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The best way to guarantee lots of media exposure is to be successful and in some way on the bleeding edge of your markettwo feats that Google has managed since its inception.

Although it recently blew away its financial nay-sayers the media seems to grab for anything that looks like a weakness and pundits love nothing better than taking a poke at a high-flyer.

This is expecially true when high-profile employees leave, which they do no matter how great the companyit’s a personal thingpeople get restless, annoyed, bored, follow their friends. Then there’s changechange that messes with people’s comfort zones because stuff is different.

CEO Eric Schmidt’s comment when asked about those leaving helps put things in perspective, “Let’s do some math. We have 18,000 people. What is 1% turnover [per month]? 180. Do you think 1% turnover is reasonable? In this area, it’s quite low. Ours is some small percent, 1, 2, 3%.

What bothers me is that some people write: “So-and-so left the company.” Well, they don’t also write that we hired 120 people that week, five of whom have Nobel prizes, three of whom have PhDs, and so on, who are beginning their career here now.”

Whereas most companies tightly control IT, Google keeps it’s people happy by giving them as much choice as possible in technology.

CIO Douglas Merrillsays, “Google’s model is choice. We let employees choose from a bunch of different machines and different operating systems, and [my support group] supports all of them. It’s a little bit less cost-efficient — but on the other hand, I get slightly more productivity from my [Google’s] employees.”

Other companies, not just technology, take heed. A wave of that could easily turn into a tusami fueled by Millennials and iPod lovers are agitating for and getting Macs in the workplacean effort not instigated by Apple.

Considering how much money companies spend on incresing productivity and improving retention catering a bit on tech issues seems like a no-brainer.

How open are you/your company to choice?

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Are you tired of the Chinese deficit,
do you want to see less of it?
Are you waiting for the Feds to fix it
when you have the power to nix it?

When you shop to avoid that sin
check the country of origin,
or if you must, buy second hand
at garage sales, thrift stores or Aunt Pam.

Best trick yet, join the boycott that’s brewing
from 6/4 to 7/4 that people are doing.
If just one third of us avoid a hundred bucks of Chinese goods
it’ll kick a billion dollar hole in our trade deficit woods.

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“When asked if Google’s strategy would change as the economy heads into a likely recession, Schmidt replied: “What recession? Innovation has nothing to do with downturns. A hot product will sell just as well in a recession as it will in a nonrecessionby what degree we can get people to substitute [our product] for the other. The strong companies understand this, and during a recession, they invest.”

Google’s vaunted innovation culture is always talked about in terms of catered food and in-house massages, but those and similar perks aren’t what continues to attract and retain the best and brightest.

The real key is Google’s own variation of the 80/20 rule.

In Google’s case, the 80% is the work time that people owe Google, while the 20% is the time they have to work on their own ideas. “It means the managers can’t screw around with the employees beyond some limit. I believe that this innovation escape-valve model is applicable to essentially every business that has technology as a component.”

It works, because no matter how far on or off-the-wall, “The No. 1 thing we do require is: You can do whatever you want as long as you track it.” Further the focus need to fit, “We make an explicit decision to favor the end-user. [We] do not say, “Newspapers should be happy. Advertisers should be happy. Telcos should be happy. Competitors should be happy.” Those are fine if we can do it. But it’s all about end-users.”

Just how earth-shattering are the results of the 20%? How about Google’s entry into cloud computing?

What started as one programmer’s idea to teach the next generation of students how “to workand to dreamon a vastly larger scale” morphed into cloud computing using the enormous muscle available in Google’s global hardware.

Finally, Schmidt doesn’t believe that innovation is “managed.” “You have to have a set of necessary conditions for innovation to occur. To start with, you have to listen to peopleInnovation comes from places that you don’t expect.”

What does your company do to foster innovation?

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Be sure to visit my other WW: bad business image

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“The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects the wind; the realist adjusts the sails” — Anonymous

I love this quote and would love to know who really said it.

I’ve been telling people for years that no matter how much they’re want to change something and how hard they’re willing to work to do it they still need to deal with the reality of now.

There are many things that I disagree with or plain don’t like in the world I inhabit, but I have no magic wand to wave to change them, nor do I have the energy to fight for all of them.

I choose my battles and work to change the ones that are most important to my MAP.

I teach myself to function within the existing reality because railing against them merely wastes my energy, while ignoring the important (to me) ones offends my psyche.

How do you handle your world?

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