A low-key style and an unusually firm handle on diplomacy propelled new Google chief executive Sundar Pichai to the top of the search engine giant, former colleagues said, cementing his successes such as creating the Chrome browser.
As part of a major overhaul of its operating structure, Google said on August 10 it was creating a new holding company called Alphabet. Google co-founder Larry Page will step down as Google's chief and 43-year-old Chennai native Pichai was appointed as head of a "slimmed-down" version of the company.
The CEO in his early years
Pichai, who is a graduate of IIT Kharagpur and Stanford University, had “really stepped up since October of last year, when he took on product and engineering responsibility for our Internet businesses,” Mr. Page said in a blog post, adding that he and Mr. Brin were “super excited about his progress and dedication to the company”.
Although Pichai trained in metallurgy and materials science at IIT Kharagpur and Stanford, and did an MBA at Wharton, he was already deeply immersed in the world of electronics.
According to one of his college professors, Pichai “was doing work in the field of electronics at a time when no separate course on electronics existed in our curriculum”.
Starting out at Google
Pichai joined Google just before its 2004 initial public offering. He was known as a “low-key manager” who worked on the Google toolbar and then led the launch of the market-beating Chrome browser in 2008.
Several colleagues who worked with him in the years following said he never seemed ‘annointed’ for the top job, instead names that came up as potential future Google chiefs, included long-time product executives Salar Kamangar, Merissa Mayer and Susan Wojcicki.
Rise to the top
Following this, his rise through the ranks of Google took on an increasingly meteoric tenor, and soon he became Vice President, then Senior Vice President, and ultimately was charged with supervising all Google apps including Gmail and Google Drive and finally given control of Android itself.
Pichai aided his ascent by never trying to steal the limelight and advancing his agenda through quiet advocacy, according to former colleague Keval Desai.
Quiet advocacy
"He's a very very strong opinionated person who has clear point of views about where product and initiative might go, but he's very good at letting other peoples' opinions emerge before he gives his own," Desai, now an investor, told Reuters .
As time went on, Kamangar was replaced as head of the company's YouTube division last year by Wojcicki. Mayer left in 2012 to run technology company Yahoo.
Tony Zingale, the executive chairman of Jive Software, said Pichai was "incredibly insightful and direct", acting as "the quiet yet thoughtful outside director" when he served on the board of the collaboration software maker for several years until July 2013.
His promotion to Product Chief in October 2014 literally made him Mr. Page’s second-in-command with oversight of day-to-day operations for all of Google's major products including maps, search, and advertising.
Samsung Vs Google
Some of Pichai’s colleagues describe him in the media as a skilled diplomat, including Caesar Sengupta, a Google Vice President who has worked with Pichai for eight years, and said to Bloomberg News , “I would challenge you to find anyone at Google who doesn’t like Sundar or who thinks Sundar is a jerk.”
Nowhere was Pichai’s easy blending of techno-diplomatic competence evident than in early 2014, when the fracas between Samsung and Google was reaching fever pitch, at the time over Samsung’s Magazine UX interface for its tablets, which Google felt may have been deliberately underselling Google services such as its Play apps store.
He must also contend with Apple Inc, which has made bigger inroads with its music services and in wearable devices.
Navigated politics
"Google has politics like any other large company, and Sundar navigated those politics to make his team successful while inflicting the least possible damage on any other team," Beckmann wrote.
Pichai most eloquently outlined this mission when he said, “For me, it matters that we drive technology as an equalising force, as an enabler for everyone around the world. Which is why I do want Google to see, push, and invest more in making sure computing is more accessible, connectivity is more accessible.”
Titbit
- Pichai is an alumnus of the Jawahar Vidyalaya Senior Secondary School in Ashok Nagar, Chennai. Pichai studied here till the 10th standard, before moving to a Tamil Nadu state board school, Vana Vani, located in the IIT Madras Campus.
- This is the second instance in recent times that an individual from Chennai has been in the spotlight. The first one is Sofia Ashraf , who shot to fame for her viral video Kodaikanal Won’t, which questions FMCG giant Hindustan Unilever for subjecting the residents of Kodaikanal to mercury poisoning.
**With inputs from: Report by Narayan Lakshman of The Hindu and Team BLoC