I like Stumbleupon as a tool to surf the net. It's a great tool for taking you to corners of the web that you ordinarily wouldn't "stumble upon" (sorry for the pun!). This evening I happened to hit a link containing pictures of the Google offices in New York, China and "the Googleplex" in the Bay area in California.
Having been a proper dot.communist in the early 2000's, I recognized
scooters, Low fat, high energy snackage and foozball as trinkets to the
fact that most of these employees are extremely young, extremely smart,
and easily bored...but nevertheless probably work 70+ hours a week.
Hell, why not? Google is worth billions of dollars and I'm fairly sure
some stock options are involved.
Logistics is a traditional business. Meaning old school suits and ties, majority (tall) white male senior management, and especially traditional ideas on how to make a profit. And...if your company is based "overseas", you probably have a few senior folks who are in their positions for no other reason than they talk funny but are part of the home team.
Logistics companies also have another attribute. The shipping business typically requires fewer people relative to the massive capital outlay necessary to compete. Billions of dollars are spent on infrastructure costs like jumbo jets, massive freight hubs, thousands of trucks, and don't forget the fuel to operate all those assets! UPS and Google both have barriers to entry, but the styles of business environment are polar opposites. Nevertheless, both seem to work.
"Is UPS the anti-Google?"
UPS is a massive transportation company with a highly engineered product designed to use standardized methods to hit standardized goals. The difference between a parcel giant and an information giant is one thing...parcel carriers deal in physical reality. Google deals in virtual reality. When weather is a factor, forget the foozball.
What intrigues me is to wonder what the value will be of the stock options given to both UPS and Google employees in 2004 in 20 years (2024). New environments like "Second Life" will endeavor to blur the edge between what is real and what is "practically real". When an old school retailer like Sears sets up a sales floor in virtual reality...lets face it...its time to think hard on this. How long will it be before there are virtual drop boxes from UPS, DHL or FedEx in Second Life!?
Eric
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