Behind the Scenes at Global-Roam

For us, the answer is not as easy as it might first seem….

(a)  Note that my question was NOT “what does Google know about Innovation?” – for surely they would know enough for several book’s worth of material.

(b)  I am more focused on us (a small-sized software company based in Milton, Brisbane) and wondering what WE can learn – provided we are not too dumb, distracted or egotistical to really hear the messages that were presented to us.

I’m writing this post 2 weeks after the Warren Centre’s “2009 Innovation Lecture”, featuring Lars Rasmussen of Google.

There were three of us who attended – myself, and two of our developers.  Paul has already posted his comments about what he gained from the lecture.

Given my focus is more on “Working ON, not IN, the business” (or at least I try for it to be), my interest was moreso in the lessons we could learn from the two projects (Google Maps and Google Wave) rather than the technology per-se.  For this reason, I found the obligatory product demo of the Wave mid-way through the presentation a little tedious, and would rather have heard more about Lars’ personal experiences of innovation during the two projects.

However, I was not totally disappointed – as the lecture was accompanied by some well-written notes (big copyright notice, so can’t scan here) and the synopsis also provided by the Warren Centre online.

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1)  Some of what I learnt, or had reinforced

I should start by noting that there were a couple of other things I picked up from this session (or which were reinforced from my earlier learning’s) which I have chosen to omit from this public summary.    Challenges/opportunities more directly related with where our business could be headed for the future….

Nevertheless, I hope that the following listing (in no particular order) is useful enough for you…

Lars (in his written notes) highlighted the following 3 lessons he has learnt over the course of the past 10 years or so:

Lesson 1: Never Give Up!	Might sound glib, when you read it like that, but the stories Lars told about the roller-coaster ride of emotions (and finances) just reinforced my experience that, sometimes (thankfully not too often) it is just despair-inducing hard!I was particularly interested in Lars’ comment that, perhaps, the only thing that kept them going through some of their dark days was that they probably had no other realistic option, therefore they were in a position whereby they MUST find a way to make it work. Very much aligned with my view that persistence is the #1 prerequisite of any entrepreneurial business (that, and a good dose of luck).
Lesson 2: You can do more than you think	Following from the first lesson, Lars recounted very clearly how it was at the time of their lowest ebb (with a fear of starvation – or at least going very hungry) that they were at their most creative.Obviously (and Lars concurred) this is not a position you ever want to subject yourself to, but if it is a prerequisite to real creativity, then it does present an interesting challenge – how does a business manager structure incentives that can achieve the same effect, WITHOUT resorting to such extremes. I realise that it’s largely each to their own on this one (dependent on business models, etc), but it was interesting to hear that the fear of a major “egg-on-face” embarrassment (if the Google Wave project had flopped, after being promoted internally so heavily) achieved a similar result WITHOUT the Wave engineers resorting to eating the potted plants out of desperation. Lars summed it up when he said: If you don’t have smart people telling you it can’t be done, you are not working hard enough… Therein lies the paradox, which not everyone is comfortable with…
Lesson 3: You don’t need a map	I agree wholeheartedly with this one, as well.In a nutshell, if it was obvious what needed to be done, then someone else would already have done it, and your business proposition would have already disappeared in a puff of smoke… Hence, embrace the uncertainty, as that is what provides you with a chance that your business will succeed. Those who yearn for the security of a “sure thing” (as employees, and/or investors) are not going to be compatible with the demands that will be placed on them within your innovative business. I have learnt the hard way that it’s often better for these types of “non-believers” to be moved “Off the Bus”, for everyone’s benefit. Lars talked about his “pathological optimism”, which (in my view) is not incompatible to Andy Grove’s exhortation that “only the paranoid survive”. In my view, a successful entrepreneur needs a good dose of both….

Other miscellaneous points of interest:

1)  Google Maps was launched with a team of only 6 developers – lesson being that it only takes a few smart guys (or girls) to start a revolution.

2)  One of the factors contributing to the success of Google Maps was that  they effectively outsourced the development of the content (something Google are masters at).  Lars related the story of some town in Africa being mapped entirely by volunteers.  Even with their “buckets-o-cash”, I’m not even sure that Google largesse would have been able to get the whole project together, on such a global-scale, if only paid assistance had contributed.

3)  Lars related how the project took on a life of its own, such that his attempts to shut down aspects of the development he was uncomfortable with were unsuccessful (and foolish, in hindsight).

4)  Of course, there was the usual reflection on the very unique Google business model, which (in my view) is basically:

Ubiquity first, Revenues second, profit third

I gained plenty from this lecture (took a couple pages of notes, and have since underlined the prepared notes as well), but don’t have the time to post it all here now.

Perhaps sometime you can buy me a coffee and we can discuss more…

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2)  About the event

One final comment to the organisers - what Paul Klaptocz noted (about the 3 of us being practically the only 3 “under-dressed” for the event) was certainly true.

There was an attendee listing pinned to a board at the back of the venue.  I noted, from this list, a fair number of senior executives (even from the electricity supply industry, in which we work) but from the distribution of suits in the audience it did seem that there were probably too many “managers” and not enough “doers” to listen to these messages – which will always be the challenge at any think-tank organised, government-supported Lecture.

That’s my 2 cent’s worth, anyway!

Tags: entrepreneur, Google, innovation, management of software company, Warren Centre

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 at 3:34 pm and is filed under Event Review, Innovation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.