Pros and Cons of Google's 20 percent time concept?

Anonymous — Mon, 14 May 2007 21:41:47 -0800

Pros and Cons of Google's 20 percent time concept? I've been promoting the concept of implementing Google's 20% time policy into our 100-person company.

This policy involves requiring engineers to devote 20% of their resources to their own projects. The only caveat is that the company owns whatever you produce in that time.

I'm trying to pitch this idea to the higher ups, and so far some people are pretty excited. They've tasked me with researching more about the pros, cons, and specific policy implementations so as to make a more compelling pitch.

I've seen some pretty good prior discussion.

The deeper question I have is, "Given Google's success, why haven't more companies instituted this policy? Why hasn't yours?"

It has been widely successful for Google, with more than half of its revenues coming from projects started during the 20% time.

Is it just resistance to change that is stopping this?

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Pros and Cons of Google's 20 percent time concept?