerous cafés and informal meeting spaces make room to decompress or ignite curiosity. 

Bay View (Mountain View, California) 

The central courtyard at Bay View features mariposa-inspired artwork, while skylights along the canopy roof allow plenty of natural light in.  

Designed by Bjarke Ingels Group and Heatherwick Studios, Google’s Bay View campus is the company’s first completed ground-up project. “We had always been in existing buildings, and it’s only really been in the past five to seven years that we’ve actually been designing ground-up buildings for ourselves,” Kaufmann says. With a tent-like ceiling and floor-to-ceiling windows throughout the building, the Bay View campus is easily one of the most unique offerings in the company’s real estate portfolio. However, it also represents Google’s push for sustainability. “We have this crazy, audacious goal of being carbon neutral by 2030 on a 24/7 basis with all of our buildings, including data centres,” Kaufmann explains, adding that Bay View exemplifies many of the strategies the tech company plans to implement to achieve this. 

90,000 silver solar panels make up the canopy roof at Google’s Bay View campus.  

Courtyards connect the collaboration and amenity-focused lower floors with the second-floor focus areas. Here, Googlers gather around the Dinosaur District courtyard and its towering T-Rex sculpture by Marianela Fuentes.

Instead of checking off standard environmentally friendly boxes—like using recycled materials—Google designers look to make their sustainability efforts just as beautiful and exciting for employees as they are for the Earth. “It’s about being sustainable while thinking about how we can create an extraordinary user experience,” Kaufmann explains. At the Bay View building, solar panels on the roof mimic a dragon’s scale in a visually interesting and original way, while a landscaped retention pond acts as an on-site wastewater treatment centre, for example. “Thinking about sustainability from a user-first perspective is our unique approach,” Kaufmann says. 

Also read: This Bengaluru office underlines the power of clean, simple design

Peachtree (Atlanta) 

A custom Google Atlanta sign and peach-shaped arch welcome guests and employees.  

Though the Google offices all have similar backbones, they each have their own flair too. “We want our spaces to be cousins, not identical twins,” Bridie says, adding this is often done by leaning into the design vernacular of the local community. Often, the company partners with local design firms and artists to not only better understand the area, but to truly embed the community in the office. “We’re tying to understand that local community and establish an aesthetic that is truly part of that region versus my interpretation of that region,” he says. In the newest Atlanta office, murals painted by local artists don the walls of a coffee bar, a peach-shaped arch welcomes employees to the office every morning, and upcycled cassettes donated by local Googlers reference the city’s musical history in a creative mural. 

Murals from local artists inspired by various themes in Atlanta’s history decorate this coffee bar and several others at the Peachtree offices.  

A mural made from recycled cassettes donated by Atlanta Googlers. 

Still, despite the purposeful designs, what truly makes each office unique is the people who move in. “Sometimes the spaces that resonate the least with me become the most popular with the Googlers,” Bridie says. “There are some things that might make design professionals uncomfortable, but I celebrate because it truly means that they now feel like they own the space, and that, to me, is success.” 

Also read: This Mumbai office adapts Japandi design to the Indian context

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Google agrees to destroy browsing data collected in Incognito mode

It’s part of a proposed class action settlement filed with a california federal court..

By Lauren Feiner , the senior policy reporter at The Verge, covering the intersection of Silicon Valley and Capitol Hill. She spent 5 years covering tech policy at CNBC, writing about antitrust, privacy, and content moderation reform.

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Google agreed to destroy or de-identify billions of records of web browsing data collected when users were in its private browsing “Incognito mode,” according to a proposed class action settlement filed Monday.

The proposed settlement in Brown v. Google will also mandate greater disclosure from the company about how it collects information in Incognito mode and put limits on future data collection. If approved by a California federal judge, the settlement could apply to 136 million Google users. The 2020 lawsuit was brought by Google account holders who accused the company of illegally tracking their behavior through the private browsing feature.

The proposal is valued at $5 billion, according to Monday’s court filing, calculated by determining the value of data Google has stored and would be forced to destroy and the data it would be prevented from collecting. Google would need to address data collected in private browsing mode in December 2023 and earlier. Any data that is not outright deleted must be de-identified.

“This Settlement ensures real accountability and transparency from the world’s largest data collector and marks an important step toward improving and upholding our right to privacy on the Internet,” the plaintiffs wrote in the proposed settlement filing.

Google spokesperson José Castañeda said in a statement that the company is “pleased to settle this lawsuit, which we always believed was meritless.” Though the plaintiffs valued the proposed settlement at $5 billion, which was the amount they originally sought in damages, Castañeda said that they are “receiving zero.” The settlement does not include damages for the class, though individuals can file claims.

“We never associate data with users when they use Incognito mode,” Castañeda added. “We are happy to delete old technical data that was never associated with an individual and was never used for any form of personalization.”

Part of the agreement includes changes to how Google discloses the limits of its private browsing services, which the company has already begun rolling out on Chrome . Google also agreed for five years to let users block third-party cookies by default in Incognito mode to keep Google from tracking users on outside websites while they’re in private browsing.

Individuals can still file claims for damages in California state court, according to the settlement terms. Already, there have been 50 claims filed.

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Google to purge billions of files containing personal data in settlement of Chrome privacy case

Google Chrome Privacy Lawsuit Settlement FILE - The Google building is seen in New York, Feb. 26, 2024. Google has agreed to purge billions of records containing personal information collected from more than 136 million people in the U.S. surfing the internet through its Chrome web browser as part of settlement in a lawsuit accusing it of illegal surveillance. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File) (Seth Wenig)

SAN FRANCISCO — (AP) — Google has agreed to purge billions of records containing personal information collected from more than 136 million people in the U.S. surfing the internet through its Chrome web browser.

The records purge comes as part of a settlement in a lawsuit accusing the search giant of illegal surveillance.

The details of the deal emerged in a court filing Monday, more than three months after Google and the attorneys handling the class-action case disclosed they had resolved a June 2020 lawsuit targeting Chrome's privacy controls.

Among other allegations, the lawsuit accused Google of tracking Chrome users' internet activity even when they had switched the browser to the “Incognito” setting that is supposed to shield them from being shadowed by the Mountain View, California, company.

Google vigorously fought the lawsuit until U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers rejected a request to dismiss the case last August, setting up a potential trial. The settlement was negotiated during the next four months, culminating in Monday's disclosure of the terms, which Rogers still must approve during a hearing scheduled for July 30 in Oakland, California, federal court.

The settlement requires Google to expunge billions of personal records stored in its data centers and make more prominent privacy disclosures about Chrome's Incognito option when it is activated. It also imposes other controls designed to limit Google's collection of personal information.

Consumers represented in the class-action lawsuit won't receive any damages or any other payments in the settlement, a point that Google emphasized in a Monday statement about the deal.

“We are pleased to settle this lawsuit, which we always believed was meritless," Google said. The company asserted it is only being required to “delete old personal technical data that was never associated with an individual and was never used for any form of personalization.”

In court papers, the attorneys representing Chrome users painted a much different picture, depicting the settlement as a major victory for personal privacy in an age of ever-increasing digital surveillance.

The lawyers valued the settlement at $4.75 billion to $7.8 billion, relying on calculations based primarily on the potential ad sales that the personal information collected through Chrome could have generated in the past and future without the new restrictions.

The settlement also doesn't shield Google from more lawsuits revolving around the same issues covered in the class-action case. That means individual consumers can still pursue damages against the company by filing their own civil complaints in state courts around the U.S.

Investors apparently aren't too worried about the settlement terms affecting the digital ad sales that account for the bulk of the more than $300 billion in annual revenue pouring into Google's corporate parent, Alphabet Inc. Shares in Alphabet rose nearly 3% during Monday's afternoon trading.

Austin Chambers, a lawyer specializing in data privacy issues at the firm Dorsey & Whitney, described the settlement terms in the Chrome case as a “welcome development” that could affect the way personal information is collected online in the future.

“This prevents companies from profiting off of that data, and also requires them to undertake complex and costly data deletion efforts,” Chambers said. “In some cases, this could have a dramatic impact on products built around those datasets.”

Google is still facing legal threats on the regulatory frontier that could have a far bigger impact on its business, depending on the outcomes.

After the U.S. Justice Department outlined its allegations that the company is abusing the dominance of its search engine to thwart competition and innovation during a trial last fall, a federal judge is scheduled to hear closing arguments in the case May 1 before issuing a ruling anticipated in the autumn.

Google is also facing potential changes to its app store for smartphones powered by its Android software that could undercut its revenue from commissions after a federal jury last year concluded the company was running an illegal monopoly. A hearing examining possible revisions that Google may have to make to its Play Store is scheduled for late May.

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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What the success of Google Maps on iPhone tells us about Apple and monopolies -- and what the DOJ needs to understand about good products

T here are all manner of navigation apps for the iPhone. Apple Maps is the default choice, and is pretty extensive these days, but it's far from the only option. Just check the App Store. And in the battle to be top map app, Google Maps seems to have nabbed the chequered flag – even on iPhones.

According to this survey by MarketWatch, a whopping 70% of respondents flagged down Google Maps as their go-to navigation copilot. While Waze, Google's other prodigy in the mapping arena, snagged a commendable second place with 27%, Apple Maps trailed with 25%. It's somewhat unexpected that Google Maps is so popular, when Apple Maps comes enabled by default on the best iPhones – the most popular smartphones in the US.

This MarketWatch study wasn't just about counting hands, though; it was a deep dive into the habits of 1,000 US drivers. The study specifically focused on how these mapping applications were used to spot speed traps -- yep, traps on map apps. But it speaks to the popularity of Google's primary navigation app, especially over Apple's default option.

Could it be that good products are more popular?

Despite Apple Maps catching up to Google Maps' feature offerings recently, Google's map app has been a long-time favorite among iPhone owners. Historically, it's offered more features , an integrated experience, and better navigation overall. Plus, you can use it across all Apple devices, most notably CarPlay . In short, it's a good product. Arguably, it's a better product than Apple Maps.

So could it be that Google Maps is more popular because it's a better product? While you'd think that's a simple "yes", the DOJ might disagree with you.

The DOJ  filed a landmark lawsuit  against Apple last week, alleging the company has a smartphone monopoly. In the suit, the government claimed that one of the world's most successful and valuable companies has a stranglehold on phones, and stated bluntly that Apple uses it to extract more money from consumers. "Apple has gone from revolutionizing the smartphone market to stalling its advancement," said Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco. You can read the full lawsuit  here .

Google Maps is an interesting case study here, showing that a good product is usually the more popular option. Which is considered by users to be the case with iPhones, even if the tech-averse folks over at the DOJ might disagree.

If anything, this survey showing the popularity of Google Maps goes directly against the DOJ's lawsuit. The DOJ argues that Apple stifles competitors to make it harder for iPhone users to switch away. And I don't know about you, but the popularity of Google Maps on iPhones isn't particularly stifled. And Google is, I don't know, Apple's biggest competitor, perhaps. It's ironic, really.

More from iMore

• Maps App for iPhone and iPad: The ultimate guide
• Apple Maps transit directions: Which cities have them?
• How to share location and directions with Maps for iPhone and iPad

Google to purge billions of files containing personal data in settlement of Chrome privacy case

Google has agreed to purge billions of records containing personal information collected from more than 136 million people in the U.S. surfing the internet through its Chrome web browser

SAN FRANCISCO -- Google has agreed to purge billions of records containing personal information collected from more than 136 million people in the U.S. surfing the internet through its Chrome web browser.

The records purge comes as part of a settlement in a lawsuit accusing the search giant of illegal surveillance.

The details of the deal emerged in a court filing Monday, more than three months after Google and the attorneys handling the class-action case disclosed they had resolved a June 2020 lawsuit targeting Chrome's privacy controls.

Among other allegations, the lawsuit accused Google of tracking Chrome users' internet activity even when they had switched the browser to the “Incognito” setting that is supposed to shield them from being shadowed by the Mountain View, California, company.

Google vigorously fought the lawsuit until U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers rejected a request to dismiss the case last August, setting up a potential trial. The settlement was negotiated during the next four months, culminating in Monday's disclosure of the terms, which Rogers still must approve during a hearing scheduled for July 30 in Oakland, California, federal court.

The settlement requires Google to expunge billions of personal records stored in its data centers and make more prominent privacy disclosures about Chrome's Incognito option when it is activated. It also imposes other controls designed to limit Google's collection of personal information.

Consumers represented in the class-action lawsuit won't receive any damages or any other payments in the settlement, a point that Google emphasized in a Monday statement about the deal.

“We are pleased to settle this lawsuit, which we always believed was meritless," Google said. The company asserted it is only being required to “delete old personal technical data that was never associated with an individual and was never used for any form of personalization.”

In court papers, the attorneys representing Chrome users painted a much different picture, depicting the settlement as a major victory for personal privacy in an age of ever-increasing digital surveillance.

The lawyers valued the settlement at $4.75 billion to $7.8 billion, relying on calculations based primarily on the potential ad sales that the personal information collected through Chrome could have generated in the past and future without the new restrictions.

The settlement also doesn't shield Google from more lawsuits revolving around the same issues covered in the class-action case. That means individual consumers can still pursue damages against the company by filing their own civil complaints in state courts around the U.S.

Investors apparently aren't too worried about the settlement terms affecting the digital ad sales that account for the bulk of the more than $300 billion in annual revenue pouring into Google's corporate parent, Alphabet Inc. Shares in Alphabet rose nearly 3% during Monday's afternoon trading.

Austin Chambers, a lawyer specializing in data privacy issues at the firm Dorsey & Whitney, described the settlement terms in the Chrome case as a “welcome development” that could affect the way personal information is collected online in the future.

“This prevents companies from profiting off of that data, and also requires them to undertake complex and costly data deletion efforts,” Chambers said. “In some cases, this could have a dramatic impact on products built around those datasets.”

Google is still facing legal threats on the regulatory frontier that could have a far bigger impact on its business, depending on the outcomes.

After the U.S. Justice Department outlined its allegations that the company is abusing the dominance of its search engine to thwart competition and innovation during a trial last fall, a federal judge is scheduled to hear closing arguments in the case May 1 before issuing a ruling anticipated in the autumn.

Google is also facing potential changes to its app store for smartphones powered by its Android software that could undercut its revenue from commissions after a federal jury last year concluded the company was running an illegal monopoly. A hearing examining possible revisions that Google may have to make to its Play Store is scheduled for late May.

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Using Views in Compose

You can include an Android View hierarchy in a Compose UI. This approach is particularly useful if you want to use UI elements that are not yet available in Compose, like AdView . This approach also lets you reuse custom views you may have designed.

To include a view element or hierarchy, use the AndroidView composable. AndroidView is passed a lambda that returns a View . AndroidView also provides an update callback that is called when the view is inflated. The AndroidView recomposes whenever a State read within the callback changes. AndroidView , like many other built-in composables, takes a Modifier parameter that can be used, for example, to set its position in the parent composable.

@Composable fun CustomView() { var selectedItem by remember { mutableStateOf(0) } // Adds view to Compose AndroidView( modifier = Modifier.fillMaxSize(), // Occupy the max size in the Compose UI tree factory = { context -> // Creates view MyView(context).apply { // Sets up listeners for View -> Compose communication setOnClickListener { selectedItem = 1 } } }, update = { view -> // View's been inflated or state read in this block has been updated // Add logic here if necessary // As selectedItem is read here, AndroidView will recompose // whenever the state changes // Example of Compose -> View communication view.selectedItem = selectedItem } ) } @Composable fun ContentExample() { Column(Modifier.fillMaxSize()) { Text("Look at this CustomView!") CustomView() } } InteroperabilityAPIsSnippets.kt

AndroidView with view binding

To embed an XML layout, use the AndroidViewBinding API, which is provided by the androidx.compose.ui:ui-viewbinding library. To do this, your project must enable view binding .

@Composable fun AndroidViewBindingExample() { AndroidViewBinding(ExampleLayoutBinding::inflate) { exampleView.setBackgroundColor(Color.GRAY) } } InteroperabilityAPIsSnippets.kt

AndroidView in Lazy lists

If you are using an AndroidView in a Lazy list ( LazyColumn , LazyRow , Pager , etc.), consider using the AndroidView overload introduced in version 1.4.0-rc01. This overload allows Compose to reuse the underlying View instance when the containing composition is reused as is the case for Lazy lists.

This overload of AndroidView adds 2 additional parameters:

• onReset - A callback invoked to signal that the View is about to be reused. This must be non-null to enable View reuse.
• onRelease (optional) - A callback invoked to signal that the View has exited the composition and will not be reused again.

@OptIn(ExperimentalComposeUiApi::class) @Composable fun AndroidViewInLazyList() { LazyColumn { items(100) { index -> AndroidView( modifier = Modifier.fillMaxSize(), // Occupy the max size in the Compose UI tree factory = { context -> MyView(context) }, update = { view -> view.selectedItem = index }, onReset = { view -> view.clear() } ) } } } InteroperabilityAPIsSnippets.kt

Fragments in Compose

Use the AndroidViewBinding composable to add a Fragment in Compose. AndroidViewBinding has fragment-specific handling such as removing the fragment when the composable leaves the composition.

Do so by inflating an XML containing a FragmentContainerView as the holder for your Fragment .

For example, if you have the my_fragment_layout.xml defined, you could use code like this while replacing the android:name XML attribute with your Fragment 's class name:

Inflate this fragment in Compose as follows:

@Composable fun FragmentInComposeExample() { AndroidViewBinding(MyFragmentLayoutBinding::inflate) { val myFragment = fragmentContainerView.getFragment<MyFragment>() // ... } } InteroperabilityAPIsSnippets.kt

If you need to use multiple fragments in the same layout, ensure that you have defined a unique ID for each FragmentContainerView .

Calling the Android framework from Compose

Compose operates within the Android framework classes. For example, it's hosted on Android View classes, like Activity or Fragment , and might use Android framework classes like the Context , system resources, Service , or BroadcastReceiver .

To learn more about system resources, see Resources in Compose .

Composition Locals

CompositionLocal classes allow passing data implicitly through composable functions. They're usually provided with a value in a certain node of the UI tree. That value can be used by its composable descendants without declaring the CompositionLocal as a parameter in the composable function.

CompositionLocal is used to propagate values for Android framework types in Compose such as Context , Configuration or the View in which the Compose code is hosted with the corresponding LocalContext , LocalConfiguration , or LocalView . Note that CompositionLocal classes are prefixed with Local for better discoverability with auto-complete in the IDE.

Access the current value of a CompositionLocal by using its current property. For example, the code below shows a toast message by providing LocalContext.current into the Toast.makeToast method.

@Composable fun ToastGreetingButton(greeting: String) { val context = LocalContext.current Button(onClick = { Toast.makeText(context, greeting, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show() }) { Text("Greet") } } InteroperabilityAPIsSnippets.kt

For a more complete example, take a look at the Case Study: BroadcastReceivers section at the end of this document.

Other interactions

If there isn't a utility defined for the interaction you need, the best practice is to follow the general Compose guideline, data flows down, events flow up (discussed at more length in Thinking in Compose ). For example, this composable launches a different activity:

class OtherInteractionsActivity : ComponentActivity() { override fun onCreate(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState) // get data from savedInstanceState setContent { MaterialTheme { ExampleComposable(data, onButtonClick = { startActivity(Intent(this, MyActivity::class.java)) }) } } } } @Composable fun ExampleComposable(data: DataExample, onButtonClick: () -> Unit) { Button(onClick = onButtonClick) { Text(data.title) } } InteroperabilityAPIsSnippets.kt

Case study: Broadcast receivers

For a more realistic example of features you might want to migrate or implement in Compose, and to showcase CompositionLocal and side effects , let's say a BroadcastReceiver needs to be registered from a composable function.

The solution makes use of LocalContext to use the current context, and rememberUpdatedState and DisposableEffect side effects.

@Composable fun SystemBroadcastReceiver( systemAction: String, onSystemEvent: (intent: Intent?) -> Unit ) { // Grab the current context in this part of the UI tree val context = LocalContext.current // Safely use the latest onSystemEvent lambda passed to the function val currentOnSystemEvent by rememberUpdatedState(onSystemEvent) // If either context or systemAction changes, unregister and register again DisposableEffect(context, systemAction) { val intentFilter = IntentFilter(systemAction) val broadcast = object : BroadcastReceiver() { override fun onReceive(context: Context?, intent: Intent?) { currentOnSystemEvent(intent) } } context.registerReceiver(broadcast, intentFilter) // When the effect leaves the Composition, remove the callback onDispose { context.unregisterReceiver(broadcast) } } } @Composable fun HomeScreen() { SystemBroadcastReceiver(Intent.ACTION_BATTERY_CHANGED) { batteryStatus -> val isCharging = /* Get from batteryStatus ... */ true /* Do something if the device is charging */ } /* Rest of the HomeScreen */ } InteroperabilityAPIsSnippets.kt

Now that you know the interoperability APIs when using Compose in Views and vice versa, explore the Other considerations page to learn more.

Recommended for you

• Note: link text is displayed when JavaScript is off
• Other considerations
• Side-effects in Compose
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Content and code samples on this page are subject to the licenses described in the Content License . Java and OpenJDK are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Last updated 2024-04-01 UTC.