Innovation is often thought to be the life
of the startup. The madcap entrepreneurs
and fearless youngsters throwing
themselves into changing the world, with
faith and hope and a little craziness.

The
talk is of disrupting the industry and
shaking things up. These are the people
with nothing to lose, with their whole lives
ahead of them, looking forward, never
backward.

Big corporations are mostly seen at the
other end of the spectrum. They are
sometimes accused of focusing on profit
and shareholders over their customers, and
innovation isn’t often high on the list of
priorities.

But for some global brands, they do try
new things. Google is famous for search,
and it has become so much more than that.

But do they have too many ideas, are they
having too many failures, and are they
really the most innovative tech company on
the planet?

A long list of success… and failures
The list of Google’s innovations, some of
which have been successful but many that
haven’t, is long and incredibly varied. Some
of them are big changes that really don’t
seem like it – new things that we assimilate
into our lives as naturally as wearing a new
shirt, like when Google Instant made our
searches lightning quick or when Street
View brought our navigation down to
street level. Google Fiber, (currently in an
experimental stage in Kansas City) hopes to
do this with our Internet connections,
bringing broadband speeds 100x today’s
average.

Other Google innovations are big, visibly
“new” things, that have made or will
possibly make our lives completely
different. Google Wave, had anyone been
able to understand it, could have possibly
done this. Currently, two huge Google
projects in the works that could have
massive implications on our lives are the
driverless cars (that have now logged
300,000 miles) and the amazingly futuristic
Project Glass.

Today’s gimmick…

Most of the time, today’s gimmick is really
just that. But sometimes, today’s gimmick
can be tomorrow’s must-have product.
When Google Glass was revealed there was
a lot of sneering at these stupid-looking,
sci-fi specs that no one in their right mind
would wear. Many people call them a
gimmick, and say that they will fail.


Innovation is defined as something new or
different introduced. It is the front edge of
creation, of having original ideas or of
finding new ways to make existing things
better.

I don’t know if Project Glass will fail or not.
Neither does Google. But it is trying to
make this new technology succeed — and
that is the crucial thing. Innovation is about
looking to the future and trying to create it.

It is not just letting the future happen, it is
making it happen.
Having that startup spirit
When Google announced back in early
2011 that co-founder Larry Page would be
replacing Eric Schmidt as CEO, he was
quoted in the NY Times as saying “One of
the primary goals I have is to get Google to
be a big company that has the nimbleness
and soul and passion and speed of a start-
up.”

The principles and processes of a startup
don’t usually gel with that of a global
corporation like Google. The risks and
rewards are completely different, and the
spirit that is necessary to found a startup is
not usually apparent in big companies. An
established company doesn’t need the act
of faith that startup founders need, the
belief that their idea can be a success and
make money.

But, maybe Google really is like a startup.
When FastCompany‘s Chuck Salter visited
the Googleplex back in 2008, he
observed that “whether they’re designing
search for the blind or preparing meals for
their colleagues, these people feel that their
work can change the world.”
Salter mentioned Google’s “creative
fearlessness”, something which has
become even more evident over the four
years since that interview with Google’s
truly forward-thinking projects such as
Project Glass and the driverless cars.

Recognizing the seeds of greatness
Many people have criticised Google, saying
that all their best ideas are things that they
have bought, and not created. Google’s
prized Android OS was in fact developed by
Andy Rubin as part of the startup that he
himself founded, until it was acquired by
Google in 2005.

But this is innovation. The initial act of idea
generation and creation is not an explicit
part of being innovative. By remaining
curious and forward-thinking, Google
recognizes the possibilities of ideas and
products such as Android, and help to
make them happen.

What is your opinion