Googling the Economy

A new book suggests that learning from the fastest growing company in history could prove key to surviving in today’s rapidly changing business environment. The question on every manager’s lips should be: what would Google do?

“If you open up to your customers, trust them and respect them, great things can happen. For instance, Starbuck's started My Starbucks Idea where they ask customers to provide them with suggestions on how to improve the customer experience, which they then research and act upon”
-Jeff Jarvis

Give the people control and we will use it; don’t, and you will lose us. That, according to author, blogger and social commentator Jeff Jarvis, is the essential rule of the new age. Businesses everywhere should take note. In his new book What Would Google Do?, Jarvis reveals the new challenges companies face in an economy that is experiencing fundamental changes, and how taking a leaf out of Google’s playbook could help. “The question I ask in the title is about thinking in new ways, facing new challenges, solving problems with new solutions, seeing new opportunities and understanding a different way to look at the structure of the economy and society,” he says. “I try to see the world as Google sees it, analyzing and deconstructing its success from a distance so we can apply what we learn to our own companies, institutions and careers.”

In this exclusive interview, Jarvis explains just what makes the fastest growing company in the history of the world tick – and how that applies to your business.

BM. In your new book, What Would Google Do?, you argue that much of corporate America would be in better shape if it followed the ethos of the world’s largest search engine. Where did this idea come from in the first place?
Jeff Jarvis. The moment of the title came when I was at a publishers’ conference in London about two and a half years ago, and I was trying with some frustration to tell the assembled media guys that they should stop seeing Google as a competitor and start thinking about what Google does that makes it so successful. And at the time, that was just trying to get them to think more about their own industry. But as I thought about it more and more, I saw other elements of what Google was doing that were helping to make it the fastest growing company in the history of the world, and realized that it was potentially a model for understanding the changes in our world today.

That’s really the point of the book: that the world has changed – fundamentally and radically and permanently – and it’s very hard to understand. It’s counterintuitive. But perhaps the way to address some of those radical changes is to look at the world as Google would. And so the book is really not about Google; it’s more about the changes we currently face in the world.

BM. So you use Google as a signifier for a larger change in business fundamentals?
JJ. Yeah, it’s about taking a different worldview and trying to understand how the internet, how technology and how globalization have changed the structure of our economies and society. I could have used Amazon, eBay, Craigslist or a number of other companies that have understood the world in a new way, but it’s hard to get anybody who’s better at this than Google.

BM. The current downturn is obviously challenging traditional way of doing business. So what lessons can companies take from Google about how to operate in a fast-changing world?
JJ. The most important lesson out of Google is that it doesn’t grow as other companies have done through recorded history. It doesn’t have centralized control of things; it doesn’t try to acquire its world. Instead, it creates networks and platforms that enable others to succeed, and that’s critically important. That’s a new model that I think people don’t really grasp, and Google has a different relationship with its constituents as a result. So on my blog, for instance, I have Google content of all sorts, Google functionality, even Google advertising. Google helps me succeed, and that’s important.

In that new relationship, Google is more collaborative. We all have to be more transparent if we want to be found in a Google search, but one way that Google is very transparent is in rolling out beta products. What that says to users is: “This product is imperfect and unfinished; help us complete it.” I think that’s a very important lesson for companies and organizations to understand, because not only is it an act of humility and humanity, but it’s also very importantly an act of collaboration. It’s saying to the public “Come in to our process; help us design the products that help you by using us.” And I argue that everything from restaurants to auto companies should be doing that.

BM. On that note, our last issue looked at the travails of the auto industry. So how could taking a Google approach help shake up Detroit?
JJ. I would start here: if car companies released betas (and I’m not sure I would want to drive the beta car!) it could let us into their design process much earlier. My favorite example of this is if they’d had the means to hear the consumer years ago, most of us would have told them to put a 39¢ plug in the car radios to enable us to plug in our iPods. But they didn’t have the means to listen to us because they thought that secrecy was paramount: that they controlled the cars, they did everything on the cars, they had the experts, and when they were ready, they released the car and it was perfect. Well, guess what? They’re not perfect, and they’re sitting on car lots all over the US.

So the first step is opening up the design process, and that runs so contrary to Detroit’s culture. Once you’ve done that, then I think you can think about cars in a new way. What if I got a car that was unpainted, for example, and I could take it to my friend the graffiti artist, and he could paint it and make my car look like no other? A silly example, but it’s the start of thinking differently in terms of platforms or even as an open source manufacturer. What if I could also put in my own seats from another company or grill or dash or whatever else? What if cars were made more like computers, and I could put in elements of my own? That would be a different way to look at car companies, and the truth is if Detroit did that, they would reduce risks by enabling other companies to build products on top of its platform.

BM. So it’s bringing a much more customizable element into the process – which I guess harks back to the idea that the customer is king, that we should be giving the customer what they want?
JJ. Absolutely. We’ve always said that and not meant it! Now, however, the internet enables the customer to have their say. I start the book with a story of my problems with a Dell computer and how, without meaning to, I caused quite a storm on my blog, and the truth is that customers can do this now. There’s nothing new about what we think about companies; what’s new is that the consumer now has a more powerful voice. If you see that as a disadvantage, then you basically don’t trust your customers. But if you see that as an advantage, then you’re going to find the ways to enable them to become part of the improvement process.

If you open up to your customers, trust them and respect them, great things can happen. For instance, Starbuck’s started My Starbucks Idea where they ask customers to provide them with suggestions on how to improve the customer experience, which they then research and act upon. There are some wonderful thoughts on that service. Dell has done the same thing with Dell Ideas. So it’s not just about us complaining; it’s about us making suggestions about how to fix the problem because we’ve been given an opportunity to do so.

BM. Have you had much feedback from companies regarding your ideas?
JJ. I think that they’re all a little busy with the economy collapsing around them at the moment, especially in Detroit! But that’s all the more reason why they need to think about their structure in a new and fundamental way. This is true of banking, of automobiles, of retail, insurance, you name the industry: what the financial crisis really reveals is that a great restructuring is taking place that makes new thinking all the more vital.

BM. So far we’ve talked about business, but is there anything the new administration could learn from Google? It strikes me that President Obama is one of the most Googly leaders we’ve had for a while…
JJ. The campaign was very Google-like. Obama has promised to have a transparent administration; the question is whether the bureaucrats and Congress will allow him to do that, but I think he’s made a positive start: if you’re going to be Googly in government, then you should be thinking about how to make everything in government searchable and linkable, and how we can discuss issues more openly and be involved and be collaborative. I’m not suggesting that we turn everything over to rule of the mob, but we can instead have involvement in our own government.

BM. It seems to me that two-way communication and interaction are the common themes here – whether we’re talking about business or public institutions, it all seems to come down to taking a dialog rather than didactic approach.
JJ. Oh, well said, and I think that kind of communication leads to collaboration.

BM. And so finally, a question of what seems to be preposterous scope: can this approach save the economy?
JJ. I think understanding the economy in new ways could save the economy, and I think Google is an example of that. But it’s not just Google; it’s the fact that the world has changed, and that’s what we have to understand. And so everyone has to develop their new worldview, which may not be exactly like Google, but you can’t assume that old models will fit into this new world. Newspapers have learned that first; magazines and television are learning that now; advertising will learn it next; manufacturing next; it’s an avalanche that’s going to hit every industry.

What Would Google Do?
By Jeff Jarvis
In What Would Google Do? Jarvis explores the principles, ideas, philosophies and worldview underpinning Google’s success. By reverse-engineering Google, Jarvis discerns its core practices, strategies and attitudes to lay out a blueprint for what corporations, governments and individuals can do to build on the success of the world’s fastest growing company.
 
BM says: A bold and vital look at the most important challenges facing organizations today, this book will change the way businesses ask questions, solve problems and chart a course for the future.