Google is reportedly planning a new internal initiative to increase productivity in the face of falling profits.
The new plan, dubbed "Simplicity Sprint," was unveiled by the company's CEO Sundar Pichai, who told employees: "Google's productivity as a company is not where it needs to be, even with the workforce that it has. " and that it is "facing a challenging macroeconomic environment with more uncertainty ahead."
Sundar told attendees that he wanted the initiative to "create a more mission-driven, more product-focused, more customer-centric culture" and urged attendees to "think about how we can minimize distractions and really elevate the level in both product excellence and productivity". .
What is behind the statement?
Alphabet, the parent company of Google, reported lower profit for the second consecutive quarter, despite a healthy rise in revenue, which rose 12,6% year-on-year to $69.700 billion.
While Google's core online advertising business has remained hugely profitable since its inception, many of Alphabet's other businesses aren't as successful, at least when you look at them solely as moneymakers.
Google Cloud, Google's cloud services and productivity tools division, reported an €858 million loss in its latest quarter.
What now?
Google has given employees until August 15 to respond to an internal survey about what the company can do better.
The survey would have contained questions such as "What would help you work more clearly and effectively to serve our users and customers?" and "Where should we remove speed bumps to get better results faster?"
In good news for current employees, Google's head of human resources, Fiona Cicconi, said that "the company is still hiring and has no plans for layoffs at this time," though she stressed that "it's not ruled out."
"We're asking teams to be more focused and efficient and to also work on what that means as a business," Cicconi said. "While we can't be sure the economy will move forward, we're not currently looking to reduce Google's overall workforce."
- Do you want to increase the productivity of your own organization? Check out our guide to the best tools for hybrid work
Via CNBC(Opens in a new tab)