Tag Archives: Google

How does your company culture stack up?

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A great article from Mashable – by Lauren Drell on improving your company culture.  All the tips make perfect sense and are not too difficult to do – but they may require change in your thought process.

Take a read… 9 Tips for a Better Company Culture.

Google company culture

Your company culture is the killer differentiator between you and the competition – it’s why guys want to work for you in the first place, and why they will in many cases go out of their ways to secure a position with you.  They like what you do, your vision and the opportunities with you and want to be part of your journey.  Take Apple, Google and Amazon as prime examples of well known companies with great cultures where people want to work.

Apple company culture

Lauren suggests a number of different tips on how you can change your company culture for the better.  I’ll summarise these below:

  1. Hiring should be a continuous process and not just when you have specific vacancies.
  2. Encourage entrepreneurial thinking.  What would people do if it was their company.
  3. Hire fantastic people, remember people are your business.
  4. Lead by example – culture starts with you.  Show passion for the company and vision.
  5. Character counts – hire people for attitude and positivity.
  6. Don’t forget the freelancers or recent graduates.
  7. Your gut reaction is more often than not right – listen to it more.
  8. Encourage ownership and flexibility – we want happy people.
  9. Continue to build your company culture.

Lauren sums it up very well in one sentence…

“Hire in tech, product or business, but only take people that really wow you.”

A great culture, means an even better team, resulting in better productivity from the guys, improved services, better relationships with your customers and a great vibe in the market about you.

Culture word cloud

Is this the future of photography?

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A fascinating post by John Neel at Pixiq about Google Glasses and the future of photography…

How far off mainstream these are I’m not sure.  I’ve seen the ads and videos, read the posts, dreamt the dreams and yes can see how cool they look and the potential applications.  But when?

To quote John Neel from the Pixiq post…

This really is major step.  Additional relevant data and information about things you’re looking at, when you’re looking at them.  The possibilities are endless and what was your mobile phone providing you with computing power, is now strap to the side of your head in your glasses.  The next step – in your contact lenses or implants?  Think Cyborg as John says.

And big data as we know it today is only going to get a whole lot bigger very quickly.

 

How many recovery days over Easter?

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Last run was last Thursday – 4 days off over Easter and then back tomorrow.  That’s a whole 4 days with no running (or any other exercise).  Too many recovery days this close to the marathon?  Don’t know.  Feels good but not quite right – part of the taper feeling.  Feet working nicely and not sore, and blister that I’d had on one big toe has gone, so all good.

Recovery days are definitely a must and I normally have one day of no exercise, between runs when training.  Got to let the body get back to it’s best and get ready.

First image that showed up with Google search for “recovery” was Eminem’s album cover – never heard of it before (a quick listen on iTunes and not for me).  Never mind it being the first image on the search – it’s like the first page of them.  The power of page ranking!

No running today but will do some stretching and strength training later.  And get the foam roller out for some torture training.  Nice site here with some good hip stretches in – worth a look if you’re not sure how to stretch or need some new ones.  Still not got into the habit of daily stretching – rubbish really.  Can’t get my head around why it’s so difficult to do.

Do you stretch every day?  If yes, how did you get yourself started?

Let it (virtually) snow

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In the absence of real snow, we have the virtual alternative.  Watch this page slowly and you’ll see “snowflakes” falling across it after a few seconds – the wonders of clever technology (thanks to WordPress).  On a similar thread, Google have their own little snowy themed “Easter Egg” this year.  Go to the main Google page, type in “let it snow” – without the “” – and click search.  Snow starts to fall across your screen and after a while it frosts up and a new defrost button appears.  Have never understood how someone has the time to develop these and why.  Maybe I need to read a bit more about them – by clicking on the link above.  I’m sure there’s some logic behind them somewhere.

A white Christmas in London this year?  Probably not – no sign still of the arctic winter that was predicted.  Though little Mr. Noble has now had 2 snowy Christmas times – not on Christmas Day specifically but around then – out of the 2 he’s had in total.  His 3rd this year.

A lot can happen in 4 seconds

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Having knocked a whole 40 seconds off my 5km times last week, I was raring to go this week and improve on other distances.  First up was 10 miles through Twickenham and along the Thames to Richmond Bridge (and back).  A lovely run and ground I’m familiar with – from almost 3 years of daily running commutes to and from work in Richmond.

The plan was to go for 7 minutes 30 seconds per mile – 30 seconds faster than the planned marathon pace.  I managed to do 8 miles at this pace last week, so 2 more couldn’t be hard, could it?  Got off to a slower start – about 7:45 per mile and kept it around that level, edging up to 7:56 at one point and then back down to 7:48 ish.

Having concentrated on pace runs recently, I’m convinced it’s all about getting your starting pace right.  If you start too slow, it’s very difficult to improve.  The so-called split run (where you do the second half faster) is actually very difficult to do.  The first 1/2 mile or so is critical and where you need to get the pace right.  With 35,000 other runners in the London Marathon this is even more challenging, as you’re not running at your ideal pace from the go.  This needs some thinking about – if I want to achieve my 8 minutes per mile pace.

Although I did set off slower than planned today, I finished a whole 4 seconds faster than 2 weeks back when I did the same run.  Not a lot – particularly over a longer distance – but it made me think what can you actually do in 4 seconds.  A lot according to a quick Google search (side note – Google still my favourite search engine by a long shot; you know they’ve got something right when your 5 year old understands the concept of “Googling” something)…

  1. Folding a shirt in 4 seconds – and yes someone’s filmed this being done
  2. Catch a piranha
  3. Form a lasting impression (4 Seconds)

It’s also the name of a marketing company that I have no connections with and until tonight hadn’t heard of.  But it’s a cool name and I like their site and what their aims are!

Happy running!