Maybe I should clarify that I consider the “extended CEO” to essentially include everyone whose knowledge is of importance at the company. If you asked Sundar how many servers of a particular type to put in, he’d forward you to the relevant VP, who would forward you to the relevant director, who would forward you to the relevant principal engineer, who would actually answer your question. That’s what I mean by asking a question of the “extended CEO”.
A similar principle applies to simple rules like “don’t be evil” or “blessed be the meek”. Yes Sundar and Pope Francis didn’t create these principles, but, by taking over as CEO, they had to first show that their thinking was aligned with the principles of the existing “extended CEO” and those principles are summarized by simple lists like “ten things we know to be true” and the Beatitudes, so that other people are able to better simulate the opinion of “the extended CEO”.
When I was at Google, it was very common to resolve an internal disagreement by pointing to the answer that one of the “ten things we know to be true” principles would direct us to behave—and that allowed for internal consistency. Similarly, when I was a Christian, it was common to point to principles in the Beatitudes to resolve questions of what it meant to act in a moral way as a Christian.
Any Google CEO who doesn’t want to follow “ten things we know to be true” or any Pope who doesn’t want to follow the Beatitudes is going to need to do some heavy lifting to re-align their org around a different set of principles, or at the very least, signal strongly that those principles don’t currently apply.
robotelvis
Karma: 82
An interesting perspective. I’m not sure I agree, but I’m also not sure I disagree.