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141 " product excellence is now paramount to business success—not control of information, not a stranglehold on distribution, not overwhelming marketing power (although these are still important). There are a couple of reasons for this. First, consumers have never been better informed or had more choice.13 It used to be that companies could turn poor products into winners by dint of overwhelming marketing or distribution strength. Create an adequate product, control the conversation with a big marketing budget, limit customer choice, and you could guarantee yourself a good return. "
― Eric Schmidt , How Google Works
142 " write the future "
143 " No is like a tiny death to smart creatives. No is a signal that the company has lost its start-up verve, that it’s too corporate. Enough no’s, and smart creatives stop asking and start heading to the exits. "
144 " We have no idea what your venture is or even your industry, so we won’t presume to tell you how to create a business plan. But we can tell you with 100 percent certainty that if you have one, it is wrong. "
145 " combining passion and contribution is a luxury: not that it’s expensive, but just rare. It’s something that many people either can’t figure out "
146 " consensus is not about getting everyone to agree. Instead, it’s about coming to the best idea for the company and rallying around it. "
147 " dissent must be an obligation, not an option. "
148 " One of Eric’s most basic rules is sort of a golden rule for management: Make sure you would work for yourself. If you are so bad as a manager that you as a worker would hate working for you, then you have some work to do. The best tool we have found for this is the self-review: At least once per year, write a review of your own performance, then read it and see if you would work for you. And then, share it with the people who do in fact work for you. This will elicit greater insights than the standard 360-degree review process, because when you are initiating criticism of yourself it gives others the freedom to be more honest. "
149 " When things are running perfectly smoothly, with people and boxes on charts enjoying a one-to-one relationship, then the processes and infrastructure have caught up to the business. "
150 " everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking. "
151 " One advantage of hierarchical, process-laden organizations is that it’s easy to figure out with whom you need to talk: Just look for the right box on the right chart, and you’ve got your person. But the steady state of a successful Internet Century venture is chaos. "
152 " Eric once chatted with Warren Buffett about what he looks for when acquiring companies. His answer was: a leader who doesn’t need him. "
153 " And for more egregious offenses, you need to get rid of the knave, quickly. Think "
154 " In the Internet Century, the objective of creating networks is not just to lower costs and make operations more efficient, but to create fundamentally better products. "
155 " A great start-up, a great project—a great job, for that matter—should be fun, and if you’re working your butt off without deriving any enjoyment, something’s probably wrong. "
156 " No matter what a person’s job is, they should be encouraged to have opinions about the business, industry, customers and partners, "
157 " If everything seems under control, you’re just not going fast enough.”) "
158 " You have done all this work to create a hiring process that brings in all these awesome smart creatives, and how do they pay you back? By leaving!! That’s right. News flash: When you hire great people, some of them may come to realize that there is a world beyond yours. This isn’t a bad thing, in fact it’s an inevitable by-product of a healthy, innovative team. Still, fight like hell to keep them. "
159 " as Sun cofounder Bill Joy noted, “no matter who you are, most of the smartest people work for someone else. "
160 " crazy enough to think you will succeed, but sane enough to make it happen. "