Companies as Houses

A short and sweet blog post over at Infectious Greed got me thinking.  Paul mentions that while his engineer buddies at Google are realizing that they work for a growing bureaucracy, new MBAs are listing it as the company where they'd most like to work.  So here is my comparison of companies to houses:  the company starts with someone who wants to build it, just as a home does.  This process needs a visionary/architect, financing, equipment/materials, engineers/construction workers.  With these, the company/house gets planned, financed, and built.  But then what happens to the company/home?  The MBAs/housekeepers & lawn help come in to maintain things.  And they are quite happy to do so, because they've got a nice place to work for a fair wage and they know how to do their jobs.  Sure, they get to express some "creativity" now and again (make new charts and spreadsheets out of basically the same data/cut new designs into the yard or arrange the pillows on the bed in different ways), but it's pretty much the same company/house being maintained on an ongoing basis.  And the engineers/construction workers?  Well, they can either be authorized and set forth on building on to the company/house through new service offerings/additional rooms or even a deck or swimming pool, or they can move on to the next company/home to be built from the ground up, totally different than this one.  But there's really no point in sticking around the company/home once it's been built if you're a TRUE engineer/construction worker, unless there is REAL WORK to be done on it in terms of additions and expansions.
So, the question to those Google engineers who are increasingly existing with larger and less-fun bureaucratic machinations:  is the work that remains to be done engaging enough to justify dealing with it, or have those options vested or come out of lockup so that you can move on to the next company (maybe even your own!) to build and this time, do it even better?
And for you MBAs:  I've seen some nice homes in my day, but the one that those engineers built over in Mountain View takes the cake.  I'd say get over there as fast as you can and start maintaining, if you're lucky enough to be invited!

Comments

[Andi]

Google's many algorithms, controlling search, targeting and delivering ads, detecting click-fraud, supressing spam, and many other functions are constantly being rebuilt and remodeled to accomodate new conditions, a growing internet and clever new scams. Not to mention the many new products that they are always releasing, acquiring and absorbing.

So while the company is maturing there will always be plenty for the engineers to engineer.

That said, I think your analogy is apt. :)