What Google Must Do Next

Red Herring on October 21, 2005

While it seems presumptuous to offer advice to a company whose stock price now tops $400 a share, it's a little less so when it's offered by former executives of Netscape, the company once hailed — prematurely, as it turns out — as the Microsoft killer of the dot-com era. Perhaps not surprisingly, the execs suggest that Google should put off a direct confrontation with Redmond as long as possible. One of Google's biggest advantages, they say, is that it enjoyed several years of relative stealth mode to build its business — an eternity in the tech scene. Even as it develops new business models, they say, Google should focus on business fundamentals: reasonable earnings forecasts, controlled pricing in its sales efforts, and solid receivables management.