Thats one of Google's biggest problems IMO. There is no "grand vision" just a bunch of teams working on random stuff that sometimes completely competes with each other and they end up killing 1, if not both after a year.
On the contrary, the decentralisation is what I appreciate so much about Google - I feel it's the primary driver for innovative stuff that comes out of Google. It may seem like a mess but then you see - creativity doesn't flows out of grand visions.
PS: perhaps Apple was able to achieve "centralized creativity" only because of Jobs.
That can be also a strength. You just keep on throwing out things without much hesitation and see what sticks. You create confusing set of products and kill stuff all the time, but on the other hand you give markets change to decide.
Compare to for example Apple which seems to think so much they get very little out.
Maybe it is very difficult for large organisation to find the balance between these two. Grand vision requires somebody to manage it and filter what gets out. That can lead to great products getting killed just because they were not invented by the VP Visions.
