Veterans of the corporate world will tell you that all companies are the same. They want to maximize revenue-growth, and strive for these goals in similar ways (roughly): by measuring consumer demand, differentiating their offerings, researching the competitive landscape and planning long-term strategies. Still, there are more ways for companies to flounder than to succeed, making a Tolstoyian adaptation pertinent: Successful corporations are all alike, unsuccessful ones are so in their own way.

Despite their similarities, one thing often distinquishes successful firms- corporate culture. Yes, the unexplainable phenomenon that either draws loyalty to a company's vision-leadership, or has you running out the door looking for a new job. It is not surprising then, that Google has a Chief Culture Officer, Stacy Savides Sullivan:

I would characterize the culture as one that is team-oriented, very collaborative and encouraging people to think nontraditionally... -working with integrity and for the good of the company and for the good of the world, which is tied to our overall mission of making information accessible to the world...

...one of the hardest things to do is ensure that we are hiring people who possess the kind of traits that we're looking for in a Google-y employee. Google-y is defined as somebody who is fairly flexible, adaptable and not focusing on titles and hierarchy, and just gets stuff done.

Google is a strong and powerful company, its growth was double that of Microsoft in the past fiscal quarter. Preserving a small firm feel and innovative culture seems high on Google's radar. As somebody who worked in the technology industry for years, I will say that Google seems to want a good mix of metrics driven performance, as well as creativity, from its employees. In the end, its corporate culture may play an important role for future innovation and commercial performance.