What Would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis
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Book Reviews of What Would Google Do?
Book Review: Read this book and learn
Summary: 5 Stars
Book Review: Ideas on Taking Web 2.0 to the fullest
Summary: 5 Stars
Book Review: Google, How Great Thou Art!
Summary: 5 Stars
Book Review: Finally, Insight into How Google Thinks
Summary: 5 Stars
Book Review: Brave New World: A must read for the business manager and entrepreneurs
Summary: 4 Stars
Jeff Jarvis, a journalist from New York, presents a very straightforward, easy-to-read description of the world we live in. He attempts to capture the business world influenced by the information age explosion, exemplified by the fast-growing company in the history of mankind: Google. His presentation of this "Brave New World" boils down to new facets of the human experience:
1. New Relationship [Give the people control and we will use it],
2. New Architecture [Enable people by thinking distributed],
3. New Publicness [Findability: Drink the Google Juice],
4. New Society [Facebook's Zuckerberg defines "elegant organization" of existing communities of practice],
5. New Economy [Economy of Abundance; the Mass Market is replaced by masses of Niche markets],
6. New Business Reality [What Business are you really in?],
7. New Attitude [Inverse relationship between control and trust - letting go and listening],
8. New Ethic [Life is beta - be transparent with disclosure; Don't be Evil],
9. New Speed [En vivo], and
10. New Imperatives [Change now, protect innovation (not property), simplify, get out of the consumer's way].
These ten [eight?] qualities he generously dons as: Google Rules. This phrase is of interest because both words can serve as both a noun and a verb.
The Google Rules are simple; the consumer is in control, and business should look for ways to enable the consumer to co-create. The author emphasizes this thesis with several examples and then provides a futuristic outlook on major industries if they began to apply these principles: Google Times (print media), Googlewood (entertainment media), Google Power & Light (An initiative of [...] applied), GT&T (cell phones), Googlemobile (auto), Google Cola, Google Real Estate, Google Capital (banking), Google Mutual (insurance), St. Google Hospital, Google University, and audaciously, the United States of Google.
This book clearly delivers the message of rethinking marketing strategy and encourages firms to let go of control to gain trust. The idea that consumers rule alters the paradigm of strategy: from the traditional Theory X strategy of control to a Theory Y strategy of co-creation. Enabling customers, not interrupting them, will be essential to find success in the new global and digital economy.
Although this book is indeed a "must read," it is not without its limitations. The first read of the book was enlightening and exciting, the second read (about 2 weeks later), was not so enchanting for mainly two reasons. One, the author tries to correlate all things Open Source (the gift economy) with Google, when in fact the Open Source community has been thriving long before Google existed. Google's success is in part because the ideals of the Open Source community align well with Google's strategy; that does not mean Google created the gift economy. Google is indeed enabling the gift economy -- an economy of abundance. Jarvis just paints the landscape a bit too broadly.
The second limitation of the book was the strategic rigor. Examples are useful, but how does a restaurant owner really apply the ideals of the "Google Eats?" As a student of marketing strategy, and as an internet marketing consultant, the initial read was encouraging--I felt like I wanted to buy 10 copies and send to all my clients to help them "get it." As the ideas settled, I felt wanting more. Why is the world changing this way? How do managers make transitions? How will Google Rules effect the real companies of the world (e.g., GM), not fictitious worlds of possibilities (Googlemobile -- What if Google ran an auto company).
Another example of the lack of rigor relates to the issue of transparency. Early in the book he gives an example of "Dell Hell" and talks about customer revenge and retaliation. Although anecdotal, there are some key drivers/issues related to consumer backlash (Google Scholar Search on Customer Revenge [Gregoire]), yet those drivers are not discussed. For example, in an article title "When Good Brands Do Bad" the personality of the brand is very important in determining how consumers react to service failures -- Jarvis is saying to be the Fun personality type (new age) and not the traditional Sincere personality type.
As an enjoyable read I give the book 9/10. As a platform to encourage openness (e.g., Open Innovation) I give the book 9/10. In terms of getting to the nitty-gritty solutions of the real world, I find the book lacking -- I give the book 6/10. That results in an overall 4/5 stars.
[This is NOT a book about Google but about strategy Google uses that could be applied by others.]