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Eric Schmidt: On April 4th I Will Step Down, Larry Page to be CEO

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41–50 of 160 posts

Re: Eric Schmidt: On April 4th I Will Step Down, Larry Page to be CEO

#42

From my (very limited) perspective, this seems to be mostly publicly clarifying the roles they were already effectively serving in their ad hoc division of labor for a while. Larry has been the most involved in the technology details, Sergey has been the most involved in the blue-sky new projects, and Eric has been the most involved in the interaction between Google and other entities (as well as very high level dire…

Agreed. It seems like it may just be a PR move... Larry doesn't have Eric's growing reputation for slight creepiness. People might like the idea (whether it's true or not) that he's the one making all the calls.

I like both of them, I think they are both usually right or at least I'm confident that they've thought about things thoroughly. Larry though in general is much less guarded when he speaks. He talks a lot more like an engineer, which I think contributes substantially to his likability.

He might say things that are controversial, but he's curt enough that he's not going to be misunderstood. If people disagree with him, they're a lot more likely to be disagreeing with what he actually believes rather than how the he's been sound-bited.

Re: Eric Schmidt: On April 4th I Will Step Down, Larry Page to be CEO

#43
post #37
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But on the other side of the coin, this makes it a bit harder for Good Czar Larry to hide behind nasty old Eric Schmidt whenever Google does something inept or morally questionable.

well maybe that's the point?

I'd like to think so, but it seems very unlikely.

Re: Eric Schmidt: On April 4th I Will Step Down, Larry Page to be CEO

#45
post #6

I just can't picture Larry as CEO of one of the largest corporations in the world, I'm frankly surprised he'd want this!

Me neither. He's obviously amazingly talented, however, he has always struck me as shy/inarticulate/"slow"

Watch this talk he gave a couple years ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFb2rvmrahc

Doesn't strike me as CEO material, especially for a company like Google.

Re: Eric Schmidt: On April 4th I Will Step Down, Larry Page to be CEO

#47
post #27

Tried and true: founders make terrific CEOs. EDIT, Context being tech: Hastings, Ellison, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Jobs, Gates. I'd say Google was a company in the spirit of these before WorldCom, Enron and Countrywide Financial.

Except when they don't... Angelo Mozilo, Bernie Ebbers and Ken Lay (among many others) come to mind.

Bravo on conjuring a list of relevant counterexamples. Surely boards on product companies will look to the Enron scandal when assessing whether a founder has the competence or vision to lead a company.
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