Recent Comment
Spotlight
- Reader Michael Megalli writes: It is difficult to engage in genuine conversations with the marketplace when you can't change the reality of how a company does business, what it sells, how it works with partners, etc. [go]
Recent Comments
- Steve Rhodes: " Google did underwrite Nova in 2005/6. ..." [go]
- Joel Fugazzotto: " What a nice post! It's a reminder to us ..." [go]
- nmw: " OMG -- not YET another post! :O (the pr ..." [go]
- SorenG: " Works for me. Curious how often the Zapr ..." [go]
- nmw: " Yes, I have to admit -- we still ..." [go]
- John Battelle: " @michael - I think there is a difference ..." [go]
- Michael Cohn: " Don't you think there's a difference bet ..." [go]
- JG: " This is one point, JG, where I think ..." [go]
- pz: " Glad ya'll are out there to inform us of ..." [go]
- David Mullings: " I know that if someone created a fan pag ..." [go]
- nmw: " This is one point, JG, where I think< ..." [go]
- JG: " google lets you play with the machine ..." [go]
- Matt: " I don't believe in it and don't accept i ..." [go]
- JG: " I will second tim's comments. And it wa ..." [go]
- nmw: " Good point, Doug -- and that doesn't< ..." [go]
- nmw: " Mr. Hittel, I think I understand what y ..." [go]
PERFECT FOR THAT PERSON WITH EVERYTHING
Order 'The Search'
Yup, it makes the perfect gift for that officemate or colleague who you thought had everything....including you! If you order here, I promise to sign it, assuming we can figure out the shipping...
You can also buy the audio version here.
Check my book page for more info.
Blogger's Rights
Top Posts
- The Database of Intentions (or how this all got started)
- From Pull to Point(or the first post where I riff on the "Point-To Economy")
- Google As Builder (or the point at which Google stopped being simply a search engine)
- On Google v. Yahoo
- TV and Search Merge
- On Sell Side Advertising
- Battelle Gets Searchstreams
- Search and Immortality
- Toward the Endemic (on endemic advertising)
More coming soon...
Active Topics
- 35 comments: WTF??!!! (04.17)
- 26 comments: Twitter. Oh God. (04.30)
- 16 comments: The Future of Search Series (05.08)
- 16 comments: The Music In Magazines (05.07)
- 13 comments: The Best Minds of the Web... (05.05)
Monthly Archives
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- December 2004
- November 2004
- October 2004
- September 2004
- August 2004
- July 2004
- June 2004
- May 2004
- April 2004
- March 2004
- February 2004
- January 2004
- December 2003
- November 2003
- October 2003
About John Battelle
Searchblog Newsletter
Enter email to subscribe to Searchblog's newsletter:
Calendar
| Su | Mo | Tu | We | Th | Fr | Sa |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
Syndicate
Powered by
July 17, 2006 5:21 PM
Admitting mistakes, Schmidt
“So, yes we are IDIOTS — and please WRITE THAT DOWN," insisted CEO Eric Schmidt in an impromptu interview on Friday, referring to Google management between the IPO filing and going pubic.
From Reuters (the whole audio interview, here):
THE IDIOTS RUNNING GOOGLE
Google CEO Eric Schmidt tells reporters:
“(During the 2004 IPO process), between the time we filed and the time we went public, the press was among the most unpleasant I have ever experienced.
“We (Google management) were ‘idiots,’ we were ‘useless’… I thought ‘God.’…It is a terrible feeling of being on the other side of that (press coverage).
“So we looked at (Google’s Web site) traffic and revenue and they were exploding… We had a very, very strong quarter right after the worst possible press about ‘the idiots running the company.’
“I don’t know what that tells you.
Schmidt then paused and begged the reporters to create a new Google press frenzy:
“So, yes we are IDIOTS — and please WRITE THAT DOWN.”
WE HAVE EVERY PROBLEM YOU CAN IMAGINE… QUICKER
Google CEO Eric Schmidt: “We have every known problem that a growth company has — quicker…Write down all the obvious problems, we have every one of them. So we make a list of them (potential problems) and we anticipate them.”
Reporter: Are there any non-obvious problems?
Schmidt: “No. no.”
Reporter: Is it a list of 10-15?
Schmidt: “I would say it is about 20.”
- Posted by Melanie Colburn on July 17, 2006 5:21 PM
Comments
...and for those of us who were willing & ready to JUMP on the IPO at $105, we were even happier to jump in at $85!
(just keep bringing me the "idiots" running tech companies IPO'ing, and i'll keep putting my chips on the table ;)
too bad for bill hambrecht's OpenIPO format... seemed to have so much promise. ah well, so much for market optimization. guess you have to bake in 10-15% upside, or it just went fly with the institutional clients.
sorry...
went => won't
"..between the IPO filing and going pubic."
going pubic? Man. Poor Google. ;)
Excellent response from the CEO of Google. I mean what other intelligent response could you get? No we're not idiots and we know everything that there is to know?
Let people point out the problems for you so that you can focus on fixing them. These things will always arise, especially in a "fast growing" company, so why are we surprised?
Did he say idiots? Perhaps idiot savants might be more appropriate. They really are brilliant, but occasionally seem to be out of touch with the realities of the market place. If only they would try to see things from the customer's point of view more often. That isn't rocket science.
What I would give for only about 20 problems total, nothing out of the ordinary.
It seems Schmidt may be in need of a vacation, or at least a media break.
I agree with Barry, perhaps they should see things from the customer's point of view. But that's probably one of the "normal" problems. Big wigs seem to go blind when putting on the customer's shoes.
What I would give for only about 20 problems total, nothing out of the ordinary.
It seems Schmidt may be in need of a vacation, or at least a media break.
I agree with Barry, perhaps they should see things from the customer's point of view. But that's probably one of the "normal" problems. Big wigs seem to go blind when putting on the customer's shoes.
Leave a comment