Google did act in an ethical manner when the company went after the talent of other firms. Going after employees who are already trained and understand the business is key in gaining an advantage over competitors. “Poaching” top talent can backfire if the potential employee being sought after has a contract for a certain length of time or a non-compete clause. This clause makes it difficult for a potential candidate to work for a company that deals in a like form of business. Even though in many places such clauses may not hold up in court it is enough to persuade a person to not take the risk.
Existing employees in a relative or like business can be very important in growing a new business. The sought after employee would bring in already “established relationships with customers, suppliers, and channel members” that would help a growing company gain over their competition (Hisrich, Peters, & Shepherd, 2013, pg.424). This is why Google went after top talent like Microsoft’s Dr.
Kai-Fu Lee and highly regarded scientist who wanted to leave Microsoft to become president if Google China (Hartley, 2011, pg.107) Going into a competitors turf like Google did with Microsoft shows them that you will not back down from a challenge and that you are willing to take risks to grow the business.The down fall of going after the talent of other companies is that it might interfere with the morale of the existing business if no one is being promoted from within. Google would not have this problem because of the stock options they gave employees within the company that enabled many when the company went public to become millionaires. Going after the top talent of other companies may enable the potential candidate to go back to their existing company and ask for more money to stay making it impossible to recruit them.
Google knew the risks but understood to grow the business fast they needed the best talent to realize their goals.
