Given the fact that Jeff Jarvis was the most frequently quoted person in our book, you won’t be surprised to hear that we are big fans of his new book, ‘What would Google do?’
The simple, but compelling idea behind the book is that other companies can adopt the behaviour and philosophy of the mighty Google, described by Jeff as “the one company that has succeeded in the internet age.”
Google is the ultimate Crowd Surfing business, built on the power of mass collaboration rather than mass advertising. In our book, we quoted Wired magazine’s Leander Kahney describing the company’s philosophy as “Embrace open platforms. Trust decisions to the wisdom of crowds. Treat employees like gods.”
The lessons from Google, described by Jeff, provide a simple set of guidelines for any aspirant Crowd Surfer:
- Find ways to involve customers, employees and other stakeholders in your business. It requires the handing over of absolute control (and a huge amount of trust), but it ensures “a sense of ownership for your products” and allows your customers to “become your ad agency”
- Live life in beta. “By producing unfinished, incomplete, imperfect products … Google is opening up its process of design.”
- Move quickly … Jeff, of course has some great slogans to support this point … “Answers are instantaneous” … and my favourite, “Mobs form in a flash”