Word: schmidts
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Google wants new friends. After signing a series of new partners, CEO Eric Schmidt says the Web giant's spate of recent deals is just a start. Schmidt talked to TIME about changing the company's philosophy and planning its next steps...
Google is seeking growth and security, betting that the coterie of new colleagues on its team will strengthen its ability to live up to its $123 billion stock-market valuation. "Partnerships had not been a core part of the way we were running the company," says Google CEO Eric Schmidt. "When you're a small company, you have to do everything yourself. As you get more established, you realize you'll never get everything done by yourself...
...with Dell that it needed to stretch its existing user base. That May agreement will put Google's toolbar on millions of Dell machines, and it prompted Google execs to seek other such alliances. Those partners "have a way of reaching customers that we do not on our own," Schmidt says, "and each represents a different strategic thrust...
...alliances will also allow Google to get back to its primary business. Schmidt acknowledges that the company had to redirect resources to search after its famous 70-20-10 policy--70% of the time spent on core issues, 30% on side and new projects--went slightly off-kilter. Marissa Mayer, who manages search products, says the company has assigned more engineers to search than ever before and plans to release a new search tool that will enable users to design and build their own flavor of Google search, scanning just the sites they're interested...
...Schmidt isn't worried about a challenge from the outside. "Maybe we should be, but we're not. As a leading company, the seeds of our own destruction are within us," he says. To keep them from germinating, Google has come up with 30 key questions to direct its strategic focus. A sampling: "What are the next big breakthroughs in search?" and "We have a lot of cash. What should we do with it?" Google just celebrated its eighth birthday with a strategic review. For 2007, the plan is to spend some of that cash on mobile technologies and more...