Google Cloud and the Impact of a Companies Product Culture
Jeff Oliveto, MBA, AWS-SAA, CISSP-ISSAP, ISSMP, ITIL
Principal / Owner at Practical Insight LLC
Forbes’s Feb 3rd article “5 Things Thomas Kurian Must Do to Transform Google Cloud Business” is an excellent analysis of Google Clouds current state and provides 5 solid business strategies GCP should follow to gain market share in the hot IaaS/PaaS market space.
- Shift focus from technology to customers
- Focus on the now rather than what’s next
- Decentralize engineering teams and give them autonomy
- Increase feet on the street in key geographies
- Make strategic acquisitions that establish GCP as a leader in enterprises
Author makes some valid points on why Google (an Engineering centric company with a “build and they will come” approach) has been successful (or should I say dominate) in some markets and NOT so in others.
Personally, I think the Author is spot on with his analysis and highlights an interesting point:
How does a companies Product Culture drive product development and service delivery strategies?
Product Culture can be driven by the makeup of key decision makers, previous investments, or simply the market a companies finds itself. In my experience there are 5 Product Cultures that drive strategic initiatives, products, priorities and go-to-market / service delivery strategies.
- Engineering/Technology driven Product Culture - build and they will come, sometimes ahead of the market…usually startup’s and the least successful long term. Good ones hopefully acquired before they fail.
- Operations driven - another variant of Technology driven culture where a large investment is required upfront in fixed infrastructure/plant to deliver service which is both a competitive advantage but can also be a drag on innovation and change.
- Sales driven – Where Sales is the primary driver in the organization, sometimes over-committing product/resources. At times interested in just making this quarter’s numbers “at any cost”. Sometimes this strategy is required to shift priorities (hate to say this…but face the facts, it takes money/sales to run a company).
- Market driven - either Product Management or Marketing are the drivers…listens to Sales/Engineering/Partners/Customers, then develop and market products/services based upon target markets. Potentially the best approach when you need to “target and educate the customer base”.
- Customer driven - Customer experience (know and embed yourself with the customer, service excellence, know them so well that you generate products/services they don’t know they need)
Some example Companies:
- Engineering/Technology - Google definitely, many startup's come to mind, I also think SpaceX shows signs of falling into this category.
- Operations – Telecom carriers like Verizon, ATT, Deutsche Telekom. Also auto manufactures like GM, Ford, Toyota.
- Sales – Oracle is 100% sales driven, probably one of the reasons they are one of my least favorite IT vendors to do business with.
- Market - I see Microsoft, IBM and SAP having a Market driven Product Culture. They know who their target market is (IT Developers and IT Management) and target their product delivery strategy accordingly.
- Customer – Apple obviously customer driven. Also, Amazon. You may disagree…but Amazon KNOWS their customers via extensive use of collected analytics and business intelligence.
Personally I have worked in 4 of the 5 Product Cultures. In each I could see how their Product Culture impacted objectives and strategic decisions.
You can make an argument that one strategy is better than the next. Ultimately, it will depend on what you’re selling, to whom, and where you are in the product/market life cycle.
Note: I fully expect to get a lot of criticism on the Product Culture categories I have assigned to companies…so have at it!
Jeff -
VP Government Programs
5 年Hi Jeff!?? Having had the opportunity to work in companies of different size and different 'product cultures' (engineering, marketing and operations-driven) I'd say my experiences (in Sales) at 'Market-driven' startup was the most exciting. ?? I'd add that when the different disciplines trust each other, stay in their own 'swim lanes' and are good at what they do so it all comes together ... POW!? KNOCKOUT!?? Probably Apple, Google, Microsoft are all premier examples.?? I'll argue your assignments over Chilli Dogs and Beers sometime :).