Conclusion – Imagine the unimaginable. Chapter 7 of "How Google Works"

Technology driven change is outpacing the ability to train people in new skills putting unprecedented pressure on companies and societies. The technology is disrupting most known mature industries. In the preindustrial era the upper-class household was the centre of economic activity replaced by the corporation after the industrial revolution. In the 21^st century the corporation is being replaced with The Platform. A platform does not have a one way relationship with is customers and suppliers. There is a lot more of give and take – a place to connect like amazon.

Companies have a choice. They can operate the way they have always operated and only use technology to optimise their current operations or they can view it as the powerful force of disruption that it really is. Technology and innovation should be high on the CEO’s agenda.

Innovation means change and for many companies status quo is a much more comfortable place to be. At a corporate level most innovation initially looks like very small opportunities to a large company – not worth the time and effort. At the individual level people within big companies aren’t rewarded for taking risks but are penalised for failure. The payoff is asymmetrical so the rational person opts for safety.

The very nature of big companies is to be risk adverse and attack big change like the body attacks an infection. Google itself did well in Web 1.0 that was based on viewing text and images and basic transactions. It also thrived in Web 2.0 where is became a gigantic shopping mall and a place where people could do all sorts of things including complex transactions but was itself disrupted by Web 3.0 - the social and mobile web.

The solution is to always ask yourself the hardest question. Understand what to do about the future, what you see for the business others may not see or sees and choose to ignore.

“I keep my attention on the questions I need to ask so that I can catch the issues of the future” Clayton Christensen.

CEO´s should not only focus on the core business but also on the future. Companies rarely fold because of operational issues but more often because of a technological disruption of their industry. The question is not to ask what will be true but what could be true.

Do customers love your products or are they locked in by other factors that might evaporate in the future? Do your decision making processes lead to the best decision or the most acceptable?

Governments would benefit of including support for the disruptive elements of business, but tend to do the opposite and defend the incumbents as they have power, money and many workers. Tesla did not only fight the incumbent automakers but also the government that tried to prevent Tesla to sell directly to consumers.

Google believe in the power of technology and its ability to make the world a better place. Most big problems are information problems that can be solved with enough data and the ability to crunch it.

Google believe the technological disruption is a gift even if it means that somebody someday would create a technology that eventually renders Google irrelevant. Some might find this chilling but Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg finds it inspiring.