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Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet

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Re: Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet

#191

Post by nostrademons »

nvrspyx wrote: post #25

I see a few comments praising Sundar. As someone who doesn’t follow closely, but feels that Google has deteriorated dramatically under his watch, does someone mind explaining the reasoning for said praise?

He's a Type-2 CEO [1], a Ballmer, Sculley, or Cook figure. These types of personalities are generally incapable of innovating, but they're very good at maximizing the growth, efficiency, and profit potential of existing product lines. Wall Street loves them because they lead to higher EPS; the general public generally considers them mediocre because they don't lead to awesome new toys to play with.

Personally I thought Sundar was a very good manager (much better than Larry, who honestly sucked as a CEO) but a poor innovator. As a HN commenter you're probably looking for an innovator. The average user (who just wants Google to stay up) and the average investor (who just want to make more money) are quite happy having a good manager who can optimize operations, though.

[1] https://a16z.com/2010/12/16/ones-and-twos/

Re: Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet

#192

Post by cromwellian »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #175

Incredible way to paper over the likely source: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/06/alphabet-board-investigating... Sergey Brin and Larry Page were terrible to women. They engaged in, promoted, and paid for sexual harassment. Shortly after the Alphabet board is investigating misconduct, Larry and Page are "retiring". And of course, they're still worth billions.

This article says David Drummond was involved in an extramarital affair with an employee, it doesn’t say that Page or Brin are being investigated for sexual misconduct.

Where’s your evidence that they’re stepping down over some personal scandal? This seems like a rather bold claim.

Re: Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet

#193

Post by droopyEyelids »

hnzix wrote: post #177
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #108

Weirdly this feels like a non-issue. Google has not felt like it has a "personality" for some time - maybe it's a function of hitting mega-corporate size, but it also feels a bit like when Microsoft (a Computer on every Desktop) essentially achieved its goal, it then spent a decade in "goalless and soulless exploitation" mode - something that one suspects is the next step for the worlds largest personality-free platf…

> is that a mission for the new decade? It would be nice to see a focused mission from El Goog. From the outside it feels like they incubate a bunch of random semi-competing products which are arbitrarily terminated or boosted. There's a lot of talent that could be marshaled.

They have a mission, to control the interface between consumers and digital business.

All their 'random' stuff makes sense in that context.

Re: Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet

#194

Post by planetzero »

MikeTheGreat wrote: post #129
whoisjuan wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I'm with you on this one. Sundar seems like a good maintainer of the status quo and that's probably wise since the business keeps growing (growing revenue, growing market cap and growing free cash flow), but Google's evolution on cloud infrastructure/services and hardware are honestly kind of lame. I mentioned those two because they seem to be their big bets now. When compared to Satya who is thriving with…

After having read [that Quiet book]( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quiet:_The_Power_of_Introverts... ) I think it's fascinating that "high profile, exuberant" are conflated with "innovation-driven leadership". To be clear - I'm not criticizing this particular post or person (whoisjuan, anyways? :) ), but I think it's worth noting these little hints that outgoing and extroverted are thought to be synonymous with "good…

"I think it's worth noting these little hints that outgoing and extroverted are thought to be synonymous with "good leadership" (in the US, at least)"

I don't think it's synonymous, but it's required. To be a good leader, you need to enjoy being around and understanding people.

Most introverted people don't really enjoy either.

I've had many introverted managers and they all were horrible: lack of communication which went hand-in-hand with passive aggressive behavior.

Re: Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet

#195

Post by tyingq »

3fe9a03ccd14ca5 wrote: post #157
lacker wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this is the announcement that Page and Brin are stepping down. I wouldn't really call it "incredibly subtle" - most similar announcements are wrapped in a bunch of corporate language as well. This is a pretty standard way to announce this sort of thing.

I guess I just don't believe this. Google is one of the largest and most powerful companies in the world. Having both people step down like this is incredibly strange. I mean, neither of them even tried the ol' "I'm stepping down to spend time with my family" thing.

Would be interesting if they cashed out their war chest and started another search engine. Won't happen but fun to think about.

Re: Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet

#196

Post by bb88 »

summerlight wrote: post #161

There are some ongoing theory-crafting in this thread, but the real reason seems pretty simple; Larry and Sergey obviously don't want to deal with all the management and operational stuffs, but only "moonshots" like autonomous vehicles or quantum computing. Yeah, this was the whole purpose of establishing a holding company, but Alphabet has grown by 2 times (both in employee count and revenue) and probably they're no…

I'm not sure that Sundar has been a good CEO. The constant shutdown of google services that people rely on has been troubling. The management troubles over employees lately has been troubling as well. They still own the search market, but would you worry about the lifespan of the google products you're thinking of buying?

I still have a Sony Google TV, it works great as a TV but the android OS is no longer supported, so there are no more OTA updates. It's a shame because it seems like if they had thought about it they might have wondered what happens when they no longer support the product.

There was a time when Google questioned the value of managers and managers had to prove their value to the engineers. Maybe it's time to question their value again.

Re: Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet

#197

Post by telotortium »

rabidrat wrote: post #173
tomrod wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am out of the loop. What does this mean? > It is clear that Sergey and Larry (and Eric) have been asleep at the switch in shaping Google's culture, which now looks like the campus of Evergreen State College.

Evergreen State College is (in)famous for its lack of traditional grades and curricula: "non-traditional undergraduate curriculum in which students design their own paths of study...Faculty write narrative evaluations of students' work in place of issuing grades."

And also infamous for its student activism, some would argue past the point of all sense (see: Bret Weinstein).

Re: Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet

#198

Post by ben_jones »

tpmx wrote: post #152
jpm_sd wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's Ballmer-ing steadily forward, that's all that is really needed at this point.

Perhaps Tim Cook-ing forward is a more modern/relevant way of describing the phenomenon? (Pichai and Cook are both competent empire caretakers. Innovation is suffering though...) Ballmer wasn't competent.

Cook-ing forward is much more appetizing.

Re: Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet

#199

Post by quotemstr »

notJim wrote: post #40
lacker wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a former Googler who stays in touch, there doesn't seem to be structural discontent emerging in staff. There were a few news stories about people complaining, but Google employs about 100,000 people, so any news story involving less than 1000 of them being unhappy can't really count as "structural discontent".

Okay, what about 20,000 of them? https://www.vox.com/2019/4/23/18512542/google-employee-walko...

The walkout was a bait and switch. It was organized (using underhanded means --- for example, a rogue employee force pushing a desktop background update to everyone without authorization) on the basis of protesting Google's payout to Andy Rubin. Fine.

But at the same time, a small number of employees put together a document (without public input) making "walkout demands" and ever since, this small but very vocal group of employees has been going around claiming that 20,000 people support the list of demands in this doc. Not the case. Total lies, in fact.

Re: Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet

#200

Post by ocdtrekkie »

cromwellian wrote: post #192
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #175

Incredible way to paper over the likely source: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/06/alphabet-board-investigating... Sergey Brin and Larry Page were terrible to women. They engaged in, promoted, and paid for sexual harassment. Shortly after the Alphabet board is investigating misconduct, Larry and Page are "retiring". And of course, they're still worth billions.

This article says David Drummond was involved in an extramarital affair with an employee, it doesn’t say that Page or Brin are being investigated for sexual misconduct. Where’s your evidence that they’re stepping down over some personal scandal? This seems like a rather bold claim.

Stories about Sergey and Brin are longstanding and easily researchable. And Larry Page is who paid Rubin $90 million without approval before it got out why Rubin was leaving. But here's an example for Sergey as well:

https://www.businessinsider.com/google-sergey-brin-employees...

> Ayers said in the excerpt that when the company's human-resources department raised eyebrows at Brin's behavior, Brin suggested he was entitled to engage with his employees in whatever manner he saw fit.

> "HR told me that Sergey's response to it was, 'Why not? They're my employees,'" Ayers said. "But you don't have employees for f---ing! That's not what the job is."

The boys club at the Alphabet C-level goes to the very, very top, and it would be impossible to address Drummond without addressing Page and Brin.

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