Why are people attracted to companies like Google and Starbucks? Is it money? Opportunity? Or maybe for the bragging rights?

Certainly a few candidates are drawn by these superficial attractors, but more are subtly drawn by what Google really does and by what it stands for. I call this the organization’s cause.

Google’s cause is free information. It represents the 21st century approach to information: open, free for all, easy to access, and organized in logical ways. That is why Google has purchased YouTube and that is why it has Google Earth and Google Images and Google Docs.

Whether you are interested in visual or verbal data, Google has it all. All its core businesses are focused around this central principle or cause.

And more people are attracted to causes than things.