President of Google China Lee Kai-Fu

Zhou: Mr. Li reports to the engineering and technology departments.

21CBH: Many multinationals appoint co-presidents to manage their business in China. So does Google. Why?

Zhou: I think the popularity of installing co-presidents reflects the importance of the region in companys' overall strategies. Google has high expectations for its business in China.

21CBH: Do you think headquarters has granted enough executive power to you and Mr. Lee?

Zhou: Headquarters has given us a lot of power to deal with our daily affairs. We can make decisions for the domestic market. We can also arrange an overall plan or a market plan by ourselves within our capacity, and communicate with headquarters when facing problems.

21CBH: How do headquarters assess your work?

Zhou: First, they examine whether our customer base is growing and whether their levels of satisfaction are improving. This is the most important part of the valuation. Secondly, in addition to the number of customers who use our products, they consider the number of enterprises who advertise on Google and the profits generated. The third consideration is the progress we make establishing our team. We need to accelerate our pace in building a team in China, now Google has a quite strict recruitment procedure.

21CBH: How do you assess your work and your employee's work?

Zhou: I assess myself every month. I hope it can become weekly, but some tasks have to be finished in several weeks. For most employees, we have a quarterly review, but I actually tend to measure our performance against our work plan on a daily basis. Currently the most important assessment is the annual one, we call it the 360-degree assessment. Managers review their underlings and give them advice, and subordinates review their supervisors at the same time. Our bonuses are allocated on a quarterly basis.

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