Google’s “20% time,” which brought you Gmail and AdSense, is now as good as dead

Quartz: LINK

I have never seen or heard about this matter before, and I find it quite unique and innovative in terms of how Google operate and manage their business. This article refers to Google’s 20% time, which allows employees to take one day a week to work on their side project. When Google went public in 2004, the founder’s letter from co-founders Larry page and Sergey Brin cited 20% time as instrumental to the company’s ability to innovate, leading to “many of our most significant advances,’ including Adsense, which now accounts for about 25% of the company’s $50+ billion in annual revenue; some other projects also include Gmail, Google Transit, Google Talk and Google News.

There is no doubt that this 20% time has made a significant contribution to Google’s products and services. However, in terms of expenses and cost for granting 20% time to side project may require close tracking and monitoring to ensure that the time is used effectively. Although I do not know much about internal management and operations, I understand that certain projects are set with KPIs and if no effective drivers, such as the performance of workers, are performed to a certain standard, that KPI may not be achieved. There are many factors that can impact the performance of workers, and I think that one of the most important elements would be the Culture of Google.

The determination, commitment and passion Googlers have towards their job and project is one of the biggest influential factor in performance of workers.

The article also asks whether the company has lost something by making innovation the province of elite few, rather than part of every engineer’s weekly routine? Should performance and productivity of a person be the judgement of whether they can or cannot be the great innovator of 21^st century? For me, I think it is a matter of believing in your employees that creates and promotes the passion and courage of members to continuously challenge their own perspectives and ideas in order to be innovative and thinking out side the box, at the same time, sufficient resources also needs to be provided in order to make side projects feasible. Lastly, this perk that Google offers may be one of the most attractive platform for innovators who has a simple idea and are willing to pursue to the world's end because sometimes being realistic may only restrict your imagination.