The Google Way: How One Company is Revolutionizing Management As We Know It
Introduction
You heard of Google, right? I'm joking of course. During the past ten
years, Google has evolved from a small startup to one of the pillars of
the modern day Internet. We are quite familiar with their products and
services, as well as their revolution in online advertising arena. How
did they manage to become one of the household names all around the
Globe? Bernard Girard's book is here to shed some light.
About the author
Bernard Girard is the author of several books on management and has
consulted for some of the world's best-known firms. He lectures globally
on Google's management strategies and ways they can be applied to
businesses of all kinds.
Inside the book
An unorthodox corporate saga is a great title for starting the book.
Here we get a glimpse of what the founders had in mind and what were the
initial ideas that started the Google machine. The book starts with a
brief overview of early antics of two brilliant young men Sergey Brin
and Larry Page, where we are once again reminded on the beginning of the
Google saga. The author explains the early concept and correlates them
with the economic model that later came into play.
In the second part of the book we are provided with a fantastic view
inside Google, where Mr. Girard ingeniously walks us through the "Google
way". He successfully dissects their organization and cross references
their way with "by the book" means of managing corporations. You will
enjoy reading how Google stepped up and used parts of already existing
concepts into creating its own advanced company structure.
You can read about the 20% rule, transforming coworkers into judges for
projects, working with small teams and other extraordinary ways Google
manages its employees. The author shares some good insights on managing
and coordinating sales and marketing staff, as well as discusses the
concept of Google's advertising business that uses automated bidding
procedures and therefor eliminates costs and a number of other related
problems and technicalities.
With all the services Google offers, many users are interested to see
what comes ahead for Google, is their growth sustainable and how can the
current financial crisis impact the online giant. The author was
finishing the book amid the recession fears and therefor the book's
ending chapters deal with the current situation.
Final thoughts
I remember the day when Google launched its search engine, as it was
practically about the same time when Help Net Security was started in
late 1998. Since then I tried practically all of Google's services and I
try to keep up with their innovations. Bernard Girard's "The Google
Way" was a terrific read, it was quite fascinating to get into the core
of how Google does business.
