Profile... Why Google is banking on a New Yorker in Asia

At the time, Google remained tight-lipped; according to one local journalist, a photo was taken of the office and yet the company still refused to confirm its existence. But two months later, at a packed press conference officiating the opening, very little more was revealed, except for a face: that of Lori Sobel, head of sales and acting manager for the new regional hub.

Along with Sobel’s boss, Richard Kimber, who is managing director of sales and operations for Southeast Asia, “no comment” was the most common answer to some obvious questions regarding Google in Asia: headcount, investment and even the purpose of the physical office.

Clearly, Sobel, a cool, calm young New Yorker who only moved to Asia in February, feels no pressure to talk — yet. After all, she is in an unfamiliar situation, where Google doesn’t command the same god-like stature it does in the US. While Google claims over 40 per cent of the search engine market in America, figures from various reports suggest low double-digit numbers in most Southeast Asia markets.

So there is a lot of work to be done, and in an exclusive interview with Media, Sobel, later joined by Kimber, admits that she is ready to whip out her teaching hat.

“We really need to educate the market, by sharing success stories and the great returns our clients have enjoyed,” she says. “There’s not a huge difference in our sales approach here to in the US.”

Initially, her focus will be on promoting Google’s two pay-per-click programmes: AdWords and AdSense. AdSense is the medium for contextual ads that can show images and videos, while AdWords is purely text-based ads that first turned attention to Google’s search engine.

“One of the best parts of these programmes is that it’s a very low-risk deal. You can start by investing a dollar a day, see the returns, and scale from there.”

Mobile advertising will also be a big focus, hints Kimber, given its high penetration compared to the internet. Sobel cites 119 million mobile phone users for the region’s population of 500 million, compared to only 68 million internet users. “I see two big opportunities here,” says Kimber. “One, location-based mobile advertising and two, Google Maps on mobile.”

Google is also knocking on the doors of Microsoft’s single biggest customer: enterprises.

“These days, more and more information is stored on a server, on a browser. We’re seeing more companies which want to get involved with our enterprise solutions,” says Sobel. “In Malaysia, for example, we’ve partnered with (Government secondary) schools to bring Google Apps to the classroom.”

With so much catching up to do, it’s not surprising that Kimber and Sobel emphasise the importance of Google’s ‘ecosystem’, a term made corporate by Microsoft. So far, Google has announced key regional partnerships with companies such as Starcom IP, SingTel, Straits Times, Yehey (a search engine in the Philippines) and HSBC.

More recently, Google also inked an exclusive deal to provide search engine tools to Friendster, the region’s most popular social networking site according to Alexa traffic ratings. Localisation efforts will also play an enormous role here, says Kimber. “Even YouTube could be localised.”

But Sobel and Kimber don’t seem worried about spreading the message — after all, the Google brand preceded the office. “We never buy TV adspace for ourselves,” says Kimber. Instead, the company relies on branding activities within communities — such as ‘Doodle for Google’, a competition to design the local Google homepage in the UK, which will also roll out in Singapore.

“People here are familiar with Google for our applications — Gmail, search, maps — but not so much our online advertising solutions,” she says.

Meanwhile, Sobel, who graduated barely 10 years ago, is dead-set on recreating Google’s cult-like, creative ethos here. “The innovation that goes on — it’s one of the things I love about my job,” she says. But how do you inspire creativity?

“Creativity stems from empowering your people and allowing them to feel like they own ideas,” she says.

“Google is a very flat organisation, and that’s what makes us so nimble and innovative.”

But therein lies one of Google’s greatest challenges ahead: remaining flat and nimble while it is clearly growing. “We’re already searching for more office space in Singapore,” reveals Kimber. “We’ll be opening more offices in Southeast Asia this year.”

Lori Sobel's CV...

2007 Head of sales, Google, Singapore

2003 Sales manager, Google, New York City

1997 Sales manager, DoubleClick

1996 Graduated, Syracuse University