Google Closes Business Units - Hedging Their Bets

Google is an online giant, so some would ask - and with good reason - why they would ever want to close down business units? Why would a huge company that seems so set on expansion want to shrink, even if they are not growing that much smaller? Everything else that Google does seems like it is aimed at helping the company to grow and expand. That has always been their philosophy. This is what has many people confused, though they should not be. Google is still intent on growing, and that is even what closing down certain business units is going to do for them.

The problem is simple, and it is one that has plagued businesses for many years: You cannot always be right. Even the best gamblers lose sometimes. Even the best businessmen have failed ventures. Even the best teams lose games. This is just how it works in the world; this is how it has always worked. Google, like everyone else, has not been able to be successful with every new venture and every new idea. Most of the things that they have done have set the standard, but not all. They too have made mistakes in the past.

What Google knows - and what too many gamblers forget - is that it is not making mistakes that gets you in trouble. It is how fast you get out of those mistakes. It is how costly you let them become. Google does not want to let little business ideas that offer low rewards for massive risks stand in the way of progress. As a company, this cannot be allowed to happen. Things that seem to be taking a turn for the worse - or that are actively putting the company farther and farther in the hole - need to be cut off now. They need to be pruned the way that a dead limb is pruned from a tree so that the rest can grow.

The basic idea, then, is that cutting these things out of the company before they cost too much money is better than fighting to get them to work when it is a losing battle. If the loss can be eliminated, the company will be able to focus on going forward with the expansion that they want. It might require taking a few steps back for them to be able to take a few more strides forward. They need to make sure that the future of Google is not compromised by the present. As long as an exit strategy is still possible, it needs to be used.

In the end, the company will grow because of these moves. Money and assets will be saved. Employees will be kept on the payroll. The next venture will be more successful, and the company will grow again. As long as they are not pouring resources and time into something that has no chance of ever working out, they will be able to concentrate on success.


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Mallory Higgins works for the Kanetix car insurance quote comparison service by day, and writes about hot companies by night.  You can compare multiple side-by-side auto insurance quotes online at Kanetix, and determine who's got the best rates.