Learning business by watching others succeed (part 2)
Lessons for Entrepreneurs from Google
How can you learn business by observing and analyzing the development of Google. There really is something to learn – in business and not only honestly. So friends, a lesson for entrepreneurs from Google. Just let’s start with a little bit of history.
How did Google go about business?
In the late nineties in the world of the Internet such search engines reigned as Yahoo, Altavista, Lycos, Inktomi, Excite, AOL Search, AllTheWeb. At that time they were giants – especially in relation to Google. Today’s world leader did not begin in a simple competitive environment, as many people think. And still, the startup that started in the garage succeeded, overtaking all competitors (and at an incredible speed – the search engine became the world leader not today and not yesterday, but only a few years after the business was opened).
How did it happen? What could Google do better than others? Let’s look at how and what Google learned and how Sergey Brin and Larry Page developed a search engine and their business.
What has Google learned best in business?
Firstly, Google made a very simple design. Search string, your logo and … that’s it. And people liked it. Piled with all kinds of pictures, search engines went out of fashion. And their pages opened, frankly, slowly – first of all, probably because of their severity (remember, then there was a different Internet). Simplicity was what users needed. Although Yandex today shows a little the opposite – but still it is a regional search engine, albeit our own :-). A little – because if you compare with Yahoo, for example, Yandex also has a very simple design :-).
Secondly, Google really improved the search. In Yahoo, sometimes users had to search for relevant results on the 5th or 10th page. Google has never had such a thing. Even at the very beginning. And today it’s really the best (and an order of magnitude) search engine. It’s the search engine, I’m not talking about other services in general. You understand what advantage it is for the user to get an answer to his request almost immediately and certainly on the first page of the issue.
Thirdly, Google has constantly brought newness – both new services and new search functions (search by pictures, blogs, news). I won’t even talk about services, there are so many of them that there will not be enough articles. That is, they constantly improved their product and their offer as a whole.
Fourth, they constantly improved their main advantage – accurate search and relevant answers. There wasn’t one that did a better search and stopped. Competitors did not doze off (yours do not doze off either, by the way, keep in mind). Their search algorithm is undergoing changes from year to year and is getting better and better – practically unattainable for competitors.
I think, dear entrepreneurs, you have already learned some lessons directly from the text and learned something from the history of Google. And most importantly, they understood how and why Google became the absolute world leader. Nonetheless, let’s make a conclusion – we’ll list how and what you could really learn from Google in business.
What lessons can an entrepreneur learn or learn from Google?
Lesson number one: competition is not a critical obstacle in your business. Be better than them, and you will overtake them. You can start a business from scratch and conquer the market. You have to really want and try hard – that’s all. A small caveat: I, of course, do not claim that each of you can become a world leader in your industry, like Google. That would be stupid, naturally. But you get the point.
Lesson number two: look at your product through the eyes of the client. The Google founders may have liked the look of Yahoo. But they understood that users did not like it (or prevented them from using the main purpose of the product – search). Although, to be honest, they themselves hardly liked it :).
Lesson number three: look for and solve the real problem of the audience, and they will follow you. Google found and decided: it offered users a very accurate (at that time) search and relevant answers to their requests. Naturally, people did not want to look at 5-10 pages to find the answer to their request.
Lesson number four: constantly improve your product. Constantly! Not a day should pass so that you don’t think about how to improve your product, offer, business in general … a new lesson, I think, might be this: give people what they want, as quickly and as easily as possible. And all 🙂
So, friends, entrepreneurs, how to learn business, I think, nevertheless we have definitely discussed with you, using two stories as an example. And there are many. Look around. Analyze, learn. And write in the comments, be sure. Let’s study together 🙂
