Category Archives: Google

Smart Creatives – How Google Works

Sean and Michal of Webanywhere

Sean and Michal of Webanywhere

Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg have recently published a book called “How Google Works”. In it, the former CEO of Google and now Chairman Eric and his product guru Jonathan describe what has made Google successful.

One of their ideas is to organise the business around the people with the biggest impact. The 2 pizza rule from Jeff Bezos is recommended when getting started with projects. A small team that can be fed by 2 pizzas can be highly effective. The 7 rule explains how each manager in a business should have at least 7 direct line reports, as this keeps the organisation flat and avoids micromanagement. Eric and Jonathan actually recommend that organisational reorganisation should be done in a day and the remaining issues left to the smart creatives in the business to sort out.

So what is and who are these smart creatives? Firstly, they are learning animals with lots of curiosity. Of course being smart creatives they are obviously smart people. They want to make the world a better place and are always thinking of a better way of doing things. Smart creatives have a growth mindset and can live with ambiguity.

If smart creatives are what’s needed how do you get them? Google take the whole hiring process very seriously – so much so that every candidate’s data sheet was vetted by Larry Page until recently. Hiring is not just the job of management – it’s the job of everyone in the business. Google only hires great candidates. Great candidates are smart, ethical people who will challenge the organisation. These smart creatives want to make the product much better and get stuff done. They are passionate and believe in collaboration over competition.

Google believes in relationships, not hierarchies, and a culture of ‘Yes’. We all need to hire smart creatives who have an upward career trajectory. We must expand the field of potential candidates and not just recruit for now, but for the future. If we are to become smart creatives ourselves we must become learning animals.

 

 

Webanywhere at Learning Technologies and BETT 2013

Leaning Tech 2

Webanywhere are taking up residence in London this week as we show off the latest in education and workplace learning technology at BETT 2013 and The Learning Technologies Exhibition.

My colleagues in Workplace Learning and I kicked off proceedings this morning at Learning Technologies, with a rush of visitors to our stand (122 – come and visit us tomorrow if you get the chance, it’s well worth a visit!). As well as getting a chance to talk face-to-face with workplace learning professionals, and promoting new offerings (such as the Compliance Module for Moodle, and a groundbreaking social video platform for training) we are also hosting our partner The British Safety Council on the stand, as they promote their great range of health and safety e-learning courses.

A big highlight at the show tomorrow is the joint Webanywhere-Google seminar – Stretch your organisation further with Google Apps for Enterprise – not to be missed.

Tomorrow also sees the first day of BETT 2013, the world’s largest technology in education show. The Webanywhere presence at the show will be our largest to date – here’s just some of the reasons to drop by our stand:

    • Free Mathsanywhere account for primary schools who visit the Webanywhere stand
    • 5% discount for BETT visitors on the Webanywhere product range. Simply visit the stand and get the promo code(s)
    • Launch of the new look Learner Journey e-portfolio and safe social network for schools, with enhanced functionality, improved user interface and a range of new themes
    • Demonstrating the great new Learnanywhere mobile app, which allows the primary specific VLE to be accessed on the go
    • A joint promotion with Planet Sherston (stand F310) – take a product demo at both stands and claim a sticker. Attach both stickers to flyer to get a promo code for a fantastic special offer

…as well as the chance to talk to our e-learning consultants, who I can proudly say are the best in the business.

I’ll have updates throughout the week; be sure to follow @WebanywhereWork and @webanywhere_ltd for the latest Twitter updates, or check out the show hashtags #bettshow and #LT13UK

Learning Tech

It’s Showtime – BETT Show 2013 & Learning Technologies 2013

A very Happy New Year to you all!

We’ve had a fast start to 2013, with more new starters and some exciting developments
approaching fruition – more on that another time…

January sees Webanywhere at the two big ICT exhibitions this month. We’ll be at both BETT and Learning Technologies, at Excel London Jan 30th- Feb 2nd, and Olympia 2 London 29th-30th Jan respectively, with a bigger and better presence than ever.

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I’ll be at both shows, and am relishing the chance to chat to customers and non-customers alike. Our stands will be manned by our fantastic team of e-learning specialists and developers, so if you would like to ask us a question or see our products in action, make sure you stop by stand F280 at BETT or stand 122 at Learning Technologies. To book a meeting in advance, click here for BETT and here for Learning Technologies.

I recently had the pleasure of another trip down to Google UK headquarters. As a Google
Enterprise partner, and Google Apps for Education reseller we really value our relationship (and internally Webanywhere’s use of Google Apps for Business allows us to communicate and collaborate in a way that wouldn’t be possible otherwise).

Sean at Google

I am delighted to announce that Webanywhere and Google will be conducting a joint
seminar at Learning Technologies – Stretch your organisation further with Google Apps for Enterprise, examining amongst other things the integration of this powerful suite of cloud based tools with Totara LMS.

We hope you can make it to at least one of the shows, and that they provide you with new ideas and inspiration for the coming year.

Silicon Valley Comes to the UK

I was delighted to receive an invite to attend SVC2UK 2012 – Silicon Valley Comes to the UK 2012– and last week travelled to Cambridge to take part in this annual meet up of UK business leaders, Cambridge University students and the cream of Silicon Valley.

The event brings together digital entrepreneurs, investors, thought leaders and the brightest students of Cambridge University to debate, discuss, create and fund the technology of tomorrow.

As the sector under the spotlight this year was Education Technology, the event was of particular value to me. My main focus was the ‘Scale Up’ theme of the event – examining how to transition growing tech companies into internationally operating concerns with turnovers in the hundreds of millions.

SVC2UK+2

Webanywhere are certainly ‘scaling up’ as we broaden our horizons internationally, and so I was invited to join the CEO workshop event comprising of leaders of companies on track for rapid growth, who are looking to accelerate that growth.

I was inspired to speak with some of those who have been there and done it on the grandest scale, including Megan Smith, VP, Google [x], Rahul Vohra, Founder and CEO of Rapportive and Angela Lin, Head of YouTube Education. As you may imagine, I came away with plenty of food for thought. Something that struck a chord with me was that the best companies empower their staff to act like the CEO – to own their issues, to take control of their projects and to be proactive. If you have talented people, provide the space to be creative and you will be richly rewarded.

I also got chance to sit in on a very lively debate: The Future of Learning – What will students’ lives look like in 10 years time?, covering topics such as the flipped classroom, learning platforms and social and mobile learning.

The main thought left stuck in my head when leaving Cambridge was the need to stay dissatisfied. There are always opportunities to improve your offering, there is always a new challenge to stretch your ability, and always another horizon to aim for.

Welcome to BETT 2012

sean

Yesterday I travelled all the way down to London with the team for the first day of the BETT Show 2012. We set up in the morning at Stand K49, and its been all go since then. With Wednesday traditionally meant to be a quiet day, I wouldn’t be surprised if we were rushed off our feet all the way till Saturday 14th of January when it finishes.

The show, for those of you that don’t know, is an annual event that showcases the best uses of ICT and e-learning in education. It’s a great opportunity for me and my staff to meet new customers and catch up with a few familiar faces too. The exhibition is also a big inspiration, with plenty of exciting demonstrations and eye-catching inventions.

We started the day with a Webanywhere presentation at the Google stand all about Google Apps. Then, we dived right in at our own stand with chats, coffee and demos of our software. My personal highlight was showing off the brand new version of our school website builder; School Jotter 2.

As well as a team at the stand, we also had our multimedia crew filming and snapping the event. Take a look at their BETT 2012 video round-up of the show, featured below.