How Google Works

by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg

Overview

Seasoned Google executives Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg provide an insider's guide to Google, from its business history and disruptive corporate strategy to developing a new managment philosophy and creating a corporate culture where innovation and creativity thrive.

Google Executive Chairman and ex-CEO Eric Schmidt and former SVP of Products Jonathan Rosenberg came to Google over a decade ago as proven technology executives. At the time, the company was already well-known for doing things differently, reflecting the visionary-and frequently contrarian-principles of founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. If Eric and Jonathan were going to succeed, they realized they would have to relearn everything they thought they knew about management and business.

Today, Google is a global icon that regularly pushes the boundaries of innovation in a variety of fields. How Google Works is an entertaining, page-turning primer containing lessons that Eric and Jonathan learned as they helped build the company. The authors explain how technology has shifted the balance of power from companies to consumers, and that the only way to succeed in this ever-changing landscape is to create superior products and attract a new breed of multifaceted employees whom Eric and Jonathan dub "smart creatives."

Covering topics including corporate culture, strategy, talent, decision-making, communication, innovation, and dealing with disruption, the authors illustrate management maxims ("Consensus requires dissension," "Exile knaves but fight for divas," "Think 10X, not 10%") with numerous insider anecdotes from Google's history, many of which are shared here for the first time.

In an era when everything is speeding up, the best way for businesses to succeed is to attract smart-creative people and give them an environment where they can thrive at scale. How Google Works explains how to do just that.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781455582327
Publisher:	Grand Central Publishing
Publication date:	03/21/2017
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	90,078
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Jonathan Rosenberg joined Google in 2002 and managed the design and development of the company's consumer, advertiser, and partner products, including Search, Ads, Gmail, Android, Apps, and Chrome. He is currently an advisor to Google CEO Larry Page.

Eric Schmidt served as Google's CEO from 2001 to 2011. During that time he shepherded the company's growth from a Silicon Valley start-up to a global technology leader that today has over $55 billion in annual revenues and offices in more than 40 countries. Eric is now Google's executive chairman.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

How Alphabet Works xi

Introduction-Lessons Learned from the Front Row 1

"Just go talk to the engineers" 4

The Finland plan 8

When astonishing isn't 10

Speed 12

The "smart creative" 16

A fun project for the two of us 20

Pyramids unbuilt 24

Culture-Believe Your Own Slogans 27

Keep them crowded 34

Work, eat, and live together 37

Your parents were wrong-messiness is a virtue 38

Don't listen to the HiPPOs 40

The rule of seven 42

Every tub (not) on its own bottom 44

Do all reorgs in a day 45

The Bezos two-pizza rule 46

Organize the company around the people whose impact is the highest 47

Exile knaves but right for divas 48

Overworked in a good way 51

Establish a culture of Yes 53

Fun, not Fun 54

You must wear something 61

Ah'cha'rye 63

Don't be evil 64

Strategy-Your Plan Is Wrong 67

Bet on technical insights, not market research 69

A period of combinatorial innovation 74

Don't look for faster horses 77

Optimize for growth 78

Coase and the nature of the firm 81

Specialize 83

Default to open, not closed 85

Default to open, except when… 88

Don't follow competition 90

Eric's Notes for a Strategy Meeting 92

Talent-Hiring Is the Most Important Thing You Do 95

The herd effect 99

Passionate people don't use the word 100

Hire learning animals 102

The LAX test 105

Insight that can't be taught 107

Expand the aperture 108

Everyone knows someone great 112

Interviewing is the most important skill 113

Schedule interviews for thirty minutes 118

Have an opinion 119

Friends don't let friends hire (or promote) friends 121

Urgency of the role isn't sufficiently important to compromise quality in hiring 125

Disproportionate rewards 125

Trade the M&Ms, keep the raisins 127

If you love them, let them go (but only after taking these steps) 129

Firing sucks 131

Google's Hiring Dos and Don'ts 132

Career-Choose the F-16 133

Treat your career like you are surfing

Always listen for those who get technology

Plan your career

Statistics is the new plastics

Read

Know your elevator pitch

Go abroad

Combine passion with contribution

Decisions-The True Meaning of Consensus 143

Decide with data 151

Beware the bobblehead yes 153

Know when to ring the bell 156

Make fewer decisions 158

Meet every day 160

"You're both right" 162

Every meeting needs an owner 163

Horseback law 165

Spend 80 percent of your time on 80 percent of your revenue 168

Have a succession plan 168

The World's Best Athletes Need Coaches, and You Don't? 170

Communications-Be a Damn Good Router 173

Default to open 175

Know the details 178

It must be safe to tell the truth 180

Start the conversation 182

Repetition doesn't spoil the prayer 184

How was London? 187

Review yourself 189

Email wisdom 189

Have a playbook 192

Relationships, not hierarchy 198

Innovation-Create the Primordial Ooze 201

What is innovation? 205

Understand your context 207

The CEO needs to be the CIO 208

Focus on the user… 212

Think big 216

Set (almost) unattainable goals 220

70/20/10 222

20 percent rime 225

Jonathan's Favorite 20 Percent Project 230

Ideas come from anywhere 231

Ship and iterate 233

Fail well 237

It's not about money 240

Conclusion-Imagine the Unimaginable 243

From Downton Abbey to Diapers.com 244

Who succeeds and who fails in a world of platforms? 245

The emergence of the social web (and a start-up called Facebook) 247

Ask the hardest questions 249

The role of government 254

Big problems are information problems 255

The future's so bright… 258

The next smart creative 260

Acknowledgments 263

Glossary 271

Index 275

A Note About the Authors 285

Editorial Reviews

09/01/2014
Turn off your phone, lock the door, and settle down for an entertaining and educational book about Google, the company everyone wonders about, written by insiders Schmidt, Google executive chairman; and Rosenberg, consultant to co-founder Larry Page. From page one, the stories, whether about the early days at Google or the company's unusual, occasionally outrageous, but brilliant business practices, are irresistible. Readers will learn how to manage "smart creatives," develop a "culture of Yes," and craft a meaningful mission statement. This enthusiastic manifesto encourages readers – and leaders - to "habitually overcommunicate" and "set (almost) unattainable goals." Still, it might be interesting to learn how the rest of the company feels about the "20 percent time" program for individual projects that applies to engineers but apparently not to anyone else. There might be more underneath the rock than we're allowed to see. The inevitable comparison to Apple leaves Google positioned–of course–as taking the high road. The book's clearly propaganda, but that can be easily forgiven in the course of such an energized and exciting primer on creating a company and workforce prepared to meet an "inspiring" future. (Sept.)

Publishers Weekly

"An informative and creatively multilayered Google guidebook from the businessman's perspective."—Kirkus

"An energized and exciting primer on creating a company and workforce prepared to meet an inspiring future."—Publisher's Weekly

"Chairman Eric Schmidt and exec advisor Jonathan Rosenberg pull back the curtain to reveal how the company created its unique culture of workplace innovation."—Fortune

From the Publisher

04/15/2014
A guidebook on Google's best business practices, offered in the spirit of the company's openness. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

Library Journal

2014-07-22
Two distinguished technology executives share the methodology behind what made Google a global business leader. Former Google CEO Schmidt (co-author: The New Digital Age: Reshaping the Future of People, Nations and Business, 2013) and former senior vice president of products Rosenberg share accumulated wisdom and business acumen from their early careers in technology, then later as management at the Internet search giant. Though little is particularly revelatory or unexpected, the companywide processes that have made Google a household name remain timely and relevant within today's digitized culture. After several months at Google, the authors found it necessary to retool their management strategies by emphasizing employee culture, codifying company values, and rethinking the way staff is internally positioned in order to best compliment their efforts and potential. Their text places "Googlers" front and center as they adopted the business systems first implemented by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who stressed the importance of company-wide open communication. Schmidt and Rosenberg discuss the value of technological insights, Google's effective "growth mindset" hiring practices, staff meeting maximization, email tips, and the company's effective solutions to branding competition and product development complications. They also offer a condensed, two-page strategy checklist that serves as an apt blueprint for managers. At times, statements leak into self-congratulatory territory, as when Schmidt and Rosenberg insinuate that a majority of business plans are flawed and that the Google model is superior. Analogies focused on corporate retention and methods of maximizing Google's historically impressive culture of "smart creatives" reflect the firm's legacy of spinning intellect and creativity into Internet gold. The authors also demarcate legendary application missteps like "Wave" and "Buzz" while applauding the independent thinkers responsible for catapulting the company into the upper echelons of technological innovation. An informative and creatively multilayered Google guidebook from the businessman's perspective.

Kirkus Reviews

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