Inside GoogleTM India

Globally, technology giants Microsoft and Yahoo are fighting a ghastly battle to combine forces and topple Google from its eminent position in the online search and advertisement space. In the meanwhile, we see what’s cooking at Google India and how the company plans to imitate its global success in the capricious Indian market. By DEVDEEP SINGH

The swirling dust from an adjacent construction site threatens to smother your suit with grime as you get down from the car in swanky and glittering Gurgaon. Saunter through a metal detector manned by a forlorn looking security guard and walk to the bank of elevators where one takes you quickly to the eighth floor. A smiling and spiffy lady inserts a card that enables the doors of Google India to open up in a jiffy. Then you key in your details on a keyboard below a computer terminal and provide your signature in an electronic pad. Out pops a visitors pass that you are supposed to stick to your chest. You get sudden visions of the chest thumping going on in Google offices across the world.

The interiors literally take your breath away. A riot of colours stare at you from all over – green, yellow, red, and pink are some that adorn the walls, the cubicles and the work stations. Towering over them are portraits not of Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, but of Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose and Vallabhbhai Patel. The corner wall has the caption Saare Jahan Se Accha Hindustan Hamara in large letters. You almost expect children to appear out of nowhere and burst into a song as a welcome gesture. But there is deathly silence throughout the office, as if you’ve entered a cemetery.

Far away from the global brouhaha raised by Microsoft’s attempt to gobble up Yahoo, Google India MD, Shailesh Rao, and his team, are busy trying to create a different and futuristic history in India; it’s one that we at 4Ps B&M are the first to document, and it’s a tale we now call, “Inside Google India.”

Once you get a whiff of the business strategies being adopted by this online behemoth in the Indian milieu, the seemingly patriotic portraits and slogans adorning the office somehow fall into place. The long-term Indian business blueprint for Google is one that is being shaped in India, by Indians, and for Indians. Rao, hints at it when he asserts that “India is a very important market for Google and our commitment is strong to this market. The reception that we have received in a short time has been very positive and its been nothing but reinforcing. There is no country in this world that has the growth profile on the scale of India.” So, what’s the real Google India plan? It can’t be just about the domestic online advertising market, which will be worth a mere Rs.218 crore in 2007-08. It can’t be only about innovations and R&D for Google Global, as those results will not yield immediate fruits in India in terms of revenues, profits, credibility, or image? So what is it that is firing this search engine giant in India?

Although India’s online advertising market and the development works going on at Google Labs are important for Google Global, Google India’s real strategy is much more expansive, and one that will possibly make a fundamental difference to the country’s society, economy and politics. In fact, it’s all about a grand dream to change the manner in which India thinks, feels and behaves. It’s all about using technology to change and redefine the lives of millions of poor farmers. It’s also about what software and hardware czars like Microsoft, Intel, Wipro and HCL are striving to achieve. Google India is actually aspiring to introduce (and make moolah out of) Google-like ‘inclusive’ services that will enable the poor and well-to-do people alike, to comprehensively access social services like education, health and information, as also improve governance levels in India.

Agrees Rao, “Information is a critically-empowering facility. Information leads to knowledge, and knowledge is power. When you are able to put information in the hands of all people, then an individual who has control over his mind can ultimately create a better quality of life.” According to him, there is no other country like India, where one can witness the positive impact of this vision. This is true whether it’s gauged in terms of empowering the farmers, and enabling rural poor to access education and health services. “Our job is to take this (Google’s) mission, and transplant it for India. The challenge we face in rural India is how to take this mission and transform it into something that’s relative for everyone,” he says.

You can really see the gleam in his eye when Rao talks about Google contributing its bit towards transforming Indian agriculture. According to him, information is knowledge and knowledge as a power paradigm can be most powerfully used by farmers across India. “You already have scattered experimental projects where Indian farmers in some villages get information through the Internet about prices, weather and other stuff.” Rao’s team is working on a model that will enable farmers in each village in India to eventually access information and literally join the global market place. And that’s a vision born out of sheer philanthropy. Rao is confident that services offered to farmers will become a huge and stable source of revenues for Google India.


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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).


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