Google Bets Big on Sundar Pichai
- In Mathematics, Science & Technology
- 07:26 PM, Aug 24, 2015
- Bhanu Gouda
IITs have a history of supplying business leaders to large corporations in the United States and across the world. There are not just business leaders but influential technology leaders in large corporations who have come from the IITs. From Ex Bell Labs Chief Arun Netravali to current IBM Research head Arvind Krishna there are many good examples of IITians leading prestigious R&D units of a big Technology Companies. Often engineers from these prestigious IIT’s move from being a technology leader to becoming a business leader. Vinod Khosla who founded Sun Microsystems (now part of ORACLE) was probably the first famous IITian to become CEO of a Fortune 500 company. There are countless number of IITians who took leadership roles in large corporations across the world since that time. So, the appointment of Sundar Pichai as CEO of Google by the current CEO& Founder of Google, Larry Page is not a surprise. However does this mean that we add another IITian to the list of CEOs of large corporations? Not really.
The scale of the Google in technology world is big. Being appointed as CEO of Google search is a big deal. How big is it? It is like running a company that knows the world or is trying to know the world. It’s like running a company that gives answers to all questions known or unknown. It is also like running a company that knows the secret habits of the world populace. It is a huge deal for any CEO. Google when started, was just a small company. Not sure how many people born after 90s know this but Google was just a search company which with the help of Yahoo competed with the likes of AltaVista, Netscape, Infospace and even AOL. It has now morphed into an online advertising behemoth that is expanding into many diverse areas. So becoming CEO of Google is a big deal.
The tech journalists and some Wall Street news reporters made Pichai’s appointment sound like like not such a big moment. After all he still reports to Larry Page, they argued. It is just a change in the company structure. The new Alphabet Company that Larry Page has created is the real deal. Pichai happens to be a leader of the biggest chunk of business, but still reports to the Page was the crux of their argument. Does that mean this promotion is nothing significant? On closer analysis, they are wrong. It is a very significant decision. It completely entrusts Pichai with the business while setting the founders free to work on important tech projects.
Both Larry Page and Sergey Brin have always looked for new innovations based on the big bets in technology. Game Changer in world of technology is obviously an idea that will make money and continue the innovation. Google is a diversified company that has expanded into many areas. Their experiments on diverse areas of technology has routinely puzzled many pundits from the Wall Street. We often hear market analysts criticize Google with comments like “Google just throws mud on the wall to see if it sticks”. They were criticized for their failed experiments like Google Desktop search application, Google Wave and Google Plus. But Google had more success than failures in the last decade. The Gmail, Maps, Android and Chrome browser, Chrome Operating system are solid products which have succeeded.
Google is like Mitsubishi or General Electric of the technology world. Although of late these conglomerates are cutting some of their businesses as their strategy shifted to focus business with high profit margins. Google is working at full speed on anything they can get their hands on. Google provides internet connections to rural areas using balloons. They started Google Fi mobile cellular service which is carrier agnostic. They provide fiber optic network in some cities in America. The home gadgets company Nest of the NEST thermostat is part of Google. Some of their experiments under their Google X projects include the Google Glass, driverless cars and contact lens which can detect diabetes by measuring the sugar levels in the eye’s fluid. They purchased Boston Robotics which is working on new robots that look and run like dogs while carrying load. While consumed in this frenzy of research, they had bandwidth to enter the music business and mobile payments. Their technology is touching many aspects of human life. One innovation or one invention will create that never ending revenue stream. Recently they even tried to purchase a vegan Burger Company, which makes a vegan burger look, taste and feel like real red meat.
While Google spends money on these moonshot projects, they need a steady stream of revenue to sustain the R&D efforts and acquisitions. What really gives that revenue? It is Google Search. Google search was the sole bread earner for Google when it started out and it still is the largest business in terms of revenue. The revenue from Android and YouTube cannot be compared with the revenue from the dominant search business. Android helps Google to steer users to their search on mobile space. YouTube helps them to advertise, but the platform gets help from the Google search. For Google, it is all about offering their search on the desktop computers as well as mobile platform or even maps. Small businesses pay to Google to be displayed on the Google maps as preferred search. In a nutshell, Google search business brings money to the company. It gives that steady income so that the moon shot projects can spend money and purse new things.
Google search unit is a strange division inside Google with its own culture that defines Google. Current Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer used to be the head of Google Search few years back. The team was focused on keeping a minimalistic web page. The design of the Google main search page was done with taking input based on data rather than a web designers creating it. Few years back some of the designers left Google complaining about lack of creativity. However nothing really happened to the search operations. There came many search engines, including Bing after Google. These new search engines tried hard to dethrone Google from Search. The Russians and Chinese built their own search engines. But nothing happened to Google. Their market share is still the largest. They are still at the top of their game. Each time Google tweaks their search algorithm, which is called Google Dance, many search results will be pushed to second page. I remember reading somewhere “the best place to store a dead body is Page No 2 of Google search”. What gets displayed on the first page of Google is very important. Currently another IITian, a Google Fellow Amit Singhal heads that division. He will be reporting to Sundar Pichai. So these two Indian born executives will help Internet’s quest for asking questions.
Since assuming the leadership of Android and Chrome divisions, Pichai integrated them very well. Do remember he had large shoes to fill in when he took over Android from the founder of Android, the visionary called Andy Rubin (Android was purchased by Google originally). Then he integrated Chrome browser into a nice platform that can work with extensions. The user interface of the Chrome is simple and elegant. The Chrome operating system was another example of his clear strategy as a viable third option to the Windows and Mac operating systems. From a humble beginnings in 2009 the Chrome operating system is expected to reach a market share of 7% in 2015. It was just 1% in 2014.The fact that Dell, which is partly owned by Microsoft sells Chromebooks is an example of how Sundar Pichai’s leadership evolved into working with major computer manufacturers owned by competition. In all his public meetings he showed that rare mix of cool yet geeky, focused yet relaxed kind of regular person. Check the link below to see his interaction dealing with Bollywood stars and Googlers.
Finally, a comparison with another Sundar, fondly called General Sundarji came to my memory. I recollected from an old article that General Sundarji who started as a soldier, rose through the ranks to become a General. General Sundarji was considered a scholarly General. One who could fight in the trenches and at the same time modernize the Army. Sundar Pichai’s story looks similar. He rose through the ranks of different Google divisions working with engineers to become the CEO of Google. Larry wanted a perfect leader to run the company he found. Often it is tough for founders of such great companies to relinquish their “baby” and hand it to others. When they finally do so they critically analyze the leaders who they trust to lead. I am sure in Sundar Pichai Larry Page has found a perfect man to lead Google.
Until next ‘Google’ comes out of Larry Page’s Alphabet Company, this ‘Sundar ji’ will be the General of Google.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8YjvHYbZ9w
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-28310697
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_8UBv5bZo0
http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3058517
By Bhanu Gouda
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