Read a very nice article today on rediff, about Google’s nine innovation rules. Coming from Marissa Mayer, VP of search products and user experience, it underlines why Google’s offering always strike a chord with the audience. While I’m one of those who’re becoming increasingly uncomfortable with Google and its (non) privacy, and its journey away from ” Don’t be evil”, it still manages to get my attention, inspite of all the old enemies (eg. Yahoo with Flickr, del.icio.us, Answers etc)and new upstarts (eg.Facebook) at various boundaries of its kingdom.
More than random preaching on innovative practices one hears during sermons, she manages to link innovation to simple philosophies that should ideally be practised by all workplaces which consider itself to be ‘innovation practitioners’. The 20% time for pet projects, the sharing network between employees, the treatment of data as apolitical, the idea generation processes all speak of a system which thrives on experimenting and trying out new things, and that, i guess is the reason why Google has reached where it is in such a small timeframe.
Meanwhile, i was also influenced by the very first principle, ‘innovation, not instant perfection’. Its a difficult lesson to learn, especially for perfectionists (and wannabes 🙂 ), but it just might be a better way in the long run.
until next time, go ogle