Book Review: How Google Works by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg

About:
How Google Works by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg is a non-fiction book about the business practices of this famous company. Mr. Schmidt was the Executive Chairman of Google from 2001 to 2017 and Alphabet Inc. from 2015 to 2017, Mr. Rosenberg is the former Senior Vice President of Products at Google and current advisor to Alphabet Inc. CEO Larry Page.

• 304 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1455582344

My rating for How Google Works – 4
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Thoughts:
At this point in time Google is so successful the name has become a verb, something few companies achieved. In How Google Works by Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg the two authors write about shooting for the stars, not necessarily the over the next obstacle, or in practical terms, the next quarter’s earnings.

The one thing I always admired about Google is how the company invests in smart people who do smart things based on real world physics and future thinking. The smart folks at Google know what’s possible, come up with a bad/good/great idea and have the resources to simply go at it. Some of these ideas stick, and some don’t.

The authors use the term “smart creatives”, for those people who work for them. The issue they quickly discovered is that “smart creatives” required a different management system than many other companies. The book gives us examples of Google’s hiring process, culture, strategy and decision making.
All in the name of encouraging innovation.

I enjoyed reading this book, but there is lot – a lot – of hyperbole in it. I found some of the insights valuable, but it seemed that the authors were looking to fill up some space here and there.

Overall I thought this was a really interesting read. I can certainly see how some companies can take some lessons and apply them to their own, but each company’s culture is different and people due their best jobs in different styles and time. I do understand though that techies need to socialize and talk with like-minded people, and that’s much of what the authors talk about.

Buy How Google Works from Amazon.com*
More Books by Eric Schmidt*
More Books by Jonathan Rosenberg*

 Zohar — Man of la Book
Dis­claimer: I borrowed this book from the local library.
*Ama­zon links point to an affil­i­ate account