The two founders said that leaving was a natural decision. As the new CEO of Google’s parent company Alphabet, his next task, in addition to continuing to grow Google’s business, is to specify the development direction of cutting-edge exploration businesses such as driverless and genetic technology.
Editor’s note: This article comes from Tencent Technology “Perspective” column, author Ji Zhenyu.
In the history of modern Internet, Google is undoubtedly a company occupying a huge space. On December 3, a new node appeared in this history.
On the same day, Google ’s two founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, signed a public blog post announcing their resignation from Google ’s parent company Alphabet CEO and president, and the current Google CEO will serve as Alphabet ’s CEO.
At this point, Google has experienced a period of rapid development at the beginning of its establishment, an expansion period under the leadership of professional manager Schmidt, a rapid transformation in the era of mobile Internet, and subsequent performance adjustments into a new development stage.
This Internet giant, with a market value of nearly one trillion US dollars, has been deeply influencing and shaping the Internet world in which billions of people live.
The two founders said that leaving was a natural decision. For the outside world, this news is also not surprising. Since Alphabet was founded in 2015, they have rarely participated in specific company affairs, but the total voting rights of the two shareholders exceeds 50%, which means that they will still Has a decisive influence.
Google ’s next journey will be led by Pichai, a 46-year-old Indian executive who has worked for 15 years and led many important businesses. As the new CEO of Google ’s parent company Alphabet, his next task, in addition to continuing to grow Google ’s business, is to specify the development direction of cutting-edge exploration businesses such as driverless and genetic technology. In addition, Google ’s early Evil “company culture has been continuously eroded in recent years. Whether it is user privacy data protection and suspected monopoly investigations and lawsuits, or large-scale protests caused by employees’ handling of sexual harassment incidents, this company has encountered unprecedented challenge.
Great company born on Stanford campus
In 1996, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who were then studying for a PhD at Stanford University, collaborated on a web search project, which was different from the solution adopted by traditional search engines at the time. , Their project uses a completely different set of search logic: the importance of the page is determined by the number of pages linked to a page. This is called the PageRank search algorithm, and it will become a Google search in the future. nuclearThe rudiment of mind logic.
In 1997, the two officially registered the company name Google. In the second year after its establishment, Google began experimenting with keyword-based search advertising business models, and the business saw an unexpectedly rapid growth, only two years later. In time, Google’s revenue went from zero to $ 100 million.
(The two Google founders started their business in the garage in the early years)
This emerging search technology has attracted the attention of Silicon Valley investors. In 1998, Google received the first angel investment of US $ 100,000. The investor was Andy Bechtolsheim, the founder of the well-known Sun Microsystems. In the next few years, Google attracted tens of millions of dollars in investment, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, well-known Silicon Valley venture capital KPCB and Sequoia have all become Google’s early investors.
With the help of capital, Google ’s business has begun to enter a stage of rapid growth, but at the same time, Google ’s early investors were keenly aware that to bring Google to a new stage of development, a rich Those with business experience are chief executive officers, and the two founders who have just stepped out of campus and have no management experience are obviously not the most suitable candidates.
Google led by Schmidt, professional manager
At this time, Eric Schmidt, CEO of Novell, a software company, has become a great candidate for this role. He is a smart businessman with a technical background and an understanding of business For the two young Google founders, Schmidt is a mature manager who understands what they are doing and helps them succeed in business.
In early 2001, Schmidt officially became Google ’s chairman and concurrently CEO six months later. He shared the responsibility of daily business operations with the two founders within Google.
When Schmidt arrived, he inevitably experienced a cultural run-in process with young entrepreneurial teams. In an interview, Schmidt revealed that when he first came to Google, as a CEO, he even needed to share with other colleagues. Small office.
Fortunately, the relationship between Schmidt and the two founders went very smoothly. Google ’s business continued to grow and expand. In 2004, Schmidt successfully listed in the third year after joining. At that time, Schmidt went public. Mitt and the two founders agree that the three will work together at Google 20Years until 2024.
In a joint interview, Brin said that Schmidt was like an “adult guardian” to Google.
(Under the leadership of Google’s “Guardian” Schmidt, Google successfully listed)
For the next 7 years, Schmidt has been regarded as a “guardian” role. Until 2011, Google announced that Founder Page was the CEO and Schmidt was only the executive chairman. On personal Twitter, Schmidt said, “Google no longer needs adult custody.”
During Schmidt ’s role as Google ’s CEO, while becoming a search engine giant, Google has continued to expand its business landscape and entered the fields of maps, email, online videos, and smartphones. From more than $ 20 billion at the beginning of the listing to Schmidt’s departure as CEO in 2011, Google’s market value has increased 10-fold.
Architecture adjustment brings new growth
As Google ’s business has gradually expanded and matured, the company has begun to face new problems: As a public company, Google ’s financial management issues have caused dissatisfaction on Wall Street. Although Google ’s core search advertising business is still growing significantly, Its founder has always insisted on leading the business field of exploring future technologies and applications, but it has eroded Google’s profit statement every minute. In order to take into account financial health to cater for Wall Street and long-term company business development, a top-down structural adjustment Already inevitable.
In 2015, Google announced the reorganization of the company’s structure. On the upper level of Google, a holding parent company called Alphabet was established. Based on this structure, Google’s profitable and non-profitable business areas were separated, and Google’s Business and finance are more clearly organized.
While announcing the structural adjustment, Ruth Porat, who was previously the chief financial officer of Wall Street investment bank Morgan Stanley, became the chief financial officer of Alphabet and the “big steward” of the Internet giant’s finance. Employees on Tencent News “Perspective” said that since Porat took office, the company’s control of financial expenses is particularly obvious. The most intuitive feeling from the employee’s perspective is that the choice of food in the cafeteria is far worse than before.
With the continuous expansion of the business and structural adjustment, Schmidt’s role within Google has been increasingly diminished, and with it, the rise of a new generation of Google executives. Among them, the current burden ofSandal Pichai, CEO of Google, stands out in the process.
(Pichai becomes CEO of Google and joins the board of Alphabet)
Pichai joined Google in 2004 and has been responsible for Google Chrome, mail, maps and other important businesses. Since 2013, Pichai has been in charge of the most important Android business at that time. In 2015, he was in charge of multiple After the restructuring of Google’s important business, Pichai became the CEO of Google in a logical way. In July 2017, Pichai was included on the Alphabet Board and became a member of the board of Google’s parent company.
In retrospect, this round of structural adjustments carried out by Google since 2015 is undoubtedly very successful, and the Internet giant has reached a new level. In the past 4 years, the market value of Alphabet has more than doubled, and it is approaching $ 1 trillion. For the whole of 2018, Alphabet achieved revenue of $ 136.8 billion and a profit of $ 30.7 billion. Compared with this, in 2015, Google achieved revenue $ 75 billion, with a profit of $ 16.3 billion.
Best results and scandals
With the founding of Google’s parent company Alphabet, the two founders have also faded away from the company’s day-to-day management. A former employee who has left from Google told Tencent News “Perspective” that in the past weekly company meetings, the two founders could be seen.
“I have been there since the company was founded until I left the company in 2017. It ’s hard to come by,” said a former Google employee. “In addition to the company’s business, the topic also involves a lot of evaluation of industry and social news. You can also have a chance to talk to them. “
Although Page is still the CEO of Alphabet and Brin is the president, the two have rarely appeared in public. Whether it is the company’s internal affairs or external affairs, Pichai has been an actual Alphabet for a long time. The spokespersons and the two founders appear more on occasions that have nothing to do with the company’s actual business, such as charity dinners, anti-Trump immigration policy protest scenes, and startup projects they have invested in.
(Google founder Sergey Brin joins protest against Trump’s immigration policy)
On the 3rd, the official announcement of the resignation of the two founders as CEO and president is actually not surprising. Although they no longer participate in the company’s daily management work, they still founded this company. The company has a significant impact. According to the public information of the Alphabet 2019 Shareholders’ General Meeting, Larry Page holds 26.1% of the voting rights, Brin holds 25.2% of the voting rights, and the combined voting rights of the two founders still exceeds 50%, which still has absolute power for the company. Control.
Although the company ’s business is still booming, for the two founders, a reality that needs to be addressed is that this Internet giant with a nearly trillion dollar market value is experiencing the biggest challenge since its inception. These challenges come from both inside and outside the company. After becoming an indispensable Internet service provider for billions of people, it is difficult for Google to bypass the issue of data privacy protection. At the same time, the company also faces antitrust Investigations, which often involve billions of dollars in fines and settlement costs, are business risks that cannot be ignored.
(Protest organized by Google employees spontaneously)
At the same time, the company has also been accused of some negative internal cultures that have spawned in recent years, including the handling of executive sexual harassment incidents leading to large-scale employee marches and protests, as well as the retaliation of firing employees who organized protest marches. At the beginning of Google’s “do no evil” company culture, it was encountering unprecedented doubts. For Pichai, who helmed the Internet giant, these were difficult challenges to deal with outside the business.