When going to search something online, the vast majority of Americans frequent the phrase “oh I’ll google it”. Google is an extravagantly successful company, yet it is presently on the cusps of its midlife crisis according to analysts at The Economist. First, it should not be interpreted to say that the company itself is on the brink of failure. In fact, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, received $34 billion in profits in 2019. Yet the company is clearly aging. To assess what google’s failings are its important to understand where their shortcomings reside.

It is clear that the company is aging based upon its changing work atmosphere and its increasingly strenuous relationship with the US government. Google has long been highly successful, but it is now being bound by growth constraints. It has a near monopoly on search engines and owns about 90% of market shares for search ads. Yet, they have failed to find other industries to be successful in. They have attempted to create lucrative projects such as delivery drones and robots, investing millions into development. Yet none of these projects have been particularly successful.

Moreover, Google’s relationship with the United States government has taken a hit. Most recently, Google executives were brought before congress in an antitrust hearing. The justice department has allocated considerable resources to assess the company’s near-monopoly on online-ads and will potentially file an antitrust lawsuit in the coming months.

So, how then should Google combat the aging it is currently facing? According to Economist analysts they ought “to be both innovative and mature”. But this is a difficult task.

First they recommend the company undergoes a more centralized approach to management. With more than 120,000 employees, the conglomerate has encountered an obstacle as the workforce is full of dissimilarly minded individuals and has become difficult to manage.
As such, The Economist recommends a restructuring and hiring of ‘expert managers’.

Alternatively, they could take the opposite approach and sell of less profitable divisions in order to better consolidate the firm. This would allow for the experts in their fields to have greater authority over business operations. Though this would also lead to a decrease in profits and is therefore a less likely scenario.

Nonetheless, the future of Google is not dim. As long as they continue to innovate as they have been for their 21 year history, the company will see a successful and long domination of the industry.