how-google-works

It has always been a mystery to me how Google makes money hand over fist.  This book provides insights from two of the senior executives who have had a seat at the table for more than a decade.

So, how does Google mint money?  The short answer is AdWords, Google's advertising platform.  The in-depth answer is explained in chapters organized around the following core competencies that all organizations possess, but that Google seems to execute particularly well:

Culture, Strategy, Talent, Decisions, Communications, and Innovation

Execute in these six areas and you'll increase the odds that your organization is financially successful.  A few examples that stood out include the following:

<strong>Culture</strong>: Don't listen to the HiPPOs (Highest Paid Person's Opinion).  Organizations that are "tenurocracies" (power derived from tenure, not merit) are less likely to have strong cultures that enable long-term success.

<strong>Culture</strong>: Determine which people are having the biggest impact and organize around them.

<strong>Strategy</strong>: Find a (web) page that a lot of other pages point to, and you have probably found a page with higher-quality content.  This is the core technical insight that Google was founded on.  Bet on technical insights that help solve a problem in a novel way and let great products grow the market for everyone.

<strong>Strategy</strong>: We are entering a new period of "combinatorial innovation" which occurs when there is a great availability of different component parts that can be combined or recombined to create new inventions.

<strong>Strategy</strong>: Think platforms, not products.  Example, YouTube is a platform which is a set of products and services that bring together groups of users and providers to form multi-sided markets.

<strong>Talent</strong>: Hiring should be based on bringing the best possible people into the company, even if their experience might not match one of the open roles.

<strong>Talent</strong>: One reason we value athletes is because sports teach how to rebound from loss.

<strong>Talent</strong>: Develop a growth mindset and set "learning goals."

<strong>Talent</strong>: Interviews shouldn't be overly stressful.  The best interviews feel like intellectual discussions between friends.

<strong>Decisions</strong>: Spend 80 percent of your time on 80 percent of your revenue. (Credit: Bill Gates)

<strong>Communications</strong>: Your default mode should be to share everything.

<strong>Communications</strong>: In most aspects of life you need to say something about twenty times before it truly starts to sink in.

<strong>Communications</strong>: OHIO (Only Hold It Once) is a strategy for managing e-mail communications.

<strong>Innovation</strong>: Focus on the user and the money will follow.

<strong>Innovation</strong>: Ship and Innovate—create a product, ship it, see how it does, design and implement improvements, and push it back out.

So, there you have it, the secret to starting and managing a fabulously successful business.

Access Gene Babon's reviews of books on <strong>Business Leadership</strong> and <strong>Business Strategy</strong> at <strong><a href="https://www.pinterest.com/webapprentices/" target="_blank">Pinterest</a>.</strong>