CUSTOMER-CENTRIC CULTURE DO AS GOOGLE DOES

By Eliana Barriga
Publisher and Managing Editor for The Retail Observer

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Can cultivating a happy culture at work help your business succeed and your customers and employees thrive?

When Sergey Brin and Larry Page founded Google in 1998, they established
a policy of hiring only the most brilliant applicants in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math), and 15 years later, Google decided it might be a good idea to evaluate the results of this policy.

A Washington Post article titled “The surprising thing Google learned about its employees–and what it means for today’s students” (December 27, 2017), summarized what Google learned from Project Oxygen, the detailed examination of its hiring practices.

Project Oxygen completely overturned the company’s assumptions about the qualities that best predict success in a high-tech business environment. Most notably, among the eight standout qualities of Google’s top employees, STEM expertise was dead last.

The top qualities that augured success at Google were “soft” skills. The researchers found that the most successful Google employees:

• Are good coaches
• Empower the team and do not micromanage
• Express interest in and concern for the other team members’ success and personal well-being
• Are productive and results-oriented
• Are good communicators–they listen and share information
• Help others with their career development
• Have a clear vision and strategy for the team
• Have key technical skills that help them advise the team
  
  

In a nutshell, the happiest research teams were the most successful.

What conclusions can we draw from these studies, about the best way to help our employees and customers (and our business) thrive?

The top Google employees help create a culture where the employees are free to include the needs of others. Want to create a successful, customer-centric culture for your organization? Surely it would be worth “doing as Google does.”

Happy Mothers' Day,
Eliana Barriga
eliana@retailobserver.com 

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