Google’s John Herlihy on the irrelevant desktop and brutal review processes
Google vice president of Global Ad Operations, John Herlihy, gave a talk at the Digital Landscapes Conference at UCD in Ireland this week. during that talk he focused on the growing importance of mobile, and Google’s brutal project and employee review programs.
On mobile, Herlihy reiterated what Eric Schmidt said last month at the Mobile World Congress, that mobile is the future and therefore the focus for Google. he said:
In three years time, desktops will be irrelevant. In Japan, most research is done today on smart phones, not PCs.
Mobile makes the world’s information universally accessible. Because there’s more information and because it will be hard to sift through it all, that’s why search will become more and more important. This will create new opportunities for new entrepreneurs to create new business models – ubiquity first, revenue later.
Going forward, we can expect all new projects to have mobile deployment at their core, as Google believes it is the future and so important to their business operations.
Herlihy also gave some insight into Google’s review process for employees and projects. Google staff may get a great environment to work in, but the review process they undergo seems quite brutal:
We measure people every 90 days. we get 360-degree feedback on people every 180 days and that feedback is published to the whole company. People want reality. ninety per cent of the rewards end up going to 10pc of the people.
It’s no different for a new app or service. If a project is under-performing it gets killed quickly and the people working on it redeployed. If a project is doing well, Google still review it and attempt to cut resources and costs as much as possible:
It’s not good enough to apply normal management disciplines – we think that scarcity breeds clarity. If, for example, we have enough resources invested in something, we halve it and eliminate overheads.
The other thing we do is celebrate failure. Here’s an analogy – the Roman legions used to send out scouts in different directions. If a scout didn’t return, the army didn’t head in that direction. we seek feedback at every opportunity on something – we either kill it, adjust it or redeploy resources.
Read more at Silicon Republic
Matthew’s Opinion
I think it it easy to take Herlihy’s talk of the irrelevant desktop as him suggesting PCs will no longer matter. what I believe Google mean specifically is, it just won’t matter what you are using anymore. Desktop PC, laptop, netbook, tablet, or smartphone, you will get the same experience on all of them. the main difference is, we will be a lot more mobile with out devices. Google therefore need to ensure that is a top priority and supported throughout all its products.
Of all the companies out there supporting mobile computing, Google is pushing hardest. Android, Nexus One, mobile apps for all its services, there isn’t much the search giant isn’t doing to claim its place at the top of the mobile sector. Chrome OS is also set to take on Windows on the desktop, but you can bet it has mobility at its core.
As for Google’s review processes, it’s clear this is why the company is so agile and has gained ground so quickly in the sectors it enters. I bet most companies see a successful project and leave it alone. Google cuts its resources as much as possible while allowing it to remain successful. Reviewing staff every 90 days does put the pressure on, but if you enjoy your job surely those reviews push you to be seen as an asset?
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