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Google's Ten Golden Rules
selvan writes "Newsweek is running an article entitled Google's Ten Golden Rules. The article, by Eric Schmidt and Hal Varian, going into the philosophy behind the company." From the article: "Don't be evil. Much has been written about Google's slogan, but we really try to live by it, particularly in the ranks of management. As in every organization, people are passionate about their views. But nobody throws chairs at Google, unlike management practices used at some other well-known technology companies. We foster to create an atmosphere of tolerance and respect, not a company full of yes men."
Anyway... the only golden rule I aknowledge is "He who has the gold, makes the rules"
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
I believe somewhere around 1550 B.C., a gentleman by the name of Moses received 10 rules from the CEO of the universe. Unfortunately the were not followed to closely. Time has a way of washing away convictions and ideals. I applaud Google for their intent, but I would wager these lofty goals will settle to reality when the bottom dollar hits the road.
One ring to bind them - should probably have more fiber and less rings in their diet.
ye gods. Does this have to come up with each and every time? There *are* companies out there that make a nice profit while still maintaining a high quality of both products and customer service. Making a profit does not not necessarily imply screwing over your customers over. Treating your customers with respect and catering to their wishes to create good word-of-mouth advertising(the best there is) is a perfectly viable business strategy.
People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
What interested me was how they treat "knowledge workers".
Their principles can be summed up like this:
1. Pay them based on what they produce, not how many hours they're in the office.
2. Get out of their way whenever possible.
3. Keep them informed
4. Let teams make decisions, not some arrogant-but-stupid manager
I say that's the sort of thing that makes me want to work there.
One of our not-so-secret weapons is our ideas mailing list: a companywide suggestion box where people can post ideas ranging from parking procedures to the next killer app. The software allows for everyone to comment on and rate ideas, permitting the best ideas to percolate to the top.
So, Google uses a Slash like moderation system? Imagine being able to moderate a PHB (-1, Talking out of Your ASS), or a colleague (-1, Clueless Luser). And moderating the CEO (-100, Evil - Fuck Shareholder Value, This is Wrong!) to keep them to thier word.
That would be cool.
Soko
"Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous
If accusations are automatically true, then I accuse all Slashdot readers of being pathetic geeks with no life.
Hey, wait a minute...
My comments are my own, and do not represent the views of my employer, my spouse, my children, or my cats.
Yes, it is true that companies must, by law, work in their shareholders' interests. However, this does not mean that the stock price must be maximized from quarter to quarter. There is nothing illegal about taking the long view and realizing that long-term profitability is maximized when the public respects your brand.
The "shareholder's interest" argument really means that you can't use the company's money to put a new deck on your house. It is not sinister.
Toronto-area transit rider? Rate your ride.
Someday I would like to find the person who came up with this concept and shoot them in the head. I find nothing enhances my productivity more than having to listen to other people's meaningless personal phone conversations or conference calls that have nothing to do with what I'm working on, the assorted smells and sounds the human body makes that are not pleasant, the incesant pinging and chiming of IMs and email alerts, not to mention having my personal business available to anyone who wishes to stare over my shoulder.
Oh to have an office! And if I needed a co-worker's help and/or advice and they won't return emails/phone calls, I would simply get my butt out of my chair, go to their cubicle, grab them by the lapels (or goatee if there are no lapels) and tell them we need to have a little chat. There's nothing like the personal approach! And then I could return to my office, close the door, crank the Rush, and get back to doing what I'm supposed to be doing, which is coding.
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
What makes you so sure that 1-10 aren't why they have huge piles of cash?
I'm going to play Devil's Advocate for a second here.
I'll bet that most of us posting to this thread are doing so from single cubicles or (if we're lucky) offices. How many of us would do so from a shared cubicle?
If your cubemate is the kind of guy who'll accept you reading and posting to Slashdot, you're obviously getting along very well -- well enough to be very productive together.
If you're worried he'll rat you out to management for spending half the day on Slashdot -- or if he's the kind of guy who'll spend half his day downloading goat pr0n -- then sharing cubicles is a net win for you, him, and the company, because you've both got nothing else to do in each other's presence but work. (Or learn how to get along with each other and become as co-productive as the cubemates in the paragraph above this one.)
Some of the most productive days I've had have been days when teh Intarweb was down. There was nothing to do but work. And when the work was done, there was nothing to do but stuff I'd originally planned to do tomorrow. When tomorrow's work was done, there was nothing to do but think up new things to make my work life easier.
Combine the self-reinforcing mechanism of always having a peer looking over your shoulder, with Google's policy that 20% of everyone's time is supposed to be spent fiddling around on your own pet projects, and some very interesting things might happen.
Well, that's good, because you're the exact target audience of that article. I'm usually not that cynical but this is pretty blatant: is the message "Google is a doubleplusgood working environment" really _news_, or just a clever press hit and recruiting tool (as are the massages, chefs, yada yada. Ironic too that it's hosted on a Microsoft-owned news site, haha.)
:)
They need to do _something_ with those billions of dollars
-fren
"Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket?"
This is actually a fairly standard article format: they asked the head of a succesful company to write an article on what he thinks makes that company succesful. It's not meant to be an in-depth analysis, just a highlight of what they think is important/different about their company.
It gives some idea of how the management thinks of the company, and what they try to work on. Sure, it's a fluff piece, the equivilent of the society column for businesses, but it's a moderately useful fluff peice. And it can help some people, espcially if you want to understand how Google thinks about itself.
'Sensible' is a curse word.
Now, let's be fair; he may not have been incorrect when he said Enron set the bar for business ethics.