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Summary
Summary
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.
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.
Author Notes
Eric Schmidt served as Google's CEO from 2001 to 2011 and transformed it into a global technology leader. He is now Google's executive chairman.
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.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
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, former Google employee and now 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.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
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. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
New York Review of Books Review
there is A footnote on Page 3 of the new book by Google's executive chairman, Eric Schmidt, and its former vice president of products, Jonathan Rosenberg, that should set readers' expectations suitably low. The authors are describing Schmidt's first years as C.E.O., when the board of directors was consumed with worry about its most formidable competitor, Microsoft. Back then Google employees, the authors write, referred to their archrival by a secret code name: "Finland." It seems like a fresh if somewhat inexplicable detail, until the eye wanders down to the bottom of the page and this disclaimer: "In fact, 'Finland' is a code name for the code name we actually used. If we used the actual code name in this book, it wouldn't be much of a code name, would it?" "How Google Works" is a breezily written and occasionally insightful guidebook for running companies in an age of rapid technological change. It is not, as that exceedingly lame footnote shows, an especially revealing look into the influential juggernaut that has changed the way we learn about one another and the world. Despite the overweening title, there is little information here about how Google actually works - how its co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and their brilliant colleagues have built an online service of almost unlimited intelligence and surprising prescience and in the process overturned the media landscape. Rather, this is a management tome, and another entry in the hit-or-miss genre of legacy-building books by celebrity executives, which started with the former Chrysler chief executive Lee Iacocca's autobiography in 1984 and seems to have reached a recent apotheosis with best sellers by Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg, Zappos's Tony Hsieh and others. It is also Schmidt's second book in two years, after "The New Digital Age: Transforming Nations, Businesses, and Our Lives," with Jared Cohen. That book dealt with the weighty question of how technology is changing the way nations relate to their citizens and one another. This one (written not only with Rosenberg but also with Alan Eagle, a Google director of executive communications) deals with a narrower question: How do you manage companies filled with high-I.Q., fiercely independent employees in an era of technological upheaval? Schmidt and Rosenberg build their argument around a not entirely convincing declaration of humility. They were the oldtimers at Google, the last "to ditch their BlackBerrys and Outlook email boxes." They were hired to be the adult supervision during the company's chaotic early years and found a freewheeling work environment that undermined all their previous notions about running companies. Google employees treated work as an extension of their academic careers and had a peevish disregard for conventional management practices. "The only thing we could say for sure back then was that much of what the two of us had learned in the 20 th century was wrong, and that it was time to start over," they write. So they had to come up with something else. At the center of their new management framework are "smart creatives": those unusually intelligent, self-motivated employees who are responsible for coming up with the next big thing. Companies need to hire and keep them, but smart creatives aren't necessarily dazzled by perks like high salaries and corner offices. They seek meaning in their work and approach their careers with an inflated sense of missionary zeal that would send the writers of HBO's "Silicon Valley" scurrying for their notebooks. Successful companies must start thinking about their culture early on, the authors write, and fashion direct, inspiring mission statements ("Don't be evil") that might sound disingenuous to outsiders but that actually motivate employees. Most of these lessons have hardened into conventional wisdom and will not surprise anyone already steeped in Silicon Valley's infectious dogma. Trust your engineers and say yes to them as often as possible. Stay flexible in planning. Power should derive from merit and insight, not tenure or salary. Launch quickly, iterate and don't be afraid to fail. Other insights, in chapters devoted to strategy, hiring, decision-making and innovation, offer worthy examples for other leaders. Every project at Google is begun with a new technical insight; Gmail, for example, was initiated after the Google engineer Paul Buchheit recognized that the Internet had progressed to a point at which he could build a web-based email tool that was just as rich and complex as any downloadable software program. And product design should reflect a user's needs, not the organization's. "You should never be able to reverse engineer a company's organizational chart from the design of its product," the authors write, citing the horror that is the typical television remote control. One chapter is devoted to Google's unique hiring process, the most important practice at any company, the authors note. Companies should pursue versatile "learning animals" whose private passions suggest dedication and personal pride. Decisions on hiring and promotions at Google are peer-based, reached by committees of employees instead of individual hiring managers. There is good advice here for keeping interviews short, to the point and revealing, though it's not quite a full accounting of Google's evolution in this area: The company mostly abandoned the use of SAT scores in its hiring, which isn't addressed here. Yet too many of the book's supposed lessons are annoyingly trivial. Readers are advised in one chapter to initiate conversations by taking employees to see movies, and by starting meetings with trip reports from colleagues. Other lessons come close to cliché. "You have to focus on your core business," the authors write. "You have to love it." Got it. The book is also amply footnoted with often tangential and eye-rolling asides. ("Buster plays catcher for the San Francisco Giants baseball team.") Other lessons are of dubious value to more gravity-bound managers. "Find me a Rhodes scholar who is also an astrophysicist!" Schmidt recalls saying at one point, during a long search for a head of human resources. It's unclear how having such sky-high standards will help the small-business owner in Cleveland scouring this book for tips. Still, my biggest knock against "How Google Works" is that it sugarcoats or just plain omits much about what really goes on inside arguably the world's most influential company. Both Schmidt and Rosenberg lost responsibility at Google as Larry Page reasserted control in 2011 and publicly declared that he was pursuing a faster pace of innovation. Were they nudged aside? Did they make mistakes they now regret? No such self-reflection is to be found here. As Hillary Clinton recently found out with "Hard Choices," her memoir of her years in the State Department, readers want an honest accounting of our most important institutions and react badly to politically cautious posturing, especially when they are paying for it. And occasionally, "How Google Works" is just plain disingenuous. Near the end, as it rapidly loses focus and coherence, the authors write about the need for self-starters who take the initiative in fixing problems. Their canonical example is the former senior vice president Vic Gundotra, who in 2010 saw that Google was getting outmaneuvered by Facebook and initiated the internal effort that became the social network Google Plus. Outrageously, the authors don't finish that story. Google Plus didn't catch on, and Gundotra left the company in April. Gundotra asked "the hardest questions," including, what happens to Google in a few years if the web is dominated by social connections, Schmidt and Rosenberg write. Gundotra's resourcefulness was admirable, to be sure. But praising someone who ultimately failed at his job? It's difficult to believe Google works that way. BRAD STONE, a senior writer at Bloomberg Businessweek, is the author of "The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon."
Choice Review
For the public, a great company is defined by its products--witness Thomas Edison's lightbulb. Though such inventions are essential, practitioners and students of business recognize that they are only the first step for success. Creating an organization capable of continually innovating and bringing to market the next big thing is ultimately more pressing and daunting. If Google can be described as the information age's version of Edison's Menlo Park, this work ranks among the most credible and compelling organizational design and management books of our time. The authors, Schmidt (executive chairman, Google) and Rosenberg (former senior vice president of products, Google), who were brought in to provide "adult supervision" to firm founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page and their cadre of engineers, are in a unique position to offer valuable insights. The volume is a quick, high-value read filled with insights into how Google stays innovative and on top of a fast-moving industry. Key takeaways include understanding the importance of culture, accepting failure, and attracting and motivating "smart creatives." Unlike many business books that highlight the importance of such dimensions, Schmidt and Rosenberg's provides ample and compelling examples of how the company puts these ideas into practice. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. --Steve Gove, Virginia Tech
Table of Contents
Foreword | p. xiii |
Introduction: Lessons Learned from the Front Row | p. 1 |
"Just go talk to the engineers" | p. 4 |
the Finland plan | p. 8 |
When astonishing isn't | p. 10 |
Speed | p. 12 |
"The "smart creative" | p. 16 |
A fun project for the two of us | p. 20 |
Pyramids unbuilt | p. 24 |
Culture-Believe Your Own Slogans | p. 27 |
Keep them crowded | p. 34 |
Work, eat, and live together | p. 37 |
Your parents were wrong-messiness is a virtue | p. 38 |
Don't listen to the HiPPOs | p. 40 |
The rule of seven | p. 42 |
Every tub (not) on its own bottom | p. 44 |
Do all reorgs in a day | p. 45 |
The Bezos two-pizza rule | p. 46 |
Organize the company around the people whose impact is the highest | p. 47 |
Exile knaves but fight for divas | p. 48 |
Overworked in a good way | p. 51 |
Establish a culture of Yes | p. 53 |
fun, not Fun | p. 54 |
You must wear something | p. 61 |
Ah'cha'rye | p. 63 |
Don't be evil | p. 64 |
Strategy-Your Plan Is Wrong | p. 67 |
Bet on technical insights, not market research | p. 69 |
A period of combinatorial innovation | p. 74 |
Don't look for faster horses | p. 77 |
Optimize for growth | p. 78 |
Coase and the nature of the firm | p. 81 |
Specialize | p. 83 |
Default to open, not closed 85 Default to open, except whenA... | p. 88 |
Don't follow competition | p. 90 |
Eric's Notes for a Strategy Meeting | p. 92 |
Talent-Hiring Is the Most Important Thing You Do | p. 95 |
The herd effect | p. 99 |
Passionate people don't use the word | p. 100 |
Hire learning animals | p. 102 |
The LAX test | p. 105 |
Insight that can't be taught | p. 107 |
Expand the aperture | p. 108 |
Everyone knows someone great | p. 112 |
Interviewing is the most important skill | p. 113 |
Schedule interviews for thirty minutes | p. 118 |
Have an opinion | p. 119 |
Friends don't let friends hire (or promote) friends | p. 121 |
Urgency of the role isn't sufficiently important to compromise quality in hiring | p. 125 |
Disproportionate rewards | p. 125 |
Trade the M&Ms, keep the raisins | p. 127 |
If you love them, let them go (but only after taking these steps) | p. 129 |
Bring sucks | p. 131 |
Google's Hiring Dos and Don'ts | p. 132 |
Career-Choose the F-16 | p. 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 | p. 143 |
Decide with data | p. 151 |
Beware the bobblehead yes | p. 153 |
Know when to ring the bell | p. 156 |
Make fewer decisions | p. 158 |
Meet every day | p. 160 |
"You're both right" | p. 162 |
Every meeting needs an owner | p. 163 |
Horseback law | p. 165 |
Spend 80 percent of your time on 80 percent of your revenue | p. 168 |
Have a succession plan | p. 168 |
The World's Best Athletes Need Coaches, and You Don't? | p. 170 |
Communications-Be a Damn Good Router | p. 173 |
Default to open | p. 175 |
Know the details | p. 178 |
It must be sale to tell the truth | p. 180 |
Start the conversation | p. 182 |
Repetition doesn't spoil the prayer | p. 184 |
How was London? | p. 187 |
Review yourself | p. 189 |
Email wisdom | p. 189 |
Have a playbook | p. 192 |
Relationships, not hierarchy | p. 198 |
Innovation-Create the Primordial Ooze | p. 201 |
What is innovation? | p. 205 |
Understand your context | p. 207 |
The CEO needs to be the CIO | p. 208 |
Focus on the user... | p. 212 |
Think big | p. 216 |
Set (almost) unattainable goals | p. 220 |
70/20/10 | p. 222 |
20 percent time | p. 225 |
Jonathan's Favorite 20 Percent Project | p. 230 |
Ideas come from anywhere | p. 231 |
Ship and iterate | p. 233 |
Fail well | p. 237 |
It's not about money | p. 240 |
Conclusion-Imagine the Unimaginable | p. 243 |
From Downton Abbey to Diapers.com | p. 244 |
Who succeeds and who fails in a world of platforms? | p. 245 |
The emergence of the social web (and a start-up called Facebook) | p. 247 |
Ask the hardest questions | p. 249 |
The role of government | p. 254 |
Big problems are information problems | p. 255 |
The future's so bright... | p. 258 |
The next smart creative | p. 260 |
Acknowledgments | p. 263 |
Glossary | p. 271 |
Index | p. 275 |
A Note About the Authors | p. 285 |