How Google Works

Google, a company founded in 1998 by Sergey Brin and Larry Page, is worth $50-billion, has over forty-five thousand employees, and operates in over forty countries. “How Google Works” is the account of how this company grew into such a large and valuable organization.Author Eric Schmidt, who has a PhD in computer science, joined Google as its CEO. His experience at Sun Microsystems, Bell Labs and Novell, (where he had been the CEO,) was widely believed to be a way of bringing “adult supervision” to a chaotic place. The founders, however, hired Schmidt as much for his technological achievements as a Unix expert and a co-creator of Java, as for his business acumen.Co-author Jonathan Rosenberg, came from Excite@Home and Apple where he was a product advocate and innovator.As I have pointed out in this column before, great companies do not become great because they have good ideas, but because of the quality management that is designed into the business.Brin and Page started Google with the belief that the Internet was “the technology platform of the future and that search was one of its most useful applications.” From the outset they believed that if they could offer superb products, the money would follow. They also genuinely believed that “their employees are everything”, and structured their company on that premise.The authors, too, understood that “the best way to achieve… excellence was not via a prescribed business plan, but rather by hiring the very best engineers we could and then getting out of the way.”With this approach, Google has been able to build excellent platforms and products that offer higher-quality services. Additionally, Google has made these services easily accessible and attractive to their customers. As a result, these services attracted advertisers who have provided the revenue stream for the company.With the ease of access to knowledge via the internet and the lower costs of producing products and services, competitive advantage has been compromised. Neither information nor distribution can be controlled - only consistently producing excellent products can ensure business success.To achieve this product excellence rapidly and consistently, the company could not be run using the stifling organizational structures of the past. “The only way to (achieve this product excellence rapidly and consistently), is to attract smart creatives and create an environment where they can succeed at scale.”The company is designed to attract “smart creatives” who are encouraged to manifest their best ideas. “Smart creatives” are those who possess deep technical knowledge and can see the route from technical expertise, to product excellence, to business success. These employees would be extremely difficult to manage because they cannot be told how to think. “If you can’t tell someone how to think, then you have to learn to manage the environment where they think.”The managerial challenge is to create a place where smart creatives want to come every day, and so build a great company. Put in different terms – it entails creating a culture that will attract, retain and stimulate smart creatives. Culture, the authors explain, comes from the founders, “but it is best reflected in the trusted team the founders form to launch their venture.”The following incident describes the value of culture succinctly. Larry Page was dissatisfied with the adverts that come up when a search is made. He placed a memo on a notice board on a Friday afternoon describing his dissatisfaction.The authors report that “Jeff and team weren’t even on the ads team. They had just been in the office that Friday afternoon, seen Larry’s note, and understood that when your mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful, then having ads (which are information) that suck (which isn’t useful) is a problem. So they decided to fix it. Over the weekend.”It wasn’t the culture that turned the five engineers into problem-solvers whose solution changed the course of the company. It wasn’t the culture that turned the five engineers into employees who achieved this over a weekend, uninstructed. Rather, it was the culture that had attracted people with that initiative, enthusiasm and commitment to Google. That is the power of culture.Hippopotamuses are among the deadliest animals, unexpectedly fast moving, and capable of killing any enemy in their path. In Google, “hippos” refer to a different, but no less dangerous phenomenon – the “Highest-Paid Person’s Opinion.” As a meritocracy, at Google it is the quality of the idea that matters, not who suggests it. “Hippos” who cannot argue for their ideas are more likely to intimidate their way to success.Sridhar Ramaswamy, one of Google’s ads leaders, tells of a clash of opinion he had with Sergey Brin. Brin initially suggested that as a compromise they try both ideas. After much debate about the relative merits of the competing ideas, Sergey’s idea was discarded despite being the HIPPO in the room by a wide margin.To establish a meritocracy, a culture is needed that obliges people to dissent, not merely allows them to dissent. Some people feel uncomfortable about raising dissenting views in a public forum, and that is why dissent must be an obligation, not an option.The book covers not only organizational culture, but how to create a “functional strategy”, hire the right people, arriving at accepted decisions, effect real communication, and, of course, innovation.The value of this book does not lie in its description of a mighty company, but rather in the many thought-provoking ideas that are behind Google’s success. Little of this book will have direct application to your business, unless you are a tech giant in Silicon Valley. It will, however, stimulate you into thinking about how your organization is managed, and how you can get even more output from your people, and they can get more input from your organization.Readability Light -+--- SeriousInsights High +---- LowPractical High -+--- Low*Ian Mann of Gateways consults internationally on leadership and strategy and is the author of Strategy that Works.

If you are software engineer, this book is a must read. I don't want to give anything away, but this book is truly eye opening and really hits home with the values that I would argue software engineers cherish most. I'm normally not a huge reader of these types of things but I was glued to this book. I even gave copies to my manager / friends as gifts and they were extremely impressed. The content really made me think hard about what I was looking for in my career and how I wanted my work to be valued and it ultimately led me to switching jobs and I could not be happier now!

I’m stunned by how often I have referred to this book. It confirmed some of my beliefs on business and challenged others. At the core of How Google Works is the philosophy of communication. From crowded offices to the CEO posting notes on the rec-room refrigerator (a move that resulted in a Billion dollar revenue stream). If you are familiar with the book “If We Only Knew What We Know” you’ll see that Google has embraced the idea that they don’t, but they can still tap into those “other” capabilities of their employees by embracing, not resisting, the chaos of human nature.

I read How Google Works on two flights before attending a ThinkHR executive off-site meeting. Good timing! Every manager at your company should read this book. HR included. It contains a wealth of wisdom. It also embodies a significant challenge to employers. It sets forth a "new age" of human resource and management practices. These practices are not for the timid, mediocre or control freak. They are for those that trust smart people and want to be part of creating something special.While there is a measure of old wine in new bottles, it is the implementation of these practices which is so exciting and challenges us to rethink the role of human resources. Having read the books criticisms I agree the Google approach will not work in every environment. It is young male centric (ping pong and beer anyone?). It’s also easy to say how wonderful you are when you’re at the top. GM was once wonderful and at the top too. Google is rich and can afford to do many things other companies can’t do or don’t want to do. I don’t expect to see McDonalds giving every service employee 20% of their time off to help reinvent the company.What follows are some the key points gleaned from the book.The purposeful use of languaging. Right out of the gate Google cofounder and CEO Larry Page describes the culture of Google. The following phrases are used in the forward and throughout the book "autonomy of thought", "moonshot thinking", "incrementalism leads to irrelevance over time", “focus on the user” Page recognizes the importance of defining a culture. To what degree can you help leadership in delivering the message?Keep a spreadsheet ranking the company’s top projects. Google did this for years with its top 100 projects. What are the top dozen projects in human resources and how are they ranked? Are they in alignment with the company’s list?Don't live by schedules. This is in alignment with the TQM ideas of Dr. Edwards Deming who said you manufacture towards perfection not towards a tolerance. Likewise when you put a deadline or date on something you manage the project towards it. Google realized it had to loosen the reins and allow its engineers the freedom to move fast. Not according to any deadline. And yes, we have to schedule meetings and the like. This is a conceptual point being made.Product excellence is now paramount to business success. Not the control of information, not a stranglehold on distribution, not overwhelming marketing power (although these are still important). This is largely because of better informed consumers. For the consumer this is a good thing. The same concept applies to managing the workplace. Employees are better informed than ever too. Top employees can insist on management excellence…or work someplace else.The primary objective of business is to increase the speed of product development and quality of its output. The only way to do that is to attract and hire what Google calls "smart creatives". Here's a list of smart creative characteristics: technical knowledge, hands-on experience, an expert in doing, analytically smart, business smart, competitive smart, user smart, new ideas smart, seriously creative, risky creative, self-directed creative, open creative, thorough creative, communicative creative. No smart creative has all these characteristics. These are the type of employees that can get a job anywhere. It is not about finding them but rather attracting them.Hiring is the most important thing a leader does. This does not differ from what Peter Drucker, Jim Collins and every other management expert has told us. Problem is half of the companies choose to execute on it better than the other half. To be effective, there has to be a culture of execution when it comes to great HR practices. Is it more important your mangers hire fast or hire right?Employees at Google have the freedom to solve any big problem that stands in the way of success. Google's culture turns their engineers into problem-solving ninjas.Diversity. Google's approach is simple: "it doesn't matter who you are, just what you do". There are critics of Google who claim this diversity doesn’t exist.The rule of seven. This is an interesting conversation. It's hard to manage 27 employees. Many experts, including me, have recommended a limit on direct reports. Google does just the opposite. They feel that if somebody has too many reports then they won't have the ability to micromanage them. We must test to find out what approach works best in our environment."Your title makes you a manager. Your people make you a leader" Debbie Biondolillo, Apples former head of HROverworked in a good way. Every company is rightfully concerned about the excessive stress placed on its workforce. Google believes that highly engaged employees stress only about their desire for accomplishment and little else. Not everybody agrees. Many a working parent has commented on the brutal reality of this overworked approach (put the kids to sleep and check in for the next three hours).A culture of "yes" – as opposed to a culture of "no". HR, who has been painted squarely in the corner of no, needs to communicate yesses better. Let leaders and workers know the yes agenda (you have one…right?). Create skunkworks, experiments, tests, etc. so you can fail quickly and find out what works. This can be a real challenge for HR executives as their personality profiles reveal a personality geared towards rules and conformity, not experimentation. They're very concerned about any judgment that may come with mistakes made. Not exactly an innovators profile. Time to get over it.Have fun, at your own expense. A good sense of humor can keep people humble. Google gives example after example of how they poke fun at themselves.Open, open, open. While Google has its critics about openness on the outside, it is determined to create an open culture internally. Google believes openness is the only way to deal with a rapidly changing, chaotic business environment. Yes it can get sloppy but falling behind the times due to stagnation at ever accelerated rates is not an option. "With openness, you trade control for scale and innovation.""You must wear something". Eric Schmidt's answer to the question of what the Google dress code was."Don't be evil" Another mantra at Google. While few would profess a desire otherwise, at many companies it is not a mantra attached to a commitment. Enron being the classic example. Highly productive managers, with good numbers, can get away with brutish tactics at many a company. The don't be evil mantra can avoid many lawsuits, agency investigations, media problems and employee turnover."Giving the customer what he wants is less important than giving him what he doesn't yet know he wants". Such as an amazing HR experience. Maybe HR must give CEOs what they didn’t know they wanted: a kick ass HR department. Curious-if you could create an X prize for human resources what problem would you try to solve?"If you focus on your competition, you'll never deliver anything truly innovative” This is true for your HR practices too. Yes it's fine to learn from other company experiences. It is even better to generate your own. To be a great observer of your own environment, condition and opportunities."It didn't matter if the person would be an entry – level software engineer or a senior executive; Google made it a priority to invest the time and energy to ensure they got the best possible people". One would think this level of commitment to excellence would be common but it is not. Google believes the higher you go in the organization, the more attached executives should be to the hiring process Google also believes that hiring should be peer – based, not hierarchical, with decisions made by committees."The objective is to create a hiring culture that resists the siren song of compromise.”- A song that only gets louder amidst the chaotic whirlwind of hyper growth.Hire "learning animals" or people with a growth mindset. When you do, offer training and growth opportunities. Problem is most people do not have a personal learning culture. Perhaps one out of ten do… at best. One reason there is no substitute for required learning, as most won't do it voluntarily.Interview questions:• Reflect on a past mistake you made. What did you learn from it?• What books are you reading right now?• Take them through problematic case scenarios• "Could you teach me something complicated I don't know". A favorite interview question by SergeyIdentify candidates who asked thoughtful questionsConduct 30 minute interviews and limit yourself to four. My feedback is why do they impose an artificial limit if their mantra is to not live by schedules? I say take the time you need to make a great hire.Create a hiring packet for executives including a one page summary with all the key facts and supporting material. There is no substitute for a well prepared hiring system.There is always an "up" opportunity available at Google. It amazes me when people must leave organizations to grow. What a waste of human capital investmentTest yourself: “if you could trade the bottom 10% of your team for new hires, would your organization improve?”Another test: “are there members of your team whom, if they told you they were leaving, you would not fight hard to keep? If there are employees you would let go, then perhaps you should.”The first step in the decision-making process is to understand the data. The next step is to engage in an open dialogue where opinions and objections are welcome. There's a bias for action and a decision must be made and that is the ultimate responsibility of the executive.Google believes in daily executive team meetings. Short meetings that are action oriented. My only feedback is to make sure that is what happens. Why the meeting, how long, what outcomes, get it done.Many chapters of the book focused on communication and decision-making. I saw nothing I would label as new. The principles for communication and wise decision-making have been with us for thousands of years and half of executive teams apply them better than the other half. Seems like Google does a good job of it.Have a playbook. Google challenges its business leaders to have a playbook with notes on how to communicate to employees, bosses, directors, customers, etc. For example, a playbook for one on one meetings, or to discuss performance, manage relationship with peer groups, innovation/best practices, etc. Again, a bit of old wine in new bottles. Playbooks, scripts and SOPs have been around for years.Innovation. The end of the book is spent on this subject, something near and dear to the DNA of Google. But it should also be near and dear to the DNA of every company and career. According to Google innovation "entails both the production and implementation of novel and useful ideas". It also requires much optimism. If you want to be innovative you have to "think big". This means you set goals that are almost and often unattainable.20% time. Allows its engineers and presumably others time to experiment, test, identify novel projects and find others interested in supporting them. How do you catch up for the company that gives its engineers that level of freedom? Odds are you don't.ConclusionI regularly speak to company CEOs. They continue to state their greatest business concerns center on the ability to hire talent, get them to produce, keep them engaged, and retain the star performers. While this book is a self-serving manifesto, How Google Works provides a formula how to do each of these critical business objectives in a great way. It is as insightful as any human resource book you'll ever read. A strategic HR executive would well embrace the Google approach.

The book is short. But, there is no need to be longer. The author's message is clear enough: in the Internet century, the incumbents that don't adapt fastly to the smart creatives' passionate disruptive world will get irrelevant before they even imagine the end is coming. Change is a must for the companies that want to be relevant. The best part of the story: the required change is a very good one. A world where all companies work like Google would be a lot better. I hope the business leaders get the message.

I found this book a struggle to read. It starts off badly with a boring introduction. It then goes on to describe the Google culture such as packing the software engineers closely together to help them communicate. I know from years of experience that most employees hate being packed together in an open plan office, as they get disturbed by all the colleagues talking. Managers, on the other hand love open plan offices - they are cheap and the they think that all the noise means the employees are being creative. The book has some insights. I liked the one about asking "what would I learn about you from looking at your internet browsing history?". That's a good one to ask interviewees. Lots of obvious stuff such as "hire smart people" - well, duh.... I would never have thought of that. I never really got the impression that Schmidt and Rosenberg really wrote this book. Maybe they just gave notes to a ghost writer and put their name on the cover to improve sales. There is a third author, a Google employee called Alan Eagle - maybe he did a lot of the writing. Anyway, you won't learn any secrets from reading this book. I was skimming the pages fast towards the end.

My first comment would be to obviously be aware that this is written by Google insiders. Like others, I'm very impressed by what Google has done as a business and as a technology firm. However, it's not as perfect as it seems in this book. And as the latest EU ruling shows, its 'Don't Be Evil' mantra masks some real conflicts and challenges. None of these are really covered on this book. While it contains a lot of useful and interesting guidance and insight into Google, it's also a bit of a sales pitch for how great Google is - without covering any of the conflicts or real issues the firm has.Oh, and the very weak American humour becomes quite grating after a while - for me at least!For me, 'In the Plex' by Stephen Levy and 'Work Rules' by Laszlo Bock are better reads with better insight. Although its a bit more dated now, I'd particularly recommend 'In the Plex'

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and have highlighted numerous ideas and thoughts that I will reflect on in the weeks to come. Insightful ideas, transparent stories and stories of challenges and competitors as well makes this a truly genuine book on how Google works ! Inspirational and motivating with some of the best advice I have read as a young professional!

I found this book both inspiring and irritating in roughly equal measure - hence the 3 star rating. Inspiring: because of the ideas and approach to cultivating talent in Google. Sound commonsense and clever thinking in equal measure. Irritating: because of the overtly (to my sensibilities) sycophatic style. Yes, we all know Google has been an amazingly successful company. Some of the reasons (and you can choose to emulate them if you wish) are identified inside - but honestly - the author referring to himself as "Captain Eric"? Pass the sick bag please.If you're curious about what it is (or was) like inside Google, worth a read.

Really enjoyed this insight into how Google, one of the world's most profitable and people-centric customers operates. Before reading the book I was sceptical if any of the learnings and experiences of such a unique company could be applied to others, but I found it a great source of ideas an inspiration in my own experience building products for a UK FTSE 250 company. While I'm sure that Google isn't as wonderful as the book makes out (as tales from my friends who work their attests), it is a good read nonetheless for anyone interested in Product Management / Product Development / general Corporate Strategy.