

How Google's layoffs and project cancellations are affecting its culture of innovation - Anon84
http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/2009/02/15/HowGooglesLayoffsAndProjectCancellationsAreAffectingItsCultureOfInnovation.aspx

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makecheck
"This expectation that a new Google product will need massive adoption to
justify its investment or be cancelled within four months, as was the case
with Google Lively, will be a significant dampener new product launches."

That depends on how Google treats the people who are part of failed
initiatives, and how many things are cancelled overall.

At many companies, sadly, people are fired for simply being on the wrong
project at the wrong time. If Google doesn't set that precedent, then its
employees will be less worried if their projects haven't taken off.

It's also important not to kill "most" things, because people can only take so
many failures. The culture of innovation could die from attrition: how many
times do you want to pour your heart and soul into things, only to see them
die? Hopefully Google doesn't cancel projects too often, and has a well
established "salvage" operation for parts of old projects.

~~~
jacquesm
I don't see why they don't simply give the lively team a chance to spin it out
and run with it, that way at least they have a fighting chance.

