Google Inc (GOOG), And The Role of Food in Company Culture

The word “health” is really important, and there is a connection between agriculture and health — a huge connection. That’s another whole story.

How do we create healthy food for our employees, so that they’re healthy at work? Yes, they’re productive, but it creates innovation.

I really believe the trends are, in corporate America, the days of these big cafes where they feed 400 people and they’re all lined up like an army barracks, are gone. Because if you go to Silicon Valley it’s kind of like… You guys remind me of Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) in here, except I don’t see the bouncing balls.

Isaac Pino: We have a few of those.

Bauccio: Maybe there’s a few. There’s no offices there, just like there is here. In some cases, like at Twitter, there’s not even any cubes. There’s living room kinds of spaces, with couches and bouncy balls that they sit on. You and I have a meeting someplace, and then we go to another place and have a meeting.

Our job is to create these small, little pop-up restaurants, or small, little places that people can eat, and eat all day long. Sometimes they’re there at night and they sleep in these places, and they bring their dogs in, and we feed them all night long.

The idea is to create food that’s affordable, or free in some cases, but food that is healthy and still brings a sense of community to that culture of that company. It’s taken off like crazy. Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) is now free, since Marissa got there as CEO. Twitter is now free. LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) is going to be free. Google is free.

There’s a whole different trend here, of how do we bring food that’s healthy, and that works for the culture of the company? That’s what’s going on.

The article The Role of Food in Company Culture originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Isaac Pino, CPA.

Isaac Pino, CPA, owns shares of Google. The Motley Fool recommends Google and LinkedIn. The Motley Fool owns shares of Google, LinkedIn, and Oracle.

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