So, I made a post today on my undisclosed work blog that talked about companies who are imitating Google and why they aren’t going to win by copying.

When I got home tonight I had my brand new copy of The Economist waiting for me, which makes me a bit too excited, but whatever. I started looking through the pages and I saw a special report on Google called “Fuzzy Math.”

This is how the article started:

Mathematically confidant drivers stuck in the usual jam on highway 101 through Silicon Valley were recently able to pass time contemplating a billboard that read: “{first 10-digit prime found in consecutive digits of e}.com.” The number in question, 7427266391, is a sequence that starts at the 101st digit of e, a constant that is the base of the natural logarithm. The select few who worked this out and made it to the right website then encountered a “harder” riddle. Solving it led to another web page where they were finally invited to submit their curriculum vitae.

If a billboard can capture the soul of a company, this one did, because the anonymous company, this one did, because the anonymous advertiser was Google…

Now I am sure the billboard was the talk of the tech world a while back and The Economist and I are totally behind the times, but that is beside the point. The point is, when Google does stuff like this, they win the hearts of the best talent in the business. And winning the hearts of the super smart and talented is just as important as giving them the most money – because they can get a bunch of money wherever they go. It’s the culture that will make them show up to work every day.

So my question to you, if you are trying to get the best talent out there – is your culture up to snuff?