Ken Auletta’s new book is a journalist’s take on the Google phenomenon. He conducted interviews with some 150 current and former Google employees as well as the CEO Eric Schmidt and the normally media-shy founders Larry and Sergey.

Read the transcript from the Charlie Rose interview. And the addendum of 25 media maxims to create a consequential media empire in the digital age. Full download after the jump…

25 Media Maxims

1. Passion wins
2. Focus is required
3. Vision is required
4. A team culture is vital
5. Treat engineers as kings
6. Treat customers like kings
7. Brand often means trust
8. Every company should strive to take the risks out of capitalism
9. Every company is a frenemy
10. The speed of change accelerates
     

One of the better jobs in the Google economy (and yes, that ‘Googleconomy’ has been halved, but is still backed by some of the most innovative minds in tech and beyond) - running Google.org’s active philanthropic arm - just got a little more active for Larry Brilliant, who’s transitioning to “Chief Philanthropic Evangelist.” Per Google’s blog earlier this week, Brilliant (luckily an appropriate, not ironic name) set out that he is more the ‘ideas and partnership’ maker than the operational executive. His long-time colleague Megan Smith takes over day-to-day running of Google.org. I’ve met Larry a few times at Google Zeitgeist conferences and via my past role at Participant Media; and, as a “rainmaker of change,” it’s good to see Larry move into a more idea-centric role. What made this announcement interesting to New Medici was: when should a thought leader move away from day-to-day operations and concentrate on advancing/innovating the company’s cause directly?  

In 2008, many of our national billionaires gave much of their fortunes away, involuntarily. From Sheldon Adelson, the Vegas and Macau casino billionaire who lost $24 billion ($24B) to Warren Buffet, Bill Gates and the Google guys, last year was a very difficult year to amass. Now who’s to say that losing “a few personal billion” when you still have “a few” is an innovation problem - it matters when these entrepreneurs pull back on progress and humanitarian giving to stem private losses.

Per Forbes, Warren Buffet lost $16.5B, Gates was down $12.3B and Google’s Larry Page lost more than half of his g-trove: $11.9B.