Sundar Pichai, head of product and
engineering at Google, was announced
as CEO of the company on Tuesday. A
shocking move on many accounts for
many, but logical, because Google
is arguably known as an extension of its co-founders: Larry Page and
Sergey Brin. Google as we know it now ceases to
exist. A new entity called Alphabet has
been created by Google's co-founders,
where Page takes over as CEO and Brin
the president. Google, on the other
hand, becomes a wholly-owned subsidiary. The new entity has
been created because Google itself was
moving into many divergent product
categories which were at loggerheads
with its core internet services business.
Research skunkworks groups like Google X, healthcare focused groups
like Calico and Life Sciences, and IoT
subsidiaries like Nest are now part of
Google. Hence, Alphabet has been created,
where a much trimmed down Google is
another cog in the wheel, focusing on
internet products - Android, Chrome,
Apps, YouTube, Maps and Search. So here's why Pichai was made the
CEO of Google:
1. Pichai was already heading product management and engineering for all
these projects since last October. This
was intended so that Page himself
could focus on "moonshot" projects
that could have a 10X impact. For all
intents, Android, Chrome, Apps, YouTube, Maps and Search were being
headed by him. Pichai was making all
the big calls for these products.
2. Pichai is considered to be one of the most versatile executives in the tech
industry. With a shrewd instinct for the
product, coupled with business savvy,
Pichai is the perfect person to lead
Google's internet products. Perhaps,
even more than Larry Page, whose penchant for moonshot is sometimes so
long-term that it can be considered to
be illogical.
3. Pichai is Page's most trusted lieutenant. Since 2012, when Page took
over the reins of Google again from
Eric Schmidt, Page installed a core
team of vice presidents which included
people like Vic Gundotra, Andy Rubin,
Pichai, Nikesh Arora and more. Pichai has outlasted all of them at the
company partially because one by one
he managed to cannibalise their roles
into his initial role of being the head of
Chrome. Rubin relinquished control of
Android in 2014, for a robotic project at Google and Pichai was made the
singular overlord of Google's two
operating systems. Under him both
operating systems have come closer. By
October 2014, Pichai was made the
single most influential executive at Google because he took over product
management and engineering for
everything from Chrome to Google
Maps.
4. Pichai being an extremely talented executive has also been a target for
Google's competitors. Back in late
2013, when Microsoft was looking to
succeed Steve Ballmer as CEO, Pichai
for some time was in the running to
replace Ballmer. Eventually, Microsoft chose internally with Satya Nadella.
However, with Page being CEO, there
was little room for growth for Pichai.
Now that Alphabet has been created
Pichai is now Google's CEO. Alphabet
could also be a move towards retaining some of the Google's talent. In the last
few years, many old hands have moved
on from the company. Pichai's exit will
be a big blow.
5. Pichai is also the person at Google who's focused more towards emerging
markets than any other Google
executive. As emerging markets are
seen as future growth markets, a focus
on them is seen to be critical. Under
Pichai, Google launched the Android One programme in India and other
emerging markets. Chrome OS was
conceived as a OS for low-cost
computers and that are tethered to the
internet, something Pichai believes to
be the future of computing in emerging markets. YouTube is now offline and
content can be consumed without the
internet and the same holds true for
Google Maps. Google Now, Search and
Voice Search provide the best machine
learning adaptive experience and are widely available in emerging markets
unlike competing products from
Microsoft, and Apple. Under Pichai,
even Google+ is being rejigged as its
powerful photos tool has been
transformed into arguably the best free photos solution available on Android
and iOS.