Customer Reviews

Charlie Rose with Erich Schmidt & Ivan Seidenberg (April 13, 2006)

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Eric Schmidt the CEO of Google talks about the operating philosophy of the company, its constant search for innovation, its giving its employees twenty percent of their time to think about whatever they want and innovate in that way. What I found especially interesting was his describing the future state of humanity as 'perpertual partial attention'. Here he somewhat shocked me by saying that he did not think it would be 'books in the future'. It would be instead being continually 'on- line' and jumping a little here and a little there. He does not comment on the possible downgrading intellectually of humanity involved in this. He instead is enthusiastic about our being here there and everywhere at once. I also very much liked his descrption of the leading innovators and how their minds work. He says that while they are very 'bright' and hard- working the main thing is that one part of their mind is 'crazy' and is working and innovating all the time. Schmidt talks about Google's understanding that it must continuously innovate, not rely on present business model, but find new sources for business. He points out that two great potential areas of growth are China and India.
Seidenberg talks about his company 'Verizon' having a 'core technology' but needing also not to sit still and milk what it already has. He talks about the need to innovate with his ninety billion dollar company and grow at the rate of five percent a year. He speaks about the competition between his company and cable companies. He rejects the idea that the U.S. is behind East Asia in supplying bandwidth. He talks too about his gambling about 'glass technology' for the future . He says his aim is to get 'smarter faster and quicker', to get to the 'market'.
What srikes me personally is how differently these people think than I personally do. But this program presents an interesting insight into the way these 'makers and shakers' of the world think and act.