What’s the question every business should be asking itself? According to Jeff Jarvis, it’s WHAT WOULD GOOGLE DO? If you’re not thinking or acting like Google – the fastest-growing company in the history of the world – then you’re not going to survive, let alone prosper, in the Internet age.
An indispensable manual for survival and success that asks the most important question today’s leaders, in any industry, can ask themselves: What would Google do?
To demonstrate how to emulate Google, Jarvis lays out his laws of what he calls “the new Google century,” including such insights as:
Think Distributed
Become a Platform
Join the Post-Scarcity, Open-Source, Gift Economy
The Middleman Has Died
Your Worst Customers Are Your Best Friends and Your Best Customers Are Your Partners
Do What You Do Best and Link to the Rest
Get Out of the Way
Make Mistakes Well
... and More
He applies these principles not just to emerging technologies and the Internet, but to other industries–telecommunications, airlines, television, government, healthcare, education, journalism, and yes, book publishing–showing ultimately what the world would look like if Google ran it. The result is an astonishing, mind-opening book that will change the way readers ask questions and solve problems.
“Google is not just a company, it is an entirely new way of thinking about understanding who we are and what we want. Jarvis has done something really important: extend that approach to business and culture, revealing just how revolutionary it is.” (Chris Anderson, Author of The Long Tail Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail)
“What Would Google Do? is an exceptional book that captures the massive changes the internet is effecting in our culture, in marketing, and in advertising.” (Craig Newmark, Founder of craigslist)
“Jeff Jarvis has written an indispensable guide to the business logic of the networked era, because he sees the opportunities in giving the people control, and understands the risks in letting your competitors get there first.” (Clay Shirky, Author of Here Comes Everybody)
“Jeff Jarvis’s What Would Google Do? is a divining rod for anyone looking for ways to hit real paydirt in the new territory of Web 2.0 marketing. Jarvis has a sharp eye for what is relevant, real, and actionable. Isn’t that what we all need today?” (Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO, salesforce.com)
“Most of Jarvis’s points―about customer influence, user-driven innovation, the death of middlemen―are by now axiomatic. And yet he manages to make the revolution feel newly revolutionary. . . . the book exudes credibility.” (Inc.)
“[Jarvis’s] bold thinking and prodigious faith results in a rollicking sermon on reinvention and reinvigoration.” (Miami Herald)
“[Jarvis] is an intelligent observer of technology and the media and has intellectual scruples.... [T]here are lessons to be learnt from Google and its single-minded determination to change how business is done.” (Financial Times)
“Jarvis, proprietor of the influential media blog BuzzMachine, gleans maxims from Google’s successful strategies that occasionally sound like doublespeak (Free is a business model! Abundance is the new scarcity! Correcting yourself enhances credibility!). But they boil down to practical suggestions.” (Time magazine)
“Blogger/columnist Jeff Jarvis’s treatise on how―and why―companies should think and act like Google brings to mind several trite words from the world of literary criticism: eye-opening, thought-provoking and enlightening.” (USA Today)
“[Jarvis’s] observations are worth reading....We’re never going to unplug the Internet, so read this book with the long view in mind. Mr. Jarvis’s rules don’t all apply to you, but they’re all true enough for someone” (Wall Street Journal)
