In their 2004 founders’ letter, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google revealed a newly coined company motto. Three little words that the company insists have defined it, acted as a central pillar to their ethos, and reminded the world of its altruistic intentions.Those words? “Don’t be evil.”
It’s a heroic banner that sounds more Star Wars than star business, but the general idea was always to put users first. Google gained the trust and respect of users by cultivating this mantra and appearing, to all intents and purposes, to eschew corporate money-grabbing and simply make our lives easier with its services.
Bingo. Billion dollar business. Wool. Eyes. Over.
“This ‘don’t be evil’ mantra. It’s bullsh*t,” announced Steve Jobs at a conference at the beginning of 2010. Sure, the late Apple boss was fuming over Google’s move into the phone market with the launch of Android, but maybe he had a point.
Google and Apple used to be chums. Google CEO Eric Schmidt was on the board of Apple for three years, and it’s a common Valley rumour that they had a pact not to poach each other’s staff. Read More
