How Google Works

by Eric Schmidt

in technology, because change tends to be revolutionary not evolutionary. So you need to force yourself to place big bets on the future.

The only way to succeed in business in the twenty-first century is to continually create great products, and the only way to do that is to attract smart creatives and put them in an environment where they can succeed at scale.

you absolutely need process to grow a company profitably.

The primary objective of any business today must be to increase the speed of the product development process and the quality of its output.

“If I give you a penny, then you’re a penny richer and I’m a penny poorer, but if I give you an idea, then you will have a new idea but I’ll have it too.”

hiring, which is the most important thing a leader does. Hire enough great people,

one of Google’s stated values has always been to “Focus on the User.”

Offices should be designed to maximize energy and interactions, not for isolation and status.

When no one has a private office, no one complains about it.

Be very generous with the resources they need to do their work. Be stingy with the stuff that doesn’t matter, like fancy furniture and big offices, but invest in the stuff that does.

“it is the quality of the idea that matters, not who suggests it.”

If someone thinks there is something wrong with an idea, they must raise that concern.

People claim that they want a flat organization so they can be closer to the top,

We’ve worked at other companies with a rule of seven, but in all of those cases the rule meant that managers were allowed a maximum of seven direct reports. The Google version suggests that managers have a minimum of seven direct reports

Small teams get more done than big ones,

Decide who runs the company not based on function or experience, but by performance and passion.

Eric once chatted with Warren Buffett about what he looks for when acquiring companies. His answer was: a leader who doesn’t need him.

Once you identify the people who have the biggest impact, give them more to do.

If you want something done, give it to a busy person.

You must always be firm with the people who violate the basic interests of the company.

burnout isn’t caused by working too hard, but by resentment at having to give up what really matters to you.

While establishing a culture in a start-up is relatively easy, changing the culture of an ongoing enterprise is extraordinarily difficult,

Leadership requires passion. If you don’t have it, get out now.

a venture capitalist will always follow the maxim of investing in the team, not the plan. Since the plan is wrong, the people have to be right. Successful teams spot the flaws in their plan and adjust.

achieve success locally or regionally, then grow a step at a time by building sales,

They prioritized revenue over growth; we did just the opposite.

These companies assembled existing technology components in new ways to reimagine existing businesses. They set up platforms for customers and partners to interact,

This is the difference between twenty-first-and twentieth-century economies.

find ways to specialize;

we focused on search because it was something we felt we were better at than anyone else.

If you focus on your competition, you will never deliver anything truly innovative.

Be proud of your competitors. Just don’t follow them.

no amount of strategy can substitute for talent,

Googlers made it a priority to invest the time and energy to ensure they got the best possible people.

“Our people are our most important asset”

A workforce of great people not only does great work, it attracts more great people.

They came because they wanted to work with the best smart creatives.

When someone begins a sentence with the conspicuously obvious phrase “I’m passionate about…” and then proceeds to talk about something generic like travel, football, or family, that’s a red flag that maybe his only true passion is for conspicuously throwing the word “passion” around a lot during interviews.

Passionate people don’t wear their passion on their sleeves; they have it in their hearts. They live it.

If someone is truly passionate about something, they’ll do it for a long time even if they aren’t at first successful.

Our ideal candidates are the ones who prefer roller coasters, the ones who keep learning. These “learning animals” have the smarts to handle massive change and the character to love it.

ask candidates to reflect on a past mistake.

Few people answer this question well, but when they do, it’s a great indication that you’re talking to a learning animal.

Create opportunities for every employee to be constantly learning new things—even skills and experiences that aren’t directly beneficial to the company—and

Great people treat others well, regardless of standing or sobriety.

he or she is not necessarily someone you have to like.

focus on whether or not the person has the passion, intellect, and character to succeed and excel.

Supercomputer pioneer Seymour Cray used to deliberately hire for inexperience because it brought him people who “do not usually know what’s supposed to be impossible.”

If everyone knows someone great, why isn’t it everyone’s job to recruit that great person?

The most important skill any business person can develop is interviewing.