How Google Works

by Eric Schmidt

We have long felt that the start-up model, with small, autonomous teams located in one office led by passionate founders, is the most effective way to achieve remarkable new things (or fail quickly in the effort). So we wondered, What if you could figure out a way to think big (solving big problems by taking advantage of big-company assets such as talent, resources, and technology) while simultaneously acting small (growing “start-ups” built through bottoms-up insights and with the autonomy to move fast)? This think-big-act-small concept was the inspiration for a new program called Area 120. We have always had “20 percent projects,” where Googlers are allowed and encouraged to work on projects of their own choosing. Area 120 gives a select group of Googlers the opportunity to spend 100 percent of their time on 20 percent projects (100 + 20 = 120!). Teams are given the money, space, and autonomy to pursue their ideas, and founders are given the chance, in the words of Don Harrison, who runs the lab alongside Bradley Horowitz, “to throw themselves against it as hard as they can.” We attempt to re-create the Darwinian world of start-ups by establishing aggressive milestones and timelines. For example, of the inaugural class of fourteen teams that started at Area 120 in September 2016 (selected from more than three hundred applicants), we expect half to fail within six months. Area 120 becomes a new arrow in our innovation quiver, giving Googlers another way to try new big thi...