Google Interactive session

One criterion to differentiate an MBA program from another is the visitors that drop by for a specific presentation, and how they run it. Enrique Dans, the information system Guru, invited Google’s General manager for Spain Portugal and Turkey Mr. Javier Rodriguez Zapatero for a Q&A session at IE University. The objective was clear: get the expert’s point of view.

As a start, the ice was quickly broken with an informal introduction with small laughs and deliverable promised. Afterward, Mr.Zapatero proceeded by taking and noting our questions to build his presentation. This approach filled more our curiosity and quenched more our thirst to know about Google and its mystery, than a one way presentation would have done or a monologue.

When Mr. Zapatero was asked to summarize and describe Google’s mission in one sentence, his reply was easy, but also clear and made lots of sense: “to organize information and make it accessible to anyone anywhere”. Hence, Google the major search engine, is not aiming to maximize profit with less quality but rather looking at the value proposition their service is offering and how could it be enhanced to serve better and more. Having a clear vision about the consumers preference, and which path to walk on, Google facilitates its task in developing programs such Chrome, Google maps, Gtalk, Google translator etc... These products are “tools” and converge into materializing their mission that’s facilitating information by organizing it; had the easiness come from communication or from simple searches. The need for information is there. Google made it more accessible. The access itself has been eased through specialized tools.

Tackling Google and its business model from this angle, crystallizes the success story the company is witnessing and shows a bright future. At the end Google went simple in complex world. Information: let’s ease it.

Back to the presentation, its main drawback was time. The famous rolling stones song: Time is on my side was not at the menu that day. Time was NOT on our side. The highly interactive and exciting meeting had to see its end after one hour and a half, and was over quicker than what we wished for. Passion was also at the rendezvous, and made the hour and a half look even lighter.