The Secret to Their Success…
If Brantley Foster, Michael J. Fox’s character in the 1987 film “The Secret of My Success”, could have only read Ken Auletta’s Googled before crashing the Big Apple, he might have spent less time doing his best Benjamin Braddock and more time in the board room.
Auletta illustrates the development of Google’s multimedia empire, and the brains behind it. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, commonly referred to as LarryandSergey, are the masterminds behind Google. Two buddies at Stanford with a vision so obscure that it needed the help of more than several geniuses to bring it to fruition. So what was the secret of their success? Well, being a genius isn’t a bad start, but not all geniuses rise to the top. Let’s take a look.
Larry Page, left, and Sergey Brin gave Google its GO!
User First.
LarryandSergey had a vision that would deliver an infinite amount of information to users. There wasn’t a business model that drove them, it was practicality. It didn’t make sense to them that there is limited access to information. An entire database just made more sense for them to produce. The fact that there was no money-making scheme in the forefront of their operation is what allowed them to succeed. There was nothing getting in the way of their creative vision and their project flourished because of it. What’s that famous tag-line, the customer is always right? Well, even though they didn’t have any customers yet, it’s as if LarryandSergey already knew this during development. They felt they owed everything to the user. Answer all questions before they are asked.
Confidence, Swagger, Attitude.
LarryandSergey, especially Sergey, knew they had the goods. In fact they were so confident their product would succeed that they wouldn’t share it with anyone. They knew exactly what they wanted, what they had, and how it might change information sharing. You might even say they were a little paranoid of competition. But it didn’t matter. They would act almost as if the rules wouldn’t apply to them. Was this a good thing? Well, whatever they did seemed to work. But I do know this is important, when you walk into a meeting you want to be the person dominating the conversation. You want to be the guy who feels like he’s got $1 million in his pocket and he’s got nothing to lose. That’s how it is with Google. They have everything and they sure as heck know it.
Environment.
In the earlier hiring process at Google, Page and Brin were extremely careful with who they added to their team. They wanted people like them. People with an engineer’s understanding, but also bringing different attributes to the table. They were patient and particular in the hiring process, and didn’t settle for just anyone. They treated the selection of their staff like a jigsaw puzzle. Every piece had to fit just right or the whole thing wouldn’t work. This was, and probably still is, their biggest asset. They picked personnel very carefully. It only got them to be the most successful corporation in the last 100 years.
So to all of you Brantley Fosters out there remember this, “You want to have a culture where the people who are doing the work, the scientists and the engineers, are empowered. And that they are managed by people who deeply understand what they are doing. That’s not typically the case.” -Larry Page (Auletta, 227)
