“The billions of dollars in money and profits that flow from it [Google] are a by-product of the company’s concentrated efforts at innovation, rather than a yardstick used internally to measure success or to determine whether a project is worthy of exploration. Unlike most companies, where executives and product managers try to think of ways to make money and then create products, Google is a place where technologists think first of ways to solve problems; only later, if ever, do they worry about how to “monetize” them. Dedicated teams of engineers are encouraged to dream up entirely new ideas to make the search engine operate faster and better. One reason the company has no need for marketing is that its culture fosters a laserlike focus on serving the best interests of Google users. They, in turn, become it’s best advocates.
Google does not seek to make as much money as it could in the short run. The most obvious example of this is the Google homepage, considered the most valuable piece of real estate on the Internet… Google displays no advertising on this page, forgoing tens of millions of dollars in revenue and profits to give users a higher-quality search experience.
The soul of the Google machine is rapid innovation, the most important subject discussed at nearly every board meeting of the firm… for innovation is the reason the company raced ahead of others and stays out in front. Its founders are keenly aware that someone, somewhere, is always attempting to find a better, faster, smarter way to do things.”
“At Google, the preference is for working in small teams of three, with individual employees expected to allot 20 percent of their time to exploring whatever ideas interest them most. The notion of “20 percent time” is borrowed from the academic world, where professors are given one day a week to pursue private interests. Because the company lacks the usual layers of middle management, the hierarchical structure found in traditional corporations is non-existent”
“Google is the place with the buzz where the best and brightest engineers on the planet flock to work. They are leaving universities, NASA, Bell Labs, Microsoft and elsewhere for a dynamic setting that more nearly resembles a graduate school campus than a traditional business headquarters.”
Taken from the introduction of The Google Story.