This is an interesting experiment on subliminal messaging. Check out this video as it speaks for itself.
Google rule #1: Don’t be evil
Here is a collection of things that Google does in the office. Well, i need not tell you that Google is one of the most successful companies in the last decade. But how do they do it? From time to time i like to take a peak at the Google-culture and try to understand what makes them tick…
So her goes:
First, they have this rule or motto – “Don’t be evil”. This was revealed in a playboy interview of the Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Some excerpts:
PLAYBOY: Do you subscribe to any particular management theories, or do you make them up as you go?
PAGE: We try to use elements from different companies, but a lot is seat-of-your-pants stuff.
PLAYBOY: How will you avoid the mistakes of many other dot-coms? After their IPOs, employees became more focused on the stock price than on their jobs. Many of those companies are gone.
PAGE: Those companies are not good analogues for Google.
PLAYBOY: But like you, they were Internet-focused technology companies. What’s the difference?
PAGE: A lot of those companies were around for less than a year or two before they went public. We’ve been around for five. We’re at a pretty significant scale, too. We have more than 150,000 advertisers and a lot of salespeople. Millions of people use Google. It’s a completely different thing.
PLAYBOY: And you’re profitable.
PAGE: That’s a difference, yes. The dot-com period was difficult for us. We were dismayed in that climate.
PLAYBOY: What dismayed you?
PAGE: We knew a lot of things people were doing weren’t sustainable, and that made it hard for us to operate. We couldn’t get good people for reasonable prices. We couldn’t get office space. It was a hypercompetitive time. We had the opportunity to invest in 100 or more companies and didn’t invest in any of them. I guess we lost a lot of money in the short term—but not in the long term.
PLAYBOY: Companies tried to buy you, too. Did you ever consider selling Google?
PAGE: No. We think we’re an important company, and we’re dedicated to doing this over the long term. We like being independent.
PLAYBOY: Is your company motto really “Don’t be evil”?
BRIN: Yes, it’s real.
PLAYBOY: Is it a written code?
BRIN: Yes. We have other rules, too.
PAGE: We allow dogs, for example.
BRIN: As for “Don’t be evil,” we have tried to define precisely what it means to be a force for good—always do the right, ethical thing. Ultimately, “Don’t be evil” seems the easiest way to summarize it.
PAGE: Apparently people like it better than “Be good.”
BRIN: It’s not enough not to be evil. We also actively try to be good.
PLAYBOY: Who ultimately decides what is evil? Eric Schmidt, your CEO, once said, “Evil is whatever Sergey decides is evil.”
PAGE: That was not one of his best quotes, though it’s memorable.
PLAYBOY: How does it work?
BRIN: We deal with all varieties of information. Somebody’s always upset no matter what we do. We have to make a decision; otherwise there’s a never-ending debate. Some issues are crystal clear. When they’re less
From time to time, Google indulge in playfulness as seen here.
And what about these sets of questions when you are being job interviewed at Google?
So what do you think makes the Google Culture tick?
Malaysian management. Road to wealth?
Where are our heroes today? Or more importantly, WHO are our heroes today?
I am asking you – the ordinary Malaysian wannabe success story. Sorry? Did you say Steve Jobs? Was that Bill Gates? Ooopss I am getting geeky… but in reality I heard nothing of that sort. I heard some whispers of some people wanting to be some well connected politician.
And why not? Hey, if you want to be rich quick in this country… let’s go into politics. Let’s play some golf, rub shoulders with some well oiled and well connected people and voila! bob’s your uncle!
In fact I am seriously thinking of getting into politics. Why? I’ll tell you why… I’ve worked my butt off for years – those late working hours, those expresso nights, those hard work trying to convince people to innovate, to driver operational excellence and to deliver value for the paying customer…. and where am I today? Well, slightly better off from where I started no doubt. But no where near that slick dude (let’s call him Kamal Johari, to protect the innocent) who started the same time I did and is now a business owner, government contractor, a huge loan borrower… but more importantly driving a flash new Merc S-class.
At least he doesn’t have everything… what dork would want to be seen alive (or dead, for that matter) in a Merc? LOL.
Although money doesn’t buy you good taste… it does help people who have good tastes to buy the right things. And I want my BMW M5.
So that does it. My hero from today onwards is that politician / or politically well connected slick dude called Kamal Johari. I am fed up of slogging. I want to get rich quick. I am gonna sell my soul to the devil for this.
Forget about innovating – it’s not important for your employees to think of good ideas – they just have to be great (government) liaisons. Forget about doing some REAL business. Forget about spending years of perfecting a single process and achieving the nirvana of operational efficiency. Forget about everything else.
But always remember the grease: never leave home without it.
So I shall now grease my way to richness. But somehow the Malaysian football team’s second humiliation in the Asian Cup is giving me some hesitation. No, not because I am a great fan of the national team… I have long given up on them. Not because my hero is a footballer (as I said, my new hero is Kamal Johari).
For your information, Malaysia has conceded 5 goals in each of the two matches it has played since the 2007 Asian Cup started. For those who play basketball and don’t understand the fuss on double digit scores let me put this into perspective: Malaysia conceded a total of 10 goals in two matchs, but only scored 1 goal. For the mathematical genius amongst us, this is certainly a bit of a bad news.
But I digress. The reason I am giving second thoughts to my grand plan of selling my soul for quick richness is this:
We no longer have REAL heroes. I used to admire the football players of old (no, i won’t mention the 70s and inadvertently reveal my age). I grew up wanting to play football. Then I grew up wanting to be a racing driver. Then I grew up wanting to be like Steve Jobs.
That is the problem. We have as a nation lost what is the true path to greatness. We have started to take shortcuts. We ditch real ingenuity, hard-work and good leadership, in favour of a path filled with shady deals, favours and…. grease.
And grease is a slippery thing. It is so easy to misuse and then starts the slippery slope downwards. The predicament FAM is in today is just that… we’ve missed out on the basic fundamentals of what makes a great footballing environment.
And today we are in danger of missing out on what makes a great economic environment. We need a few heroes to step up. Let’s hope that these people inspire others to do more good.
BMW to buy Volvo from Ford?
My thoughts is more of a cautious one. BMW failed in its turnaround of the “english patient” Rover when BMW bought the Rover Car Group in the 90s. With the failure went two of its top leaders. Rover was an expensive lesson for BMW in a sense that sometimes some brands and corporate culture do not gel well with the BMW brand & culture.
Rover had a bad brand perception even in England. After all, Rover is a name for a dog. The culture at Rover was also at odds with the BMW culture of efficiency and performance. Rover was a product of an age when labour unions ruled business decisions.
Still, BMW has had some success with its non-BMW brands such as the MINI and Rolls Royce. Both these brands fit nicely within the overall BMW brand strategy. The RR brand slotted nicely in the upmarket (read: royal) segment beyond any luxury brand that BMW, Merc or Jaguar produces today. The MINI was positioned as a fun driving vehicle. An engineering skill that BMW knows very well. After all, BMW is renown as the Ultimate Driving Machine.
But what about Volvo? BMW is keen on driving further growth in its business. Expanding the BMW brand further with more an more variations could risk diluting its brand essense. Many industry observers believe that the BMW brand should remain focussed on its true identity of sporting luxury vehicles. The introduction of MPVs, SUVs and others could tarnish this identity, I believe.
But would the introduction of a brand below this help? BMW thought they could do that with Rover. Volvo in theory could serve as a mass and more family orientated brand… but could BMW pull it off?
The YouTube generation cannot be ignored
i have long advocated that local organisations explore the use of internet to drive the development of content in the country (that’s because i am a tech geek and an entertainment junkie *grin*).
malaysia is a country that has limited opportunities from a traditional media point of view. this is possibly due to regulations, but more so due to the fact that economically there is simply not enough room for many traditional media organisations / platform for a country of 26million people, and very few in the necessary income bracket. furthermore, advertising revenue from local organisations and brands are rather limited due to relatively low establishment of local brands (though, i’d probably stand corrected for this).
but i do believe that there is quite a supply of local content, although one might argue that the quality of local content is not worthy of being in the supply chain. nevertheless, the recent video promotions by bmw shorties and nokia’s you make it reel shows that there are some very good local talent in the country. the sad thing is that these people lack the platform to show their talent and creativity. in short, there is no money for these guys… hence, the oft repeated complaint of artists “suffering for their art”.
so it is a question of supply exceeding demand… resulting in low economic value to the content owners… and sadly the very low chance of one of these content gems to be discovered by the general malaysian public.
with the internet, there are new ways that content can be delivered to the public without having to go through traditional platforms. to me this is a completely democratic process as the really good ones will truly shine.
consider the success of the likes of YouTube, and the likes. An article on The Star describes it well.
to me the internet has created a more inclusive and democratic process towards the content supply chain. what was previously the domain of a very few well connected and perhaps very commercial productions, is today open to everybody in the community.
web 2.0 is driving a revolution in the way content is being produced, supplied, shared and marketed. more and more community produced content will be available. large local organisations need to see this opportunity and be involved in the process of bringing these content to the houses and offices.
we will have to be daring, and take some risks. sure some will not work out well, but we need to recognise whether the venture has promise or is a dead horse. make the decision quickly, exit and move on.
this is the age of the internet.