“INNOVATION COMES FROM PLACES THAT YOU DON’T EXPECT”
May 1st, 2008 by Nico LuchsingerFor every tech company (and for many others as well), constant innovation is vital. But how do you ensure that employees have good ideas – and that they can be turned into successful products? One company that has been very successful in in-house innovation is Google. In an interview with BusinessWeek, Google CEO Eric Schmidt explains how the internet giant comes up with new ideas. For example, there is the famous “20 percent rule” which allows every Google employee to devote 20 percent of their time to their own projects. Innovation, says Schmidt, is not really “manageable” – you just need a set of conditions for it to occur. The most basic and important one is: “Listen to people”.
