A recent WSJ article, Google Gears Down for Tougher Times explains that their mantra has always been to put long term projects ahead of the short term interests of shareholders but not anymore.

Like many other companies, the focus needs to be on the here and now, (survival mode to be more dramatic) which has led the search giant to cut way back on side projects they used to pride themselves on and to revaluate their management. And as Tom Eisenmann, professor at HBS and Managing Director at Market Platform Dynamics points out “letting a thousand flowers bloom and letting many of them stall and go nowhere has worked well to this point, but if you want to be the dominant advertising network across every medium, you need more top-down management.”

And Tom’s point has been poignantly validated by Google’s Chief Execute, Schmidt, as he recently announced a more concerted effort to cut back on “pet projects” and to instead focus on management decisions such as overhead costs including free meals, tea times and new office openings. Much like everyone else, Google too, is watching their wallets.