Radical Goal Setting Credited for Google’s Growth
May 15, 2014
A surprisingly brief article on BetterWorks Blog explains, as the title suggests, How Google Grew from 40 to 40,000 Employees. The simple answer is goal setting, but it is how this process is managed at Google that accounts for the rapid growth of the company. The acronym OKR stands for Objective – Key Result. A developer advocate named Don Dodge is quoted in the article explaining the OKR process,
“Every quarter every group at Google sets goals, called OKRs, for the next 90 days. Most big companies set annual goals like improving or growing something by x%, and then measure performance once a year. At Google a year is like a decade. Annual goals aren’t good enough. Set quarterly goals, set them at impossible levels, and then figure out how to achieve them. Measure progress every quarter and reward outstanding achievement.”
This methodology was begun when most companies were using a top down process for goal setting that often involved executives setting objectives without clear instructions on how to achieve them or when to aim for results. John Doerr is credited with the new system, which implements goal setting at the individual, team and company level and ensures transparency and communication at all levels of the company. The goal setting system is certainly an excellent place to start for growth, but of course, one needs a Google type revenue stream to make this work.
Chelsea Kerwin, May 15, 2014
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Augmentext
Comments
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
