What Google does right

During these tough economic times it is helpful to look at companies that are exceptional to see how we can learn from their example, and so be able to grow, even if sales are suffering.

First, it is important to have a few assumptions:
1) There is many available, as is evident by the fact that the wealthy is still buying private airplanes in large numbers.
2) Diversity is the key to surviving an economic downturn.
3) Growth by creating wealth is better than growing by acquiring new companies.

If we look at Google it is difficult to see how some of their projects will help with their core competency, which is searching. My concern is not with the business model they are working wth, though I believe all of these projects help them to get advertising dollars, since it leads to more people going to the web site.

What they do right is pretty simple in concept, and should be easily replicated by other companies.

In a nutshell the key to such diversification is:
1. A safe environment for employees to explore new ideas, or to bring up new ideas.
2. The time to work on fleshing out their ideas.
3. A way to apply for funding to try implementing their idea.
4. A financial incentive for helping work on ideas.

It is scary for companies to allow employees to explore new ideas, as some of the ideas may damage the core product of a company. For example, several car companies leased electric cars, and these were well-received, but part of the problem is that it would be hard to sell gas or diesel cars, as it would be seen as sell dirty cars, as opposed to clean cars, so the cars were eventually destroyed, and these same companies haven't released any new all-electric cars since.

It is difficult to come up time for developers to explore new ideas, as that is time away from working on revenue-generating products, but, during a slow period it may be reasonable to give them this time.

There are various ways to allow people to share their ideas, such as a wiki, bulletin board or monthly meetings, but by finding out if there are others that find value in this, then, a group can examine each idea that has a demo, and determine which may have some possible commercial possibilities.

Once some funding is found, then just allow people some sort of ownership, as they will spend much of their free time finishing the project, but, if it looks successful, then it could be spun-off, or become a new part to a company.

The basic idea is to allow people time and safety to explore, then help them out, and if it succeeds, then the company will be able to profit from their support.