How Google Works

Eric and Jonathan cover a vast territory in their engaging discussion of Google's leadership in our software driven era. While their Google specific comments are singularly informed and compelling, I suspect their most valuable lessons are those applicable to virtually any venture. Many of these are recurring thematics within discussions of modern leadership, but rarely have so many useful concepts been so well and accessibly summarized as in "How." Despite 30 plus years in the business I furiously jotted margin notes throughout the book, reminding myself for instance, of the primacy of purpose, as illustrated by the story of a company, beginning with why it is important that it exists; the defining competitive separation afforded by traction and momentum or, get big fast; speed kills; iteration informs. This is a great read; informative, smart and wise, as reflected by their admiration of John Wooden and his aphorism "it's what you learn after you know it all that counts." For those interested I'll summarize below my 'Top 10' of the books many quality, illustrative elements. There are abundant actionable insights in this book and of course, the occasional tendril of presumption. Overall, my sentiment about the book is summarized by my ordering copies for my sons, nieces and nephews, regardless of the sectors they work within, or majors they are pursuing. My 'Top 10' of appreciated observations: 1. Crowded work spaces fuel contagious energy and spontaneity; the physical presence of team members matters. 2. Keep management lean, with numerous direct reports per manager to assure leadership is crisp and micro-management rare. 3. Ignorance is not bliss, knowledge is instructive; share virtually everything about the company's business with all employees. 4. Smaller teams for building products; larger to sustain and grow. 5. Deliver transformative products, driven as much or more by insight as evident market demand. PS: platforms with leverage win. 6. Leaders don't delegate hiring; hire smart, curious learners and pay handsomely for impact. 7. Be mindful of your career objectives; sketch the larger ambition, then plan its execution, while remaining smartly opportunistic. 8. Spend 80% of your time on the stuff that generates 80% of your revenues; the new is seductive, but keep your focus balanced. 9. There are only a few truly important messages; assure they are heard: to quote Eric: "repetition doesn't spoil the prayer." 10. It's what you do that counts.

"How Google Works" is a book that is quite easy to read. Rosenberg and Schmidt did make use of an informal tone and simple sentence structures, spicing up the text with include some witty (sometimes also somewhat dull) additions, including occassional smiley faces or phrases. This makes the book quite entertaining to read. What I also found very positive is the fact that everything is well referenced, using footnotes that were as interesting to read as the main text itself. Often the authors refer to other internet company leaders, such as Steve Jobs, Amazon's Jeff Bezos - but also draw from ideas of data visualization guru Edward Tufte ("The Visual Display of Quantitative Information", statistician Nassim Taleb ("The black swan") and of course Hal Varian ("Information Rules") and many other authors that I already have found interest in and was pleased to find them named in the book. What I did not like is the constant tone of excessive self-appraisal used throughout the book. For example Google Plus is phrased as Google's big coup and glorified. While Schmidt and Rosenberg admit that Google missed out the right time to jump on the social network trend, they say "Google+ is often positioned in the media as a competitive response to Facebook, but this isn't quite right. It's more accurate to say that Google+ is a response to the disruption of Web 2.0 and the emergence of the social web. It is the social fabric that weaves together Google's various platforms, from AdWords to YouTube." (p.249) In my opinion that is just a nice way of portraying how user's were actually forced to create a Google+ account when they wanted to continue using Youtube of write Google reviews. Another line that I felt should be reviewed is on p. 111, when they describe why they did not hire a law partner candidate. "(Jonathan's assignment was:) Write a contract that is well done, comprehensive, and funny. (...) the candidate delivered contract 666, whereby Mr. Brin sold his soul to the devil in exchange for one dollar and numerous other considerations. The piece was brilliant and funny but he didnt get the job - not technical enough". Hello? You tell him to be funny, comprehensive and well done and when he does all of this, then suddenly the assessment criterion is something completely different - namely not being technical enough. That didn't really make sense to me. Overall the "Talent - Hiring Is the Most Important Thing You Do" section was quite overbearing in my opinion. From my own experience I know that not all Googlers are "As" and that the hiring process at Google is not quite like an "interesting conversation between two intelligent people" - as Schmidt and Rosenberg suggest. And while its true that Google's special "treat employees with 1000 extras" allows Google to choose among as many applicants as probably no other company in the industry (if not in all industries), and Google's application process is long and difficult, I would still like to question the "perfection" of Google's hiring process. For me the core message is: Customers above everything. Get the customers, and money will follow. The need for this change from focusing on "profit" or "shareholders" as businesses might have done before is that in the Internet era, Schmidt and Rosenberg argue, customers have full transparency and the best product will dominate everything else. The book outlines various other concepts: How much Google likes the idea of and relies on open standards, how important hiring is, how Google is rather unstructured, how important innovation is and how employees are incentiviced through passion and peer-respect (and long term promotions) rather than offering solely monetary incentives. Interesting with that respect for me was also that the 20% rule (that employees should work on a new product or task unrelated to their core responsibility around 20% of their time) not only generates innovations, but that the major reason is that Google employees get cross-insights and develop a broader focus, build relationships and learn new things. In conclusion, the book offers an easily readable guideline of how internet companies are (or should be) structured, and how they fundamentally differ from what the authors refer to as the "traditional textbook MBA principles". For everyone interested in the topics of Internet businesses or Internet Entrepreneurship I highly recommend this book. If I could, I would give 4.5 stars.

Practical and positive take on growing a successful business while providing an entertaining insight into the culture at Google; excellent read.

Although this book has been out for a while now (and lots has changed at Google, which has been in the news a lot for mostly the wrong reasons), it still resonates deeply with me. I expected a great homage to Google and the inside story on its rise to dominance. The authors share some of these experiences but much less than I thought. Instead, the book delivers on a more profound level. Many of the insights and hard-earned lessons learned are shared with the reader. You feel like you are experiencing the last 20 years of profound change through the eyes of people who were on the front lines leading the charge - yet they can hardly believe the transformational nature of the Internet. I took a ton of notes and made a gazillion highlights - this might be the most marked up book I have read ever. I rarely re-read books but will keep coming back to this one as it is not enough to absorb in "one-and-done" fashion. If you want to understand how today's economy works and how to prepare yourself and your organization for what's coming, this book is a great place to start!

El pedido llego en tiempo y forma y el libro es muy simple, ideal para una inducción a Google por ejemplo para generaciones pasadas yo lo ocupé para el equipo de e-commerce de mi compañía como una retroalimentación.

Read it in two weeks. It was a great reading. Lots of insights on how to hire, who to hire, how to lead innovation, meetings, objectives. How to make tough questions with the objective of staying relevant.

本の状態は説明通りでした。配達日も予定通りに届きました。

Excellent book, learnt a lot from it on how I should be a good employee, but also how to change my company. Unfortunately few companies have such visionaries as leaders, and it just makes you feel like leaving and going to such a company. Loved how primary CEO's task is hiring to ensure only the best individuals are hired, not just for one task. Also the freedom given to individuals to create and to lead initiatives, not just follow orders.

Das Buch von Eric Schmidt liest sich leicht und gibt einen aktuellen Einblick über aktuelle Trends aus Silicon Valley. Klatsch und spannende Geschichten zu weltbekannten Aps. Eric Schmidt hat mir die Augen geöffnet, was neue Denkansätze sein können. Dies geschieht ohne Zeigefinger, sondern durch seine Art Dinge und Situationen zu beschreiben. Das Buch ist vorallen für Manager insbesondere Personalleiter zu empfehlen, die eine ganz neue Sichtweise zu Span of Control, Home Office (bloss nicht), Projektteam (die Pizzaregel) und Büro Wohlfühlfaktor bekommen. Mein tip unbedingt kaufen und besten Freunden schenken.