Review of
Becoming
Facebook: The 10 Challenges That Defined the Company That’s Disrupting the
World, by Michael Hoefflinger ISBN 9780814437964
Five out of five stars
While they are
always interesting, books that document the history of the rise of a powerful
technology company sometimes reach the point of elevating a founder to cult
status. That is not the case with this book as it looks at Facebook and the
founder and primary architect Mark Zuckerberg. Although it is clear that the success
of Facebook is largely due to the vision of Zuckerberg and his willingness to
consider the long haul, other people that were important in the development of
the company are also given some ink. There are times when you read about Steve
Jobs, the impression is that he did it all himself.
The number of
stories about the rants carried out by tech titans such as Jobs and Bill Gates
are legendary in the literature, not so with Zuckerberg. While he is
hard-nosed, there is little mention of him belittling or being verbally nasty
to others working for Facebook.
One of the most
impressive characteristics of Zuckerberg is that he has become fluent in
Mandarin to the point that he has lectured in Chinese to audiences in China.
This is at a time when Facebook is almost totally banned from Chinese
territory. This is behavior almost unheard of among American heads of
companies, taking the time to learn about the cultures of the markets they hope
to penetrate.
This is a great
book about one of the most powerful companies on the planet, one willing to
spend whatever it takes to expand. Furthermore, unlike some other technology
companies, Facebook still has room to grow, with massive populations still not
wasting company time by accessing Facebook at work. In many ways it is clear
that the smartest business person in America in the last twenty years was
Zuckerberg. After reading this book it is hard to argue against that position.
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