EXECUTIVE BOOK SUMMARY of by Zorian Rotenberg & Tom Youngerman Executive Book Summary of “Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs” by John Doerr BOOK AND ITS IMAGE ON THE FRONT COVER OF THIS SUMMARY: The book shown on the front cover is “Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs” by John Doerr; Publisher: Portfolio/Penguin, April 2018; Copyright © 2018 by Bennett Group, LLC. Cover Image Source: www.Amazon.com, Inc. To purchase the original book on Amazon.com, please find the book here: https://www.amazon.com/Measure-What-Matters-Google-Foundation/dp/0525536221. THIS SUMMARY: Executive Book Summary is by Zorian Rotenberg & Tom Youngerman. Published by Atiim, Inc., 25 First Street, Cambridge, MA 02141 USA. Copyright © 2019 Atiim Inc. All rights reserved. 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Contents The Summary in Brief . 1 What You’ll Learn in this Summary . 2 Summary of Measure What Matters Part One – OKRs in Action . 3 Chapter 1 – Google, Meet OKRs ................................................3 Chapter 2 – The Father of OKRs ................................................5 Chapter 3 – Operation Crush, An Intel Story . .8 Chapter 4 – Superpower #1: Focus and Commit to Priorities ......................10 Chapter 5 – Focus: The Remind Story ..........................................11 Chapter 6 – Commit: the Nuna Story ...........................................12 Chapter 7 – Superpower #2: Align and Connect for Teamwork .....................13 Chapter 8 – Align: The MyFitnessPal Story ......................................14 Chapter 9 – Connect: The Intuit Story ...........................................16 Chapter 10 – Superpower #3: Track for Accountability. .17 Chapter 11 – Track: The Gates Foundation Story .................................19 Chapter 12 – Superpower #4: Stretch for Amazing ...............................20 Chapter 13 – Stretch: The Google Chrome Story .................................21 Chapter 14 – Stretch: The YouTube Story .......................................22 Summary of Measure What Matters Part Two – The New World of Work . 23 Chapter 15 – Continuous Performance Management .............................23 Chapter 16 – Ditching Annual Performance Reviews: The Adobe Story . .24 Chapter 17 – Baking Better Everyday: The Zume Pizza Story .......................25 Chapter 18 – Culture .........................................................26 Chapter 19 – Culture Change: The Lumeris Story .................................27 Chapter 20 – Culture Change: Bono’s ONE Campaign Story ........................28 Chapter 21 – The Goals to Come . .29 Summary . 30 The Summary in Brief The book features an excellent Forward from Larry Page, co-founder of Google. Page, who recommends you, “Take OKRs as a blueprint, and make them yours,” continues to use OKRs to this day, some two decades after his introduction. In Part One: OKRs in Action, Doerr details the history of OKRs. From their precursor, Peter Drucker’s Management by Objectives, through his initial exposure to the methodology at the hands of the OKR master, Andy Grove at Intel, to his introduction of the process to Google, The Gates Foundation, and a myriad of other high-performing companies. “Measure What Matters” defines OKRs and their benefits through a series of first-person experiences from industry leaders such as; Larry Page, Bill Gates, Bill Campbell, and others. There are case studies from an array of well-known companies such as Intuit, MyFitnessPal, and Adobe. The stories relate how OKRs’ and their four “Superpowers” of focus, alignment, track, and stretch, contribute to their company’s successes. Part Two: “The New World of Work”, introduces CFRs (Conversations, Feedback, and Recognition) with a focus on Human Resources, corporate culture, and core values. Doerr describes CFRs as giving OKRs their human voice. He continues illustrating the benefits of OKRs and CFRs through case studies focused on things such as replacing an outmoded Annual Performance Review, teamwork and leadership, and adapting corporate culture to the OKR methodology. Part Two concludes with a story of how Bono executes OKRs in his One Foundation to save lives in Africa. After a stirring tribute to Bill Campbell in the Dedication, the book concludes with several Resource Sections, again illustrating how companies utilize OKRs to achieve 10X results. “Measure What Matters” Executive Book Summary 1 What You’ll Learn in this Summary: • How Andy Groves created the OKR methodology, an adaptation of Peter Drucker’s Management by Objectives. • How OKRs were first introduced to Google in 1999, and how they are still in use seventy-five business quarters later. • The Definition of OKRs today, the simple goal-setting methodology. • The four Superpowers of OKRs. • How OKRs and CFRs work together in the new way we work. • How OKRs can change the very culture of your company. • And, much more. “Measure What Matters” Executive Book Summary 2 Summary of Measure What Matters Part One – OKRs in Action Chapter 1 – Google, Meet OKRs “If you don’t know where you’re going, you might not get there.” — Yogi Berra John Doerr tells the story of his initial meeting with the Google leadership team to present OKRs, Objectives and Key Results. In attendance were Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders, and about thirty other members, constituting a majority of their initial staff. Doerr promised three things that day: 1. He would finish his presentation precisely at ninety minutes, and he did, 2. That together they would create the first set of google quarterly OKRs, which they did, and 3. That he would gain management’s endorsement of the system, once again he succeeded. Doerr’s first PowerPoint slide defined OKRs,“A management methodology that helps to ensure that the company focuses efforts on the same important issues throughout the organization.” An OBJECTIVE, he explained, is simply WHAT is to be achieved, no more and no less. By definition, objectives are significant, concrete, action-oriented, and (ideally) inspirational. When properly designed and deployed, they’re a vaccine against fuzzy thinking — and fuzzy execution. KEY RESULTS benchmark and monitor HOW we get to the objective. Effective KRs are specific and time-bound, aggressive yet realistic. Most of all, they are measurable and verifiable. “Measure What Matters” Executive Book Summary 3 At the ninety-minute mark, Doerr summarizes with, “OKRs surface your primary goals. They channel efforts and coordination. They link diverse operations, lending purpose and unity to the entire organization.” As Doerr relates in his book, Brin’s initial response was not exactly a ringing endorsement of the methodology. “Well, we need to have some organizing principle. We don’t have one, and this might as well be it.” In October 2018, for the seventy-fifth consecutive business quarter, Google management will review their performance against OKRs. “Measure What Matters” Executive Book Summary 4 Chapter 2 – The Father of OKRs “Ideas are easy, execution is everything.” — John Doerr In the summer of 1975, between semesters at Harvard Business School, Doerr secures an internship at Intel where he meets Andy Grove. It would be another twelve years before Grove became CEO of Intel; however, he was the recognized leader of management philosophy at the company. During a presentation of Intel strategy and operations, Doerr is first exposed to Dr. Grove’s teachings. His key takeaway, “to claim that knowledge was secondary and execution all-important — well, I wouldn’t learn that at Harvard. I found the proposition thrilling, a real-world affirmation of accomplishment over credentials.” This was also Doerr’s first exposure to OKRs (Objectives and Key Results). Groves explained them in this way, “Now, the two key phrases . are objectives and the key result. And they match the two purposes. The objective is the direction: “We want to dominate the mid-range microcomputer component business.” That’s an objective. That’s where we’re going to go. Key results for this quarter: “Win ten new designs for the 8085” is one key result. It’s a milestone. The two are not the same. The key result has to be measurable. But at the end you can look, and without any arguments: Did I do that, or did I not do it? Yes? No? Simple.” Objectives and Key Results, Yes? No? Simple? A simple methodology that helps to ensure the entire organization is focused against the company’s most important goals. Yes? No? Simple. OKRs – Definition Objectives (Os) • Simply