How Google works - Eric Schmidt

• When it comes to communication default to open.
• Maximize the velocity and volume of information flow.
• Innovation needs to be allowed.
• Produce prototypes.
• Ideas come from anywhere.
• Opportunity is everywhere.
• Smart Creatives are everywhere.
• Ambitious people who want to build a team of the latter to pursue the former are everywhere.
• All you need is BIG idea.
• Ask yourself, what could be true in five years.
• Try to imagine the unimaginable because unimaginable are happening a lot.
• Attract the best people.
• Everyone should invest in hiring.
• Consensus is not about everyone agreeing, it is about everyone being heard and then rallying around the best answer.
• A good foundation has three main pillars:
• create superior products based on unique technical insights
• optimize for growth not revenue
• know the competition but don't follow it
• You can have a plan but know that it will change probably a lot.
• The plan is fluid and the foundation is stable.
• Business plan will hamper Smart Creatives freedom.
• Organize the company around the people whose impact is the greatest.
• It is best to work in small teams keep them crowded and foster serendipitous connections.
• Think about and document the things you care as a group the way you work and make decisions.
• Smart Creatives need to care about the place they work.
• Consistently succeed: attract Smart Creative employees and create an environment where they can thrive at scale.
• Most companies are slow by design
• Most companies are run to minimize risk not maximize freedom and speed:
• information is hoarded not shared
• their design is a vestige of an era when failure was expensive and deliberation was a virtue
• decision making power lies in the hands of fews
• Smart Creatives combines technical knowledge, business expertise and creativity.
• When you put today's technology tools in their hands and give them lots of freedom they can do amazing things amazingly fast.
• Technology is transforming virtually every business sector:
• all the world's information and media is on line
• mobile devices mean anyone, anywhere, anytime
• cloud computing puts a supercomputer in your pocket