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Laszlo Bock SuccessNotes: Work Rules!, How Google Works, Manage Your Day-to-Day,The Compound Effect, And The Power of Habit
"Mr. Laszlo Bock serves as Senior Vice President of People Operations at Google Inc. Mr. Bock served as Vice President of Human Resources within GE Capital Solutions at General Electric Company. Mr. Bock served as Vice President of People Operations at Google Inc. He served as Vice President of Compensation and Benefits for GE Commercial Equipment Financing." - Bloomberg Business
Kindle Edition
First published April 27, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 3, 2021
Highly recommended. Many stories about and practices at Google, including how to hire high-performers.
November 5, 2015
Work Rules by Lazlo Bock
Here is one clear message in the book, "We are Google, we take the best people who make the 95 percentile bracket and anyone below the cut .... sucks". I haven't actually applied at Google(I did give a long shot to a Singapore opp once upon a time :p) so I wouldn't know, the way I see it to me it really seems a great place to work. I also believe that all the books published on Google are to differentiate itself from the rest, its a branding game. Lets face it brilliant stuff done on the HR front, the initiatives are great and the book gives great examples on learning from mistakes(Though I feel it is a lame attempt to be honest because the book goes on to say Google this Google that, I mean cmon).
One great thing which Google does and a lot of other similar companies don't is they have consistent policies despite the level and it is less hierarchical in general. The benefits example given in the book in case of death and making a flatter structure talk about it.
Another thing which I sensed while I was reading it was the transparency they try to maintain, the surveys, the launch of new tools/ processes, the feedback mechanism are examples quoted in the book which are brilliant efforts to keep it clean and simple across the organization.
Biggest takeaway is the recruitment process, it takes a lot of time to identify people who would rather fit the culture at Google than be a top performer. The techniques to identify a candidate are simple but effectively utilized. Mr Bock debates that if you get your recruitment process right the training team would have lesser to do as you have already hired the right people. It takes twice as much time as any other organization takes but in the long run it works for them as they are straight on the job from day 1 without much intervention from training. You increase cost in recruitment and you decrease in training the net effect is the same and hence it works brilliantly for them, to that point its thumbs up to the team.
Lastly, Mr Bock doesn't shy away from taking a dig at former "Googler" (as they call them), Marissa Mayer who runs Yahoo on having got something wrong while doing business. It just goes to show that Google is still ruing/ crying over that loss.
Overall a good book for HR folks, you could learn a lot of things from this book on how to make simple things look more effective.
Here is one clear message in the book, "We are Google, we take the best people who make the 95 percentile bracket and anyone below the cut .... sucks". I haven't actually applied at Google(I did give a long shot to a Singapore opp once upon a time :p) so I wouldn't know, the way I see it to me it really seems a great place to work. I also believe that all the books published on Google are to differentiate itself from the rest, its a branding game. Lets face it brilliant stuff done on the HR front, the initiatives are great and the book gives great examples on learning from mistakes(Though I feel it is a lame attempt to be honest because the book goes on to say Google this Google that, I mean cmon).
One great thing which Google does and a lot of other similar companies don't is they have consistent policies despite the level and it is less hierarchical in general. The benefits example given in the book in case of death and making a flatter structure talk about it.
Another thing which I sensed while I was reading it was the transparency they try to maintain, the surveys, the launch of new tools/ processes, the feedback mechanism are examples quoted in the book which are brilliant efforts to keep it clean and simple across the organization.
Biggest takeaway is the recruitment process, it takes a lot of time to identify people who would rather fit the culture at Google than be a top performer. The techniques to identify a candidate are simple but effectively utilized. Mr Bock debates that if you get your recruitment process right the training team would have lesser to do as you have already hired the right people. It takes twice as much time as any other organization takes but in the long run it works for them as they are straight on the job from day 1 without much intervention from training. You increase cost in recruitment and you decrease in training the net effect is the same and hence it works brilliantly for them, to that point its thumbs up to the team.
Lastly, Mr Bock doesn't shy away from taking a dig at former "Googler" (as they call them), Marissa Mayer who runs Yahoo on having got something wrong while doing business. It just goes to show that Google is still ruing/ crying over that loss.
Overall a good book for HR folks, you could learn a lot of things from this book on how to make simple things look more effective.
August 28, 2015
Great book, very insightful, full of useful learnings that can be applied in almost any organization. I especially like the attitude of experimentation; decide upon an outcome and measure and adjust until you get the result you want. Mix that with a good portion of heart, not only effectiveness as most management books. It is a great read!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews