The art of staying innovative
Imagine a scenario set in the near future where a person interacts with the virtual world on the Facebook Oculus platform, drives off in his autonomous Apple Car to the local Amazon grocery store GO, where he picks up items he needs, scans them on his phone and then leaves. There is no checkout, no line — everything is fully automated.
The companies developing some of these futuristic technologies such as Amazon, Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft are currently among the top 10 most valuable companies in the US. Collectively, these tech titans command a market capitalisation in excess of $6 trillion. Their products and services are so enmeshed in our lives — for instance, using Apple’s iphone, ordering groceries on Amazon, typing up a note in Microsoft Word, searching for an address on Google, or even updating a status on Facebook — that operating in a world without them seems unimaginable. Then, ever wondered how these tech giants grew to be so dominant and most importantly, managed to sustain their dominance?
Alex Kantrowitz’s book Always Day One attempts to answer these questions by opening up the playbook of these tech companies. Mr Kantrowitz, who is a technology reporter with Buzzfeed News, has interviewed over 130 insiders, including Mark Zuckerberg, to understand the inner workings of the five majors and has shone the spotlight on their practices and their culture of innovation and reinvention. Day One at Amazon, as the author explains, is code for inventing like a start-up, with little regard for legacy. Day Two is decline and death.
Through a case study format, the author has identified the key characteristics of an innovative workplace culture. At Amazon, CEO Jeff Bezos has embraced automation and expects employees to invent and simplify. The six-page memo is an example of a tool used to democratise invention within the company. Powerpoint is banned and employees are, instead, encouraged to write detailed memos that describe the new proposed product or service which then get reviewed by management. At Facebook, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has established a feedback system that allows ideas to flow freely without constraints of hierarchy. CEO Sunder Pichai has established a collaborative environment to bring together diverse teams to create new products for Google. Google Assistant, which works across Search, Maps, News, Photos, Android, Youtube and other products, is a perfect example of such a successful collaboration. CEO Satya Nadella has adopted a growth mindset and a management style, quite different from Steve Ballmer’s, to wean Microsoft away from heavy reliance on its traditional cash cows: Windows and Office.
For Tim Cook’s Apple, however, the author cautions that it is stuck at Day Two as “democratic invention is rarely encouraged, people and ideas are constrained by hierarchy, and collaboration is held back by secrecy.” The failure of Homepod illustrates all that is wrong with Apple’s current approach and highlights its need to change in the face of competition.
The author has also brought up the surprising and unintended consequences of the norms and culture prevalent at these companies. At Amazon, occasionally, employees are subjected to intense pressure to perform to high standards. A 2015 The New York Times article described Amazon’s workplace as bruising and spoke of staff crying at their desks. The feedback system that Mr Zuckerberg promoted within Facebook was largely based on inputs received from techno-optimists who failed to anticipate problems such as fake news, foreign interference in elections, and hate speech on the platforms and let the company be caught off guard. To correct the issue, Mr Zuckerberg is now introducing new feedback inputs by hiring journalists and exintelligence officials. Thus, plugging the gaps in processes and striking the right balance while driving an innovation culture continue to be areas that the companies grapple with. In the chapter “A Look in the Black Mirror”, the author has further explored the dark side of technology.
Mr Kantrowitz has written the book in a relaxed, journalistic style and packed it with interesting stories and quotes from a variety of voices to provide insights into Big Tech. But then again, a number of books have been written about these tech giants including Bezonomics and Hit Refresh; so, why read this one? In my view, the real payoff for the reader lies in having the analysis of the culture of these five companies assembled in one place, making it easy to extract similarities and contrasts, discern patterns and identify key learnings about corporate innovation.
To tech insiders, the book may seem superficial as it oversimplifies practices and glosses over the contributions of other senior executives at these firms. But for traditional company executives who are used to building core advantages and defending market share, this book contains valuable lessons about developing and maintaining an “inventive muscle” within the firm to take on the twin threats of start-ups and large corporations behaving like start-ups. And for employees, the message is loud and clear: Prepare to be lifelong learners or risk irrelevance.