How Google Works

Schmidt and Rosenberg's account of how Google operated during its growth years — the specific structures, hiring practices, meeting formats and strategic moves that produced the company as it is. The book is heavily branded but the operational material underneath is substantial, particularly the chapters on what the authors call "smart creatives" — the kind of people Google built its organisation to attract and retain. For product direction it is a useful data point on one way to run a successful tech company at scale. Read it selectively; the self-promotional parts are easy to skip, the structural parts are worth the time.