Big tech titan
might be an innovation powerhouse, but behind the scenes, a tangled web of bureaucracy and internal fiefdoms seems to be slowing it down, so claims former product manager Jonathan Bellack. In a post on Monday Threads, Bellack criticised Google's management culture. He made the comments while responding to a post from a software engineer.
According to a report in Business Insider, Bellack worked at Google for 15 years after the company acquired his employer DoubleClick in 2007.
In the post, he blames the company's sluggishness on a lack of clear direction from senior leaders. He describes a culture where decisions get bogged down in months of circular debates between mid-level managers, while junior employees are used as pawns in the process.
"Creeping failure" of leadership
This "creeping failure" of leadership, Bellack argues, has created fertile ground for "little fiefdoms" to flourish. These independent kingdoms, often led by engineers, operate with little regard for how their products fit into the bigger picture, leading to redundancies and missed opportunities. They reportedly said this territorial culture meant Google sometimes produced duplicate apps that did the same thing or missed important features its competitors had.
Adding fuel to the fire, Bellack claims that non-technical executives from policy, legal, and finance departments have gained undue influence in decision-making, further hindering progress. He points to a culture of risk aversion where senior leaders prioritize avoiding blame over taking decisive action.
This, Bellack says, has created a bizarre environment where disagreeing with a policy expert can be more problematic than failing to launch a valuable product on time.
Google has yet to publicly respond to these criticisms.
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