Google and Me - Our first professional association

I am a fan of Google. I have felt an association with the name since the time I first came to know about it. First thing that I googled on Google was ‘google’ to know what it means and why it means so. I have always taken pride in searching for immense volume of relevant information that was required for MBA presentations. My group members almost relied on me. Searching for information on Google was just like having a card up my sleeve. I remember, I was first to raise my hand when a senior named Nischal, entered our classroom of MBA freshers and asked “Who amongst you is best on Google?”

Nobody in the 2007 class of MBA-IB, Sec-C at Amity will ever forget a presentation on Google by our group that comprised of Arpit, Bharat, Biplav and Chayan. Assignment was to discuss Google as a ‘Product’. It was our first presentation on Marketing to be made to Mr. Vikram Barara.

Our group had four good-quality members. Biplav – a captivating speaker with a baritone, trained on voice-delivery platform to redress issues faced by a bank’s customers in UK. Arpit – a never-in-doubt person, who can take a stance and stay firm on it. Chayan – his greatness is his modesty, an unassuming person with keen sense to look the things in the way they are and finally ME. I too speak well in presentations and rely most on having a solid background research on the topic.

We have planned that Arpit will start the presentation giving details about what Google is, its meaning, founders, purpose etc. As he performed his part, I chipped in a bit early to take care of details without which, the research done beforehand would not have been visible. Consequently, the volume of words that left my tongue were too much for the audience to take from a single person in a group presentation. At this point, all could see that Mr Barara was done with his judging work and was waiting for things to get over. As people call it we were going through the emotions.

Here, let me add that by analyzing the previous groups presentations, we had more or less cracked what Mr Barara was looking for. As the groups came, presented and left, Mr Barara’s uneasiness was apparent. He wanted incisive information. He wanted ‘data’ in support of any claim made during the presentation.

So be it. He wants data, we will show data. A research or presentation serves its purpose only if the audience shows interest in it. We had thus included in our presentation, charts depicting trend of increasing popularity of Google over Microsoft or any other search engine. This was the strongest part of presentation and we wanted Biplav to cover it. So, as I completed my verbiage and Biplav’s turn came he was expected to perform. Did he do well!! Yes, he did extremely well. So well that Mr. Barara was delighted, ecstatic, thrilled and he smiled too. Actually, this also helped Biplav to create a platform of discussions with Mr Barara during the remaining semesters.

Chayan, being an IT engineer, followed up the presentation to detail the Page Crawl and Page Rank technology followed by Google. As we reached the end of the presentation, a few questions were asked in very customary manner. They were all tackled well, thanks to the research work done in advance. By the time, class mates got over with their questions, Mr Barara felt uneasy again. This time, a question was running berserk in his mind. He said “Just tell me one thing and you are through. Is Google a product or a service?”

This was a googly on Google by the veteran bowler, Mr Barara. It could not be lofted above the infield as this delivery had the venom to infect all 4 batsmen in one go. My team could not have endured any such attack.

I planted a front foot forward to get to the pitch of the microphone, and quipped “Google is a product for the company but to the users, it provides a service.”

Mr Barara judged the reply as valid and asked me to study more on that. His final verdict was 9 on 10 and my group had received many congratulations by that time.