Google innovation chick, Marissa Mayer, says in her stanford show :
- Innovation: Not instant perfection. Launch early and often get to the market.
- Share everything you can: Information is KEY and powerful.
- You’re brilliant, we’re hiring: Hire generalists than can speak to all areas of your organization. Specialists create silos.
- A license to pursue your dreams: Give people a choice us to where they would like to invest their time and thinking.
- Ideas come from everywhere: The power of many wins.
- Don’t politic: Use data. Consensus of data wins not power or hierarchy.
- Creavity loves constraint: Stay in the sandbox and focus on direction/output.
- Users and usage are key: Money will follow.
- Don’t kill projects: Morph them. Adjust or tweak and more on.
I really like what she says even if I don’t feel very concerned by the two last points.
For me one of the most interesting thing is the 20% time to work on personal projects. It’s the proof that google trusts their employee to make good use of their time.
This came from a friend’s powerpoint with the title “Google applies agile methodology”. Well, I’m really skeptical about that. I think it’s much wider than that. People do not need to apply any specific methodology if they’re smart and willing to do their work. They’ll get organized by themselves.
By the way, you should look at the other Stanford videos. They are really great. It’s not especially for “entrepreneurs” but for anyone willing to learm from other people experiences.