Google's Larry Page: MY SECRET TO VAST WEALTH, SUCCESS
Yeah, I don't see Facebook cars driving themselves, bitch
Posted in Management, 18th January 2013 13:38 GMT
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Google chief Larry Page has shared the secret to his success: the billionaire search engine nerd reckons companies must make their products TEN times better than their rivals to be successful.
The grinning geek, worth about $20bn, also believes his fellow biz barons should hardly ever think about their opponents when coming up with "moon shot" ideas, such as Google's project to build cars that safely drive themselves.
"It’s hard to find actual examples of really amazing things that happened solely due to competition," Page said in a WiReD mag interview. The Google co-founder added:
Companies fail because they do the wrong things or they aren’t ambitious, not because of litigation or competition.
However Page wasn't above handing out a few snarky remarks about Facebook and Apple. Even before Mark Zuckerberg's social network announced Graph Search - a shot at Google's search supremacy - Page said Facebook is "doing a really bad job on their products", adding that the Google+ social network was not introduced simply to knock Facebook down a peg or two.
As for Apple, it wasn't ambitious enough, the Google CEO insinuated. The Tim Cook-led iPhone maker is too timid, we're told:
We have all this money, we have all these people, why aren’t we doing more stuff? You may say that Apple only does a very, very small number of things, and that’s working pretty well for them. But I find that unsatisfying.
He also brushed aside the patent "thermonuclear war" instigated by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs against Google's mobile operating system Android: "How well is that working?" Page mused.
And he dropped in a coy reference to how good Google Maps is after the kerfuffle with Apple's crap maps app: "We’ve been working on Maps for a long time, and it’s nice to see people realise that we’ve put a lot of effort and investment into it. That’s clearly more appreciated now." ®
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COMMENTS
We have all this money, we have all these people, why aren’t we doing more stuff? You may say that Apple only does a very, very small number of things, and that’s working pretty well for them. But I find that unsatisfying.
True dat!
With all those billions in the bank why aren't they changing the world? They could probably cripple Hollywood if they wanted, help strengthen the internet infrastructure, feed starving kids... but what are they doing? having a pissy rant because other mobile phones look a little bit like theirs - well of course they do, they created a nice new mobile paradigm, they should feel honoured to have people copying their ideas, refining, improving.
All that copying hasn't stopped their economic phenomenal rise, becoming richer than entire countries.
thank you, El Reg...
It's ever so satisfying to hear Jobs referred to in passing as "Apple co-founder". :)
Re: smug + massively rich = not a nice combination
I wouldn't mind trying it.
Mobiles and tablets haven't even BEGUN their advance. The hardware is a done deal and simply down for evolutionary refinement, for sure, but the software? It sucks.
Think about how your typical day - how much of it could be automated or made easier by a computer, and how much of what you already do on a computer could you, assuming the software existed, do on your phone or tablet?
If you look at any app store today the top sellers are games. Followed by apps to edit photos, track sport scores, read newspapers or see what public transport is doing. Some of us even get driving nav.
That can't be it. Surely not. The dual-core 1.5GHz processor in my pocket is capable of less than the 50MHz single core I had on my desktop in 1990.
I don't think we've even seen the end of the beginning of mobile yet.
Google+
Aside from the intensely annoying "give us more information" popups, Google+ is pretty easy to work with, far more so than Facebook which buries certain activities in non obvious places.
Now if only they'd stop bothering me with requests to complete my profile, or if I know person X, Y and Z, or if I want other people to know my birthday or if I want to enable chat etc. etc. etc then I might be entirely favourable to the service.
The new Office Garage series:
