Log In


Reset Password
News Education Local News Nation & World New Mexico

Find right working culture

Google exec proffers advice to FLC students

A Google executive in charge of the company’s Cloud Platform told Fort Lewis College students Monday they should work for a company with a good corporate culture – or start their own.

“The barriers to starting your own company are really, really low compared to 20 years ago,” said Doug Daniels, who leads Google’s operation that sells Google infrastructure to other companies.

Daniels said students should ask employers how openly they communicate with employees and to what degree employees are empowered to follow their passions.

“You want to work on stuff that’s cool and that matters,” he said. “You don’t want to work on stuff that at the end of the day doesn’t matter in this world.”

Daniels spoke to a crowd of about 200 FLC students, faculty and staff at the Student Union.

He repeatedly pointed to startups that are supplanting or have supplanted long-established companies: GoPro made a stable, waterproof camera for outdoor activities that contributed to Kodak’s decline. Tesla beat the Chevy Volt with a more innovative battery design, Daniels said. Uber is overtaking traditional cab companies in many cities.

In case after case, technology is cutting out the middle man, Daniels said.

“If you fail to innovate, you might be that next Kodak,” he said.

Daniels rose in the tech world with online mapping, eventually selling a business to Google that became the basis for Google Maps and joining the Mountain View, California-based Internet giant.

He stopped at FLC on his return trip from South By Southwest, the annual technology and music festival in Austin, Texas. He lives in Lone Tree, south of Denver. He said he participates in up to a dozen video conferences a day to manage his Google projects.

“I practice what I preach,” he said.

Daniels urged students to think about big problems. Among them: how to deliver more fresh water where it’s needed, popularize solar power and create better batteries that store more energy.

Daniels’ son, Greyson, is a sophomore at FLC studying economics.

Paul McGurr, interim dean of the School of Business Administration, introduced Doug Daniels to the audience.

“It’s not often you get a verb to come speak to your students,” he said, referring to Google.

Daniels urged students to be versatile. At Google, employees who can shift around are valued, he said.

“We love hiring athletes that do many things very, very well,” he said.

He said students have a huge range of opportunities. With crowd-funding sites such has Kickstarter, anyone with an important idea can attract financial backing.

“The world’s a big place; there’s a lot going on,” he said. “There’s not a better time to be coming out of college.”

cslothower@durangoherald.com



Reader Comments