Richardcyoung.com

The Online Home of Author and Investor, Dick Young

  • Home
  • How We Are Different
  • About Us
    • Foundation Principles
    • Contributors
  • Investing
    • You’ve Read The Last Issue of Intelligence Report, Now What?
  • Your Survival Guy
  • The Great Reset
  • COVID-19
  • My Rifles
  • Concentrate on Dividend Record and Compounding
  • Your Security
  • The Swiss Way
  • Dick Young
  • Debbie Young
  • Key West
  • Paris
  • Dick’s R&B Top 100
  • Liberty & Freedom Map
  • Your Health
  • Ron Paul
  • Bank Credit & Money
  • Freedom Force
  • Dick Young’s Safe America
  • Bank for International Settlements

Is Google Hostage to its Radical Employees?

August 28, 2019 By E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

By Vagengeim @ Shutterstock.com

Aside from labor negotiations, no one expects employees at big firms like General Motors or Coca-Cola to make much of a fuss. But at tech firms like Facebook and Google, it seems employees are embracing new political causes every other day, and dragging their companies into their activism whether executives approve or not.

In the wake of President Trump’s ban on travelers from some countries, Googlers, including leadership, became actively involved in the fight against the president’s actions.

Natisha Tiku details at WIRED the moment when Sundar Pichai and Sergey Brin spoke to Googlers at San Francisco International Airport. The executives spoke out against President Trump’s executive order and, writes Tiku, that was the last time management and employees were so united. Tiku continues:

Pichai called immigration “core to the founding of this company.” He tried to inject a dose of moderation, stressing how important it was “to reach out and communicate to people from across the country.” But when he mentioned Brin’s appearance at the airport, his employees erupted in chants of “Ser-gey! Ser-gey! Ser-gey!” Brin finally extricated himself from the crowd and shuffled up to the mic, windbreaker in hand. He, too, echoed the protesters’ concerns but tried to bring the heat down. “We need to be smart,” he said, “and that means bringing in folks who have some different viewpoints.” As he spoke, a news chopper flew overhead.

And that was pretty much the last time Google’s executives and workers presented such a united front about anything.

As the Trump era wore on, Google continued to brace itself for all manner of external assaults, and not just from the right. The 2016 election and its aftermath set off a backlash against Silicon Valley that seemed to come from all sides. Lawmakers and the media were waking up to the extractive nature of Big Tech’s free services. And Google—the company that had casually introduced the internet to consumer surveillance, orderer of the world’s information, owner of eight products with more than a billion users each—knew that it would be an inevitable target.

But in many respects, Google’s most vexing threats during that period came from inside the company itself. Over the next two and a half years, the company would find itself in the same position over and over again: a nearly $800 billion planetary force seemingly powerless against groups of employees—on the left and the right alike—who could hold the company hostage to its own public image.

In a larger sense, Google found itself and its culture deeply maladapted to a new set of political, social, and business imperatives. To invent products like Gmail, Earth, and Translate, you need coddled geniuses free to let their minds run wild. But to lock down lucrative government contracts or expand into coveted foreign markets, as Google increasingly needed to do, you need to be able to issue orders and give clients what they want.

The more I read about Google, the more problems I see in the company’s future. I have written to you about the Cryptocosm and Life After Google. An inability of executives to maintain focus at Google will only bring on the cryptocosm sooner.

Originally posted on Your Survival Guy.

Related Posts

  • Syria’s Radical Melting Pot
  • Europe “Facing Its Destiny”
  • Radical Islamic Terrorism Picking Up Steam
  • Author
  • Recent Posts
E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy
E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998.

E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH, NH, where he completed course-work in Practical and Defensive Handgun, Conceal Carry Pistol, Shotguns, Precision Scope Rifle and Kidnapping Prevention.

E.J. plays a Yamaha Recording Custom drum set with Zilldjian cymbals. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zilldjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris.

Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com
Latest posts by E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy (see all)
  • Welcome to the Interest Rate Prediction Business, JACK! - February 26, 2021
  • Petrified Snow/Ice Fishing? How about a Boat? and More - February 25, 2021
  • How One Man and His Family Survived the Texas Deep Freeze - February 24, 2021

Dick Young’s Must Reads

  • Government Should Be Small, Laws Unobtrusive, and Men Left Alone
  • Rich States, Poor States this State is Dominant Once Again
  • Democracy: The Most Dangerous and Insidious Effect of Majority Rule.
  • Gold/Silver Coins No Longer Allowed in Safe Deposit Boxes
  • “The Goal”: Strong Families, Resilient Faith, Thriving Middle Class.
  • Rich Grandchild, Poor Grandchild
  • Robo-Advisors: When You Have a Lot More to Lose than Money
  • Tucker Explains: Put America First, Put its Families First
  • Yes! Money Can Bring You Happiness
  • Marry Compound Interest, Divorce Market Timing

Our Most Popular Posts

  • Has the Time Come to Abolish the American Government?
  • Enjoy the Boom While You Can
  • Marry Compound Interest, Divorce Market Timing
  • Texas – More Subsidies for Wind, More Regulations for Oil
  • Richard Young Reports: 50+ Years with Fidelity and Wellington
  • UPDATE: Your Gun Rights and Freedom Are Under Assault
  • Please Don’t Call It COVID Relief
  • Permitless Carry Corridor Expands: Red States Trouncing Blue States on Freedom
  • Biden Tells Audience that Blacks and Hispanics Don't Know How to Use the Internet
  • Long Live Rush Limbaugh: Our Walk in the Woods

Disclosure

RSS Youngresearch.com

  • Welcome to the Interest Rate Prediction Business, JACK!
  • Democrats Have a Plan: Don’t Get Too Attached to Your Capital Gains
  • Petrified Snow/Ice Fishing? How about a Boat? and More
  • Bubble in Tech Stocks Will Cause “Clean Out” in Markets
  • COVID Chaos: New York and California vs. Florida and South Dakota
  • Time for the Fed To Stop Babying the Bond Market
  • Richard Young Reports: 50+ Years with Fidelity and Wellington
  • Deep Survival, Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why
  • Herd Immunity by April?
  • Corporate Bond Yields: What You Can Earn Today

Neither Cancel Culture nor COVID Can Shut Down CPAC

The Political Downside of Stoking Fear

Welcome to the Interest Rate Prediction Business, JACK!

Has Bill Gates Been Injected Yet?

Fauci Doesn’t Own Your Face

Gov. Newsom Discovering the Power of the Pen

Copyright © 2021 | Terms & Conditions | About Us | Dick Young | Archives