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Practicing what we preach in How Google Works gets very difficult when a company gets big. In his 2013
The result of all this turmoil is that product excellence is now paramount to business success—not control of information, not a stranglehold on distribution, not overwhelming marketing power (although these are still important).
The basis for success then, and for continual product excellence, is speed.
The primary objective of any business today must be to increase the speed of the product development process and the quality of its output.
Not every smart creative has all of these characteristics, in fact very few of them do. But they all must possess business savvy, technical knowledge, creative energy, and a hands-on approach
They know that business plans aren’t nearly as important as the pillars upon which they are built.
Smart creatives, though, place culture at the top of the list. To be effective, they need to care about the place they work. This is why, when starting a new company or initiative, culture is the most important thing to consider.
Culture stems from founders, but it is best reflected in the trusted team the founders form to launch their venture. So ask that team: What do we care about? What do we believe? Who do we want to be? How do we want our company to act and make decisions?
Offices should be designed to maximize energy and interactions, not for isolation and status. Smart creatives thrive on interacting with each other. The mixture you get when you
For a meritocracy to work, it needs to engender a culture where there is an “obligation to dissent”.41
Once you identify the people who have the biggest impact, give them more to do. When you pile more responsibility on your best people, trust that they will keep taking it on or tell you when enough is enough. As the old saying goes: If you want something done, give it to a busy
MBA-style business plans, no matter how well conceived and thought out, are always flawed in some important way.
Bet on technical insights that help solve a big problem in a novel way, optimize for scale, not for revenue, and let great products grow the market for everyone.
Lots of companies build networks to lower their costs, but fewer do so to transform their products or business model. This
The first thing you should do when a valuable employee tells you he is leaving is try to change his mind. The second is congratulate him on the new job and welcome him to your company’s alumni network.”
(Champion racecar driver Mario Andretti: “If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough.”)155
It addresses a huge problem with a radical solution enabled by technologies that either already exist or are within reach.
Thus a virtuous cycle of computer-aided intelligence emerges: Computers push humans to get even better, and humans then program even smarter computers. This is clearly happening in chess; why not in other pursuits?
