.......a journey called life

These days, I am reading the book "Competing for the Future" by Gary Hamel and CK Prahalad. The authors present a compelling case for breaking out of the day-to-day business and building competencies which would help companies survive in the long run (Forget Keynes for the moment :-) For the starters, Keynes said, "Eat, Drink and Be Merry, for in the long run, we are all dead). I am yet to finish the book and when I do, I will surely take some time out to share what I learnt. I am writing this blog because I found an amazing similarity in what authors were emphasizing and what Google is doing.

We all know that Google is great and has the coolest web applications. But does Google (or, for that matter, any other company in this world) has a stomach to come up with SO MANY innovative applications. Hamel & Prahlad say that very few company can create the future single handedly; most need a helping hand. For example, Motorola, IBM and Apple joined hands to create a semiconductor-based computer architecture. AT&T took equity stakes in a number of computer game makers to capitalize on the convergence between the videogame industry and the telecommunications industry. They also talk about creating a portfolio of competencies by forming alliances to compete in the future because competition in the future will not be inter-firm but inter-alliances.

When we think of Google, what come to our mind? Search Engine, Blogger, Groups, Picasa, Google Earth, Google Maps, internet advertising, web-based spreadsheet, doc etc.

Here are some of the shopping basket snapshot for Google at different point in time. It will give you an idea how they are creating a portfolio of competencies:

September 20, 2001: Acquired Deja's Usenet Archive - Now, this is called Google Groups

February 2003: Acquired Pyra Labs - Now, this is called Blogger

September 30, 2003: Acquited kaltix for their search engine technology

July 13, 2004: Acquired Picasa

October 27, 2004: Acquired KeyHole - Now, this is called Google Earth

4Q, 2004: Acquired Where2 - Now, this is Google Maps

2005: Acquired 2Web Technologies - Now, this is Google Spreadsheet

March 28, 2005: Acquired Urchin- Now, this is Google Analytics

March 9, 2006: Acquired Upstartle - Now, this is Google Doc

March 14, 2006: Acquired @Last Software - Now, this is called Google SketchUp

This month: Acquired Zenter - This will be the Google's Presentation Software

These were some of the highlights. Full list can be seen at WikiPedia (the above list has also been sourced from Wikipedia)

While I was reading the book, I wasn't getting a clear idea as to what the authors meant by portfolio of competencies but Google's example is like a textbook example of how to make one. Just Amazing!