How Google works - Book summary

Title:  How Google works

Author: Eric Schmidt & Jonathan Rosenberg

Publication: John Murray – Hachette UK company

First the disclaimer…I admire the Google as a company and many of its products, so my review of this book could be little biased! - And this is not a book review, it is book summary! – I’ll be sharing some highlights which are interesting to know from the book.

A book which is authored by former CEO (Eric) and Product head (Jonathan) and which gives you a fine inside into how Google grew from start-up to behemoth having at center very strong value system which two geeks named Lawrence Page and Surgey Brin inculcated from day one and remained that way…is definitely must read! ( I told you I am biased!)

Coming to this book – it has eight sub-themes or chapters which talks about how Google works.

Chaos is the way:  First few pages describe the feeling Eric had when he joined Google & saw complete chaos…in terms of there was NO defined workplace or cabins (Eric being the CEO- still was sharing his space initially)….seemed everyone was working on everything….lot of creative buzz all around the place. Interestingly, Eric says in the book there is order in chaos and chaos is the thing which is needed to create superb creative products with strong technical insights. So Google was a chaotic place to work in a good way!

Unique culture: I admit, I was awestruck when I read about culture, talent–hiring and decision making at Google. Many of the so called great companies always talk about their unique culture, having open-two way communication, decentralized decision making & equal –opportunity org., opportunities to voice out dissenting opinions even against top Mgt. & promoters etc. Well, you and I, we all know in most of the cases, exactly opposite of the above is true and that’s how it is! BUT in this book, authors share many real experiences where employees can openly disagree with founders or top mgt. in their regular famous TGIF open meetings on Fridays. At Google, lot of top Mgt. (including founders) spend a good amount of time in hiring the right talent (brilliant, passionate & creative with strong technical background) and that is the reason it is the PEOPLE which make Google different. The authors say Google always believe in hiring SMART CREATIVES – and who are these? They are very smart, creative, flexible, quick learners, exhibiting strong expertise in his or her area of interest, never look at the time when involved in their work of passion, self-directed & motivated and so on….

Decision making: The book nicely sums up the decision making process at Google and that is – User first. The majority of critical decisions are discussed and debated and employees are encouraged to dissent with valid points and then consensus is built and decision is taken. Many incidences authors quote in the book where instead of focusing on revenue or customers (companies) who are placing their ads with Google products, they focus on users. Right from the founders everyone is always thinking about the user first (that is the culture they built from the start) – all those who are using variety of Google products.

Note about authors:

1. Eric Schmidt – was CEO of Google Inc. from 2001 to 2011. When he joined in 2001 as a CEO, Google was still a start-up- founded in 1998 only. Eric being himself a veteran in the technology industry and worked with many established companies at top level joined Google when it was start-up, talks lot about Google as a company & its’ two founders.

2. Jonathan Rosenberg- again veteran joined Google in 2002 overseeing design & developments of products at Google.