management blog

Ok, so we don’t actually have any sort of world exclusive with anyone from Google (although today’s news that Google is releasing an operating system is, in management terms, a huge story and it would be a great time to have an interview with the company) but I borrowed the headline from the cover of the August edition of Wired UK magazine. I added the exclamation mark at the end to show just how much better our “world exclusive” is.

It’s an odd claim given that Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt has been interviewed a few times on FT.com, and that there doesn’t seem to be anything especially new in this piece. But any interview with the people (Wired also spoke to Sergey Brin) who are at the forefront of a technology revolution at one of the world’s most interesting companies is worth reading.

The one overriding impression is that Google doesn’t fear competition. While conventional thinking would suggest that the company is worried about the growing popularity of sites such as Twitter and Facebook and their potential to take away market share, Google claims it doesn’t. Instead, they argue that if more sites exist that keep more people online more of the time, that can only benefit Google. As Brin puts it: “Actually, a recent study I saw showed that people whose used Facebook tended to do 15 per cent more searches on Google than people who did not.”

All of this taps into a rich vein of thinking about how the way we do business is changing, fuelled by the technology and, especially, the connectivity and linking enabled by the internet. Our recent interactive review of Chris Anderson’s Free also looked at how the way we think and do business is changing (although, not everyone agreed on that front in the Free debate).

Here are a few other highlights I took away from the piece.

1. Google sees the world of business in different terms than many other businesses – and if you don’t realise that, Schmidt will be sure to remind you

As Eric Schmidt sees it, Wired is asking him entirely the wrong sort of question.

Too controlled to raise his voice, too nimble to offer the record an ill-judged retort, he nonetheless appears irritated to be asked today about Google’s regulatory challenges, its competition from Facebook and Twitter, even the troubling matter of drawing revenue to YouTube.

“You can ask me any questions you wish, but every question you’re asking is a negative question,” he says a tad impatiently, while picking at organic fruit ’n’ nut mix in a conference room at Google’s London offices. “You’re putting the questions into a negative context rather than looking at it from the standpoint of innovation and growth – which is how we think. Your questions imply an industrial model and a limited model, but that’s not in fact how the world works. And Google is about taking advantage of this enormous opportunity.”

2. The most exciting entrepreneurship is not just about coming up with an idea but actually changing a paradigm – and Google are always keeping an eye out for these people and their ideas

Take Twitter, which Larry Page admits has left Google trailing in real-time search. Does Brin see it as a potential Google acquisition? “We do talk to everybody,” he says, giving the corporate line, before reflecting aloud on how it was Evan Williams – co-founder of Twitter and of Blogger (which Google bought) – who made it a “win”. “The interesting thing to me about Twitter is that it shows that an entrepreneur can make a difference,” Brin says. “It’s not like Twitter is the only thing like Twitter, or Blogger was the only thing like Blogger, yet Evan made both quite successful. I’m sure there are lots of little decisions about how he crafted both. It speaks to real entrepreneurship in a leader. I wish nothing but the best for Evan, certainly I wish he’d stayed longer with us.” So will he be back? “I’d welcome him back. He’s a good guy.”

3. The way to get out of a recession is to innovate – and if you understand that, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel

Besides, even amid crisis, the innovators among us can be relied upon to devise a solution. “The thing that’s lost in all this ‘economic depression’ conversation is that there is a path out – and that path is to invent new things. And innovation in many things, not just technology, is how you solve most of the world’s problems. So we take our job as to be innovators, and we are failing if we are not innovating quickly enough. We’ve got a lot of innovation coming. A lot of new applications and uses for the mobile area, a lot of interesting things in search, a set of new initiatives in advertising; and we’ve got some ‘oh wow’ stuff coming. I’m very excited.”

In the print version, there is also an interesting graphic that endeavours to explain the algorithm behind Google’s advertising model. I’m not convinced that it is the definitive guide to the system that general business readers want but it is an impressive effort.