The Google Story by David Vise
Quick Tip: Why Read It ?
We all know Google is today a phenomenal success story, we know this because of its stock valuation and because for most of us it is the first thing we see when we use the Internet.
However, before reading this book I was still puzzled by what made the company tick and I could not help feeling that there had been earlier net companies that had come and gone like e.g. Netscape, AltaVista, or Yahoo who had all soared very high and then each inevitably fell like some modern day Icarus.
Would Google do the same? Well this book answered the question for me in showing how Google is different.
What is Google?
This book tells the story of; Google the company, its quirky founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and how it became the powerhouse company it is today. More interestingly however, it reveals that Google has rewritten the rules not only of search, but also of advertising, and of internet computing, and in turn has found a massive cash generating business model like no other before. Key to understanding Google is understanding its business model.
Google’s Business model
The book describes how Google’s has intertwined its unique culture and drive for new innovations in creating a winning business model. From reading the book I drew up the following illustration to show how the various elements of Google’s business model interact in virtuous circles, to make it such a formidable performer. The way to read the slide is first start at the bottom and then work around one of the cycles and then see how the cycles interact with each other.
Google’s Founders
The book also traces the history of the founders of the company and I asked myself how did they do it? and why are they special? The book emphasises that Larry and Sergey are both bright, and unorthodox in equal measure and have developed a close symbiotic partnership, so much so that Google has twin heads. Education clearly played a huge part in both their lives, they were both smart, both sons of professors, they both excelled in mathematics and computing. Larry particularly developed a love of computing from a very early age. Their meeting at Stanford University provided not only the educational hot house environment to bring their creativity to the fore but also its brought them links with the Venture Capitalists community of Silicon Valley. The Stanford environment helped them not only set about building the best search engine, but also gave them important connections to investors which led them to get sufficient funding within 2 years to set up the company on 7th September 1998.
The book shows how from these early beginnings the company grew and how its unique culture developed. The book touches on aspects of the company culture such as the importance of the trips to the “Burning Man” festival in the Nevada desert, the Googleplex offices, lava-lamps, the restaurants haute cuisine, toys, scooters, bean bags, the unique employee benefits, the 20% innovation time, the emphasis on recruiting the best people from a very diverse range of specialisms and how this all goes to create an informal, energetic, innovative, highly motivated and fun environment. The description of the company, free from hierarchy, composed of small teams of people working on key new projects provides a model worth studying for other innovative companies that want to succeed in the C21st.
The “Wow Factor” in Google comes from its focus on rapid innovation. From the page rank system that creates order from chaos in delivering search results ranked on popularity and hence relevance. The use of the search engine is a model of simplicity, speed and relevance, and is in sharp contrast to the surplus complexity of typical desktop software.
The simplicity of its software has seen it spawn popular developments in email (Gmail), desk top software and drawing packages each one bring something new to the market. New search business lines have grown rapidly including Google Earth, Google News, Images, Video, Maps, and Desktop Search. The list expands rapidly each new innovation fuelled by advertising revenue, each bringin in more users to the Google Economy.
Google is working on digitising book collections in major libraries and providing the content on-line and searchable which will in itself revolutionise knowledge sharing and boost innovation and learning. Google has also pioneered the use of low cost Pc’s strung together in grids, providing enormous scale and power at lower costs than before and creating a new computing paradigm to boot.
The speed and focus on continuous innovation, funded by a huge cash generating business, with a highly recognisable and respected brand will make Google depending on your viewpoint; an important company to the development of the internet, a formidable adversary, a valuable business partner or a valued service provider for years to come.
Detractors from the book could surmise that it is nothing short of an advertisement for Google and it that it is biased, or indeed that in its short 9 year history that it is still too early to access Google’s true impact. However, this may miss the point, the book does cover the set backs and dinks to its reputation along the way, but still you come out admiring what Google has achieved in that time, and the potential that it has in the future.
What are the Key Learning Points?
I feel that there is a lot to learn here and that the book is inspiring in showing the fantastic growth of a new company with something to say in defining C21st business culture. Also valuably it demystifies the money making machine inside Google search engine, and hints at the new exciting business projects that are to come. It shows how users are now interacting and using the internet through Google.
Without reading this book you will miss an important lesson in understanding how to do business with the new internet, and that would also mean you could miss out on anticipating future business threats and opportunities in your own company’s development.
I recommend you read it.
RATING: Good learning points - improve your game, worth studying.
Great Quotes from the book
Googling our Genes…”Google may help accelerate the era of personalised medicine in which understanding an individuals precise genetic makeup….(allows) tailored health care treatments.”
“The old model of a scientist working in a lab, is being replaced by the paradigm of a researcher working at a computer connected to databases through the internet and doing simulations in cyberspace.”
In December 2004, Google announced the project to digitize 7 million library books held at Michigan University, over a million volumes at Oxford Bodleian Library, 40,00 books form Harvard and 12,000 from New York public library and yet more from Stanford. If they then went on to agree to digitising full library collection then Google would have more than 50
million complete books in its database.
Other Recommended Books to Read
Funky Business - Jonas Ridderstrale and Kjell Nordstrom
Related Training
Look out for our forthcoming e-course in “Understanding Business in the 21st Century C21st”.
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