Intrapreneurial Success of Google News: A Best-Practice Case Study

Let's envisage a situation where you are an employee at a technological corporation renowned for its culture of innovation. One day you stumble upon an idea that could potentially transform a specific market domain and benefit users worldwide. However, as an employee, you are unsure how to channel this innovative concept to fruition within your organization. Taking inspiration from real life can be enlightening. One such tale is the intrapreneurial success story of Google News. This tool emerged not as a structured, top-down plan but was created in an intrapreneurial fashion by a passionate engineer who wanted to make a difference.

The Google News: What is it?

Google News is a free news aggregator provided and operated by Google, selecting news from thousands of news websites. It was developed in response to the World Trade Center tragedy when Krishna Bharat, a Google Engineer, found it challenging to source various perspectives on the incident in one place. The tool became an embodiment of intrapreneurship in a corporate setting, with ideas and innovations developed by employees forming new services.

Why Intrapreneurship?

Intrapreneurship fosters an environment of creativity and innovation within the corporate structure, permitting employees to explore their ideas while leveraging corporate resources and infrastructure. This practice leads to new products and services, such as Google News, which may eventually contribute significantly to a company's growth and profitability.

Krishna Bharat’s Intrapreneurship: The Journey

Krishna Bharat, realizing the necessity to scan news from diverse sources during a major news event, undertook steps to create a prototype of a news searching tool. His intrapreneurial journey can be summarized as follows:

1. Identifying the Problem: Bharat recognized the pain points of not having a single platform that aggregates news from various sources keeping diverse perspectives intact.
2. Developing a Solution: Using his tech prowess, Bharat developed a prototype that aggregated news from multiple websites, which eventually grew into Google News.
3. Leveraging Company Resources: As a Google employee, Bharat was able to utilize the vast resources available to him, including Google's advanced algorithms.
4. Engaging Stakeholders: Bharat had to involve and align various internal stakeholders, including Google's leadership, to achieve project approval.
5. Iteration and Launch: Once approved, the product was iteratively improved with user feedback and officially launched as Google News in 2002.

The Impact & Lessons Learnt

Google News, emerging out of Bharat’s intrapreneurial spirit, has drastically reshaped how users access and consume news worldwide. It serves as an exemplary case study for employees seeking to bring their innovative ideas to life within their organizations. The key takeaways include the importance of identifying a genuine problem, utilizing available resources, aligning stakeholders and being ready to iterate and improve. It encapsulates the essence of intrapreneurship: employees acting as entrepreneurs within their company to innovatively contribute to its continued growth.