The Google Way: How One Company is Revolutionizing Management As We Know It

Author: Bernard Girard
Pages: 256
Publisher: No Starch Press
ISBN: 1593271840

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.