Among the hundreds of interesting things about Google, there are three that stand out, to my mind:
1. The company started as an algorithm, and made money by accident.
2. Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin decided very early on to enable employees to use a fraction of their company-paid time for innovating.
3. At a moment in history when global CEOs generally responded to threats from China with cupidity, fear, and greed, Google’s founders showed moral courage and discipline, defying the Chinese Communist Party while protecting the longer-term security of its customers and shareholders.
In order to understand this interesting company, I found it worth asking the question of other large technology companies:
What do they stand for? What, for example, is Microsoft? What is Intel?…