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  • Essay / The Google Way to Tackle Problems

    Traditionally, companies are designed to focus on “creating shareholder value” based on a “culture of accountability.” In such organizations, problem solving may end up focusing primarily on people rather than problems. In the book How Google Works, Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg describe how, in 2002, before Google's IPO, Larry Page walked into the office kitchen and published printed results from Google's AdWords engine. Plus, in big bold letters, he wrote: “THESE ADS SUCK. » Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Rather than being an arrogant executive publicly humiliating his hapless employees, this turned out to be a show of confidence, defining a difficult problem that he knew his talented engineers would want to solve. The next day, a group of engineers shared a solution that not only solved the AdWords problem, but also helped transform Google into the leading money-making machine it is today. Greg Satell writes in his Harvard Business Review column on organizational culture (Satell, G. 2014). ), that Google, fundamentally, has built a culture that addresses problems, not people. Greg goes on to describe the four principles below that stem from the principle that culture defines an organization and how it plays a critical role in its success: People want to do good work. Rather than threaten to fire anyone or demand "accountability," Page gave his engineers a difficult and interesting problem to solve, confident that someone would want to accept the challenge. With enough attention, every bug is superficial. Page didn't contact the AdWords team, but reported the problem in the kitchen, where the entire company could see it. People perform better at tasks that interest them. This incident took place in 2002, when Google was preparing for its IPO. The problem with AdWords was a serious obstacle to generating revenue. The problem in AdWords was a complex problem for most people, it was relatively simple for search engineers who quickly figured out that implementing an "ad relevance score" and ranking ads that way would be a perfect solution. Great leaders give meaning to their mission and purpose. . Talent is only effective when driven by passion and purpose.