What would Google do? by Jeff Jarvis
What would Google do in your shoes? That is the foundational question answered by What Would Google Do?, the acclaimed book by American blogger and media authority Jeff Jarvis.
Author: Thierry P. Gaillard - What would Google do? by Jeff Jarvis
Éditions Télémaque - 2009 - 380 pages - €22.00
If you wish to view your business and operations through a transformative lens, the book by Jeff Jarvis is an exceptional starting point. Written by an authentic admirer of Google, the author explains how Google would think about your business if it were in your shoes.
If Google were in your shoes, your company would look vastly different:
- It would grant a paramount role to its customers, relying on their candid feedback—even the harshest criticism—to continuously refine its offering.
- It would not seek to extract maximum immediate profits from users, but would instead focus on expanding its user network so that it steadily gains in scale and compounding value.
- It would keep its marginal costs as low as possible to outpace all competition, without obsessing over premature monetization models.
- It would focus strictly on what it does best and link to external partners to offer complementary resources and specialized know-how to its customers.
- It would become an open platform providing tools that simplify the daily lives of its users. Those users would become your most passionate brand ambassadors because you deliver an elegant ecosystem they take pride in.
- Your marketing budgets would be substantially reduced thanks to organic word-of-mouth.
- Your business would depend above all on your capacity to trust people so that, in return, they place their trust in you. To accomplish this, you would empower them by minimizing coercive influence. You would stumble occasionally, simply because mistakes strengthen adaptability and perfectionism is ruinously expensive.
- Your company would become an active facilitator between partners and customers, rather than a mere self-serving intermediary...
Even though this work was written in 2008, it provides invaluable insights for any entrepreneur striving to launch and scale a modern business. It is one of those books you must read to avoid building a relic of the past.
As we still witness all too frequently, unfortunately...
