Book review: How Google Works

What makes Google the company that it is? How can a company come to play so important a role in our lives in so little a time? “How Google Works” is a remarkable revelation of the secret sauce that the company is made of. Written by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg – two Google veterans – the book gives an inside view of how Google has created an operating model that is so successful. Schmidt was the Google CEO during its crucial formative years from 2001 to 2011 and is presently its Executive Chairman (of Alphabet). Jonathan was the Head of Products and oversaw Google’s blockbuster products Google Search, Google Ads, Gmail, Android, Chrome etc. during the period.

Google has created an operating model that is impossible to replicate

Written in simple language and lucid style, the book narrates how Google has turned conventional wisdom of corporate management upside down while delivering remarkable results. Issues such as corporate culture, strategy & planning, hiring practices, decision making and communications are explained in detail. Through stories and anecdotes, the book brings alive the company in front of the reader. What can you say about a company which believes ‘processes are bad’, you should ‘fail quickly if you want to’, ‘a top priority should be offices should be crowded’ or ‘messiness is usually a good sign’? The authors’ views on key corporate issues such as team sizes, compensation systems, meeting rules, rules for e-mails etc. will provide useful insights to modern day managers.

The roots for Google’s success are sowed right from when an employee is recruited. There is tremendous emphasis on recruiting the right person. As the authors say, interviewing is one of the most important skills that managers need to have. The urgency of the role isn’t sufficiently important to compromise for quality on hiring. Google wants candidates who have “comfort with ambiguity, bias to action and collaborative nature”. The section on interviewing is the one I liked the most.

It was also interesting to see Google’s emphasis on product excellence, user focus and on issues such as integrity. “Selling a thing to a customer she doesn’t need or doesn’t benefit from” is an integrity issue at Google and is ‘…against the basic interest of the company’. I am sure this will make many a sales and marketing managers squirm!

A key challenge for Google over the years has been to retain that start-up culture while it achieves scale. How does Google manage that? As the authors say at the beginning, “…the only way to succeed in business in the 21^st century is to 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. …In a large company it becomes more and more difficult to create that environment…forces in a large company can actively conspire against those…who are trying to do something different”. It is these forces that Google has successfully conquered. 

For managers, HR professionals and all corporate watchers in general, this book is a ‘must read’.