This Newsweek article outlines ten basic rules that Google tries to live by as a company. They are, in no particular order,
- Hire by committee.
- Cater to their every need.
- Pack them in.
- Make coordination easy.
- Eat your own dog food.
- Encourage creativity.
- Strive to reach consensus.
- Don’t be evil.
- Data drive decisions.
- Communicate effectively.
While this is very obviously a list that’s created by and for a software engineering environment, one wonders how applicable these rules would be to other professional, knowledge-based companies. Like, say law firms (I’m thinking that the first to go—or at least get rewritten—would be #8).