Just finished reading Jeff Jarvis’ What Would Google Do? The books premise is how the Google business model can be used in nearly all aspects of business and society from airlines to religion. The key elements of a Google model are:

• Give control to your clients.
• Be free.
• Act fast.
• Iterate.
• Leverage the wisdom of crowds.
• How to get ‘Google Juice’ to juice your popularity, links, etc.

The first part of the book is a great read. While it does borrow on a number of other books and principles including the Cluetrain Manifesto, it continues to emphasize the nature of business today and how the influence of crowds and social networks of the Internet are changing the way businesses interact with their clients and how small voices can make tremendous impact on huge and entrenched industries.

While many of the examples seem far fetched or a matter of extreme optimism, it’s refreshing to think that companies will actually start to behave and act like human beings; and treat their customers as intelligent and thoughtful. Just think if we could eleiminate monopolies and oligarchies to achieve open competition, communication, ideas, and democracy across business, social structures, and politics? Now that is some juice worth drinking!

Tags: Google, Google Juice, Jeff Jarvis, social media, social network, What would Google Do?