Google Founders Face Wealth, Resentment And a Changed Culture
When Sergey Brin and Larry Page founded Google six years ago, they fashioned a company that mirrored their identities as brainy, free-spirited graduate students. Their engineers set their own hours, often getting to the office at midday, eating lunch and dinner -- prepared by a celebrity chef -- at the company cafeteria and working through the night. Twice weekly, roller-hockey games are held in the parking lot, and the dress code favors T-shirts over ties.
But recently Google filed for an initial public offering, proposing to sell an estimated $2.7 billion of shares. If the company is valued at $25 billion, the 15% stakes Messrs. Brin and Page each own will be worth about $4 billion apiece. Many employees who own company stock also stand to boost their personal fortunes -- but not nearly as much as their bosses do.
In the company's filing, Messrs. Brin and Page assert that they don't want to alter Google's democratic culture, which encourages employees to spend 20% of their time working on whatever they think will most benefit the company. "Google is not a conventional company. We do not intend to become one," they say.
But money changes everything.
Entrepreneurs who have become wealthy after taking their business public or selling it to another company say the process changes a company's culture and often sparks divisions. Professionals and managers who don't become nearly as wealthy as the founders feel resentful. If the stock price drops before employees have a chance to sell their shares, they are apt to become depressed and angry. On the other hand, if the IPO is successful, employees who make lots of money may check out of work mentally, physically or both.
David Friend, who has founded and sold five technology companies in the past 25 years and is now a venture investor and adviser to start-ups, says he was initially unprepared for these changes. He first became a millionaire in 1982 when he and his partner sold Computer Pictures, a computer-graphics software company, for about $15 million. Overnight, the collegial atmosphere at Computer Pictures changed. "Before the sale, we were all in there together, working long hours for little pay. But then the founders became millionaires," Mr. Friend says. "Some employees thought, 'if it wasn't for the work I did, this success wouldn't have happened.' "
Mr. Friend wasn't prepared for the divisiveness. "I was shocked at how quickly the close relationships I had [with employees] evaporated," he says. When he subsequently built and then sold other technology companies -- including FaxNet, which fetched $240 million in 1999 -- he tried to better prepare employees for the transition. "I tried to make sure everyone had a sense of ownership in their work and had incentives to stay with the new [acquiring] company," he says.
At companies that go public, employees usually feel less resentment toward top executives because they expect to become wealthier themselves from the sale of their holdings. But they may become more fixated on the company's stock performance than their jobs and may be hugely disappointed if the company performs poorly in the market.
Michael McCue watched this happen at Netscape, one of the first high-flying Internet companies, which he joined as a vice president about a year after it went public in 1995. Netscape's stock price then was still above its offering price, but not nearly as high as it traded on its first day. "People's moods were tied directly to the stock ticker," says Mr. McCue. "And with the pressure on to meet quarterly numbers, people took their eye off developing innovative software."
Within three years, Netscape was battered by competition from Microsoft and IBM, laid off employees and welcomed a white knight. AOL acquired Netscape in 1998. Mr. McCue is now president of Tellme, a private telecommunications software company in Silicon Valley, and has no current plans for an IPO.
Executives at companies whose IPOs have made millions for some employees must find ways to retain them. "You can end up with a lot of free agents who are thinking of quitting," says Gary Hayes, a psychologist and partner at consultant Hayes Brunswick in New York. He recommends rotating talent through new and challenging assignments.
At the same time, those who become wealthy suddenly face a new job of managing their money and figuring out how to spend it. After he sold Computer Pictures at the age of 30, Mr. Friend spent a month windsurfing but quickly grew bored at the thought of spending his life at the beach. He turned his money over to a money manager so he could continue to focus on technology.
But rather than acquire mansions and jets, Mr. Friend became interested in philanthropy, donating money for a recital hall at Berklee College of Music in Boston, for example. He says he has sought to avoid a trap some company founders fall into of "becoming chained to the money [they earn] and letting it run their lives. It's supposed to be the other way around," he says, "giving you freedom to do what you want" and support causes you care about.
At Google, Messrs. Brin and Page say they plan to establish their own foundation, contributing employee time and about 1% of Google's equity and profit to philanthropic causes.
Google面临财富考验
当天资聪颖而具独立精神的大学生瑟奇?布林(Sergey Brin)和拉里?佩奇(Larry Page)在六年前创办Google时，他们塑造了一个体现两人自身特点的公司。Google的工程师可以自行安排上班时间，他们通常在中午时分来到办公室，在公司的自助餐厅里享有知名厨师烹饪的午餐和晚餐，然后工作到深夜。每周在公司的停车场里还安排了两次轮式曲棍球比赛，而员工的日常著装也很随意，他们青睐T恤牛仔而非西装革履。
最近，Google向监管机构提交文件，申请进行首次公开募股(IPO)，打算发行价值27亿美元左右的股票。如果该公司股票每股定价为25美元，那么各持15%股权的布林和佩奇都将拥有约40亿美元的资产。许多持有公司股票的员工也会发财，虽然不像他们的老板那样多。
在呈交的文件中，布林和佩奇表示他们不想改变Google的民主作风，他们鼓励员工自由支配20%的工作时间，用在员工自己认为最能使公司受益的地方。两位创立者表示，Google不是一家传统企业，他们也不想变成那样。
但金钱能改变一切。
那些通过让自己的公司上市或将之出售而致富的企业家们指出，这一过程能改变公司文化，通常会导致内部不和：没有像创建人那样富甲一方的专业人士和管理人员会愤愤不平。如果股价在员工有机会抛售前就跌了下来，他们往往会感到沮丧和不满。另一方面，如果上市成功，那些发了财的员工的心思也许就不在工作上了，还可能离职。
戴维?弗兰德(David Friend)在过去25年里创立并出售了5家科技公司，他目前是风险投资家，还为初创公司做顾问。弗兰德表示，自己当初根本没想到会出现这些变化。他在1982年与合伙人一起以1,500万美元左右的价格出售了电脑图形软件公司Computer Pictures，瞬间成了百万富翁。几乎一夜之间，Computer Pictures里那种平等亲密的感觉就荡然无存了。弗兰德说，在出售公司前，大家都很努力，工作时间很长，但报酬很少。可现在创立者成了富翁，一些员工就在想，如果不是自己的辛勤劳动，公司不可能获得成功。
弗兰德对此毫无思想准备。他说，原先与员工那种亲密无间的关系一下子就消失了，他对此很震惊。当他后来创立并出售另外几家科技公司时，他试图让员工对随之而来的变化有更好的准备。他说，我试图让每个人感到在工作中有主动权，还采取激励措施让他们留在新公司。
当企业上市时，员工通常对高级管理层没有强烈的抵触情绪，因为他们期望自己也能从出售股权中获利。但员工们也许会更关注公司的股价，而非自己的工作，因此当公司股价偏低时，他们就会深感失望。
迈克尔?麦丘(Michael Mccue)眼看著这一切发生在网景(Netscape, NPE.XX)这个第一代成功的网络公司里。麦丘在网景上市一年后的1995年加盟该公司，成为网景的副总裁。网景那时的股价虽仍高于募股价，但远远低于首日交易价。麦丘说，股价左右了员工的情绪，实现季度收益预期的压力使大家没心思开发新软件。
三年之内，网景被竞争对手微软(Microsoft Corp., MSFT)和国际商业机器公司(International Business Machines, IBM, 简称：IBM)打败了，因此不得不裁员，欢迎友善的收购，后被美国在线(America Online)于1998年收购。麦丘目前担任Tellme的总裁，这是一家位于矽谷的私人电信软件公司，目前不打算上市。
因上市使部分员工暴富的企业中的主管们应该找到挽留员工的办法。纽约的心理学家兼咨询公司Hayes Brunswick的合伙人加里?海斯(Gary Hayes)说，你最终会发现许多萌生去意的员工在闲散游荡。他建议企业采用轮岗手段让有才干的人接受具挑战性的新任务。
而那些突然成为富翁的人则面临一项新工作，他们需要为自己理财，还要找到花钱之道。弗兰德出售Computer Pictures时只有30岁，之后他花了一个月的时间玩冲浪，但很快感到厌倦，他不想把一生虚掷在海滩上。于是，弗兰德把钱交给一位投资经理打理，以便让自己能继续专注于科技事业。
弗兰德没有将钱花在购置楼宇和喷气机上，他开始对慈善事业感兴趣，向波士顿的百克里音乐学院(Berklee College of Music)等机构捐钱。他说自己不想重蹈覆辙，像一些企业创立人那样一辈子成为金钱的奴隶。弗兰德说：“正相反，金钱给了你行动的自由，给予你事业上的支持。”
Google的两位创立者表示，他们计划建立自己的基金会，在员工的参与下，把约1%的公司股权和利润捐给慈善事业。
