A Story from Google
Shows You Don’t Need
Power to Drive Strategy
The case is of Brian Fitzpatrick joined Google
as a senior software engineer in 2005
Brian specialized in open-source software
development and he quickly
Their crowning achievement was a service launched in 2011
called Google Takeout, a unified site for exporting user data
from multiple services like Gmail and Google Photos.
He is a key component of corporate strategy, with
then-CEO Eric Schmidt highlighting Takeout to
government regulators as evidence that Google wasn’t
pursuing monopolistic practices such as customer lock-in.
He developed unique insight to solve an
emerging need and then he drove
transformational change to realize that vision.
Also, all of his work was done outside the boundaries of strategic
management practices within the organization.
Companies like Google and 3M have benefited from embracing
innovation that comes from all parts of the organization.
We started with focus groups drawn from both our
graduate class at Northwestern University and a
global high-potential program we run at Aon.
conducted in-depth interviews with a dozen of
the leaders they cited, including Brian at Google.
Estrategies
1. They develop a broad and varied
network of relationships
Brian’s network at Google went well beyond the engineering unit he was a part
of. He built this network proactively
These relationships also gave Brian influential advocates
he could call on when needed
2. They identify “strategy gaps,”
Brian knew that providing users better control of personal
data was critical to Google’s success
What Brian also noticed was that while this was technically true, it was rather difficult to do in practice:
users who wanted to take their photos to a different service
3. They link their work to
existing priorities
While Brian could explain his goals using statements made by Eric
Schmidt, this didn’t give him automatic legitimacy or the ability to
compel others to adopt his recommendations
A big break came later when Brian had the chance to
partner with a major initiative — the launch of Google+,
the company’s competitive response to Facebook
4. They work with an eye toward scale.
Brian’s work to build several working examples and a coalition
of supporters before he found the right time to pursue his
broader ambitions.
Brian also took steps to make that future decision
easier, using common coding methods across those
initial projects that made each subsequent project
easier.
Strategic leaders without formal backing still
operate with the long term in mind,
5. They orchestrate milestones to
build their credibility
using a combination of success stories and
communication from supporters to legitimize their work.
Eventually, these leaders develop a track record that
then allows them to exert influence in their own right.
Brian started with let them
experiment and prove their concept
Brian became more strategic in his project selection as
time passed, targeting products that were more
technically challenging and of greater impact.