RETAILOBSERVER.COM MAY 2019
4
Eliana Barriga
eliana@retailobserver.com
Happy Mothers' Day,
MAY 2019, VOLUME 30, ISSUE 5
CELEBRATING OUR 30
TH
YEAR
AS THE RETAIL OBSERVER
PUBLISHER/MANAGING EDITOR
E LIANA BARRIGA
DIRECTOR OF SALES AND MARKETING
MOE LASTFOGEL
ART DIRECTOR
TERRY PRICE
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
MIKE ALLEN
MISSY HODGES
MARIO JUAREZ
ANDY KRIEGE
BRUCE MANNING
STEVEN MORRIS
JOHN TSCHOHL
LIBBY WAGNER
MIKE WHITAKER
RALPH E. WOLFF
DEADLINE FOR JULY 2019 ISSUE:
JUNE 1, 2019
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THE RETAIL
C
an cultivating a happy culture at work help your business succeed and your
customers and employees thrive?
When Sergey Brin and Larry Page founded Google in 1998, they established
a policy of hiring only the most brilliant applicants in STEM fields (science, technology,
engineering, and math), and 15 years later, Google decided it might be a good idea to
evaluate the results of this policy.
A Washington Post article titled "The surprising thing Google learned about its
employees–and what it means for today's students" (December 27, 2017), summarized
what Google learned from Project Oxygen, the detailed examination of its hiring practices.
Project Oxygen completely overturned the company's assumptions about the qualities
that best predict success in a high-tech business environment. Most notably, among the
eight standout qualities of Google's top employees, STEM expertise was dead last.
The top qualities that augured success at Google were "soft" skills. The researchers
found that the most successful Google employees:
• Are good coaches
• Empower the team and do not micromanage
• Express interest in and concern for the other team members' success and personal
well-being
• Are productive and results-oriented
• Are good communicators – they listen and share information
• Help others with their career development
• Have a clear vision and strategy for the team
• Have key technical skills that help them advise the team
In a nutshell, the happiest research teams were the most successful.
What conclusions can we draw from these studies, about the best way to help our
employees and customers (and our business) thrive?
The top Google employees help create a culture where the employees are free to
include the needs of others. Want to create a successful, customer-centric culture for
your organization? Surely it would be worth "doing as Google does."
CUSTOMER-
CENTRIC CULTURE
DO AS GOOGLE DOES
Elle's View As I See It
