To date, Sundar Pichai continues to serve as the CEO of Alphabet Inc., succeeding in this position in 2019 after becoming the current owner of Google in 2015. Since the leadership change, Pichai has remained at the helm exerting a long-established leadership on the tech giant.
Early Life and Education
Sundar Pichai, the global CEO of Google, was born on June 10, 1972, in Tamil Nadu, India, to Raja Pichai and Lakshmi Pichai. Born into a middle-class family, Pichai’s father worked as an electrical engineer while his mother was employed as a stenographer and later became a homemaker. From a young age, Pichai was a humble man and worked diligently to achieve success. The family wanted to give him the best future possible so they settled in Ashok Nagar, Chennai in a two-room apartment.
As a child, Sundar demonstrated an ability to learn and
excel in school subjects, especially mathematics and sciences. These curiosities and intellect would define the rest of his life. Pichai studied at Jawahar
Vidyalaya in Ashok Nagar and finished the 12th grade at Vana Vani School. He
was admitted to one of the premier engineering institutes in India, IIT
Kharagpur and did his graduation in Metallurgical Engineering. At college, he
excelled at IIT Kharagpur, where he was awarded the prestigious Silver Medal
for his brilliant performance and was advised by his professors to go for
further studies overseas.
Education Abroad and Career Begins
After high school education, Pichai got a scholarship to study at Stanford University in the United States of America, which is a reputable university. He then proceeded to Stanford University where he studied for a master of science in Material Sciences and Engineering. Soon after obtaining his master’s degree, he took up a short stint in applied research and engineering which is the usual trajectory expected of students with his kind of background. However, Pichai did not limit himself to office cleaning but went out to acquire more skills. He decided to go for an MBA at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, in which he distinguished himself as a Siebel Scholar and a Palmer Scholar – two of the most prestigious awards given at the Wharton School.
And after his MBA, Pichai joined McKinsey & Company
as a management consultant. His job in McKinsey helped him to grasp more about
the global functioning of business entities, their strategies, and innovative
approaches but he wanted to get to know how the new generation tech businesses
work.
Joining Google
In 2004, Sundar Pichai joined Google, which was then gradually becoming one of the leading technology companies in the world, as a product manager. His first assignment at the company was to oversee the Google Toolbar, which was important to the company at the time when web browsers were just beginning to emerge. Moreover, another aspect left a lasting impression – the ability to identify the needs of users He developed a keen sense of direction to foresee what people would be looking for in the near future. He could also be credited for the transformation of the Google Toolbar to become a success, where he was able to integrate a search bar on the browser hence leading to traffic to Google search engine.
Nonetheless, Pichai’s idea at the company that made him
rise to fame was when he suggested that they should build a new web browser.
When Netscape started to work on Communicator, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer
reigned supreme in the realm of web browsing and the creation of a new browser
appeared to be a rather dangerous venture. However, Pichai did not give up on
his vision of Google Chrome as a faster and more secure browser tightly integrated
with Google services.
With this proposal, Pichai attracted the support of Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and the Chrome project was launched. Since it began in 2008, Chrome has garnered users’ attention, owing to its fast loading, minimalistic design, and strong security measures. This was achieved under Pichai’s stern leadership, where Chrome out-competed other browsers like Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox to become the most popular web browser in the world. This success put him in the limelight and his responsibilities grew exponentially at the company.
Google’s Most Promising Endeavours and Innovations
After Chrome, Pichai added even more responsibilities to his portfolio based on Chrome’s success. He was soon given the additional responsibility for managing other big products which included Gmail, Google Drive, and Google Maps. His leadership in these areas was equally effective because these products got millions of users worldwide.
In general, Pichai was considered to be a relatively
low-key and team-oriented leader. He was also described as being composed, a
team player, and supportive of creativity with no one being punished for
experimentation or mistakes. Given his experience, he was well-liked and
appreciated by both engineers and executives for his capacity to collaborate
across teams, departments, and project responsibilities. Over the years, as the
company expanded, Pichai was given more responsibilities that were rather vital
for the business.
In 2013, Sundar Pichai was made the head of Android,
which is Google’s mobile operating system. Android was already well-established
before Pichai’s arrival but it indeed thrived under his leadership and became
the most widely used mobile OS in the world. He also worked as a product
manager on Google’s cloud computing services, on hardware, and on various
artificial intelligence projects.
Becoming The Current Owner of Google 2024
Google faced a major corporate restructuring in 2015 when it was transformed into a holding company known as Alphabet Inc which enabled Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the co-founders to dedicate time towards other unrelated projects under Alphabet Company while opening up space for a new person to head the operations of the company. Notably, with his vast experience in Google, Sundar Pichai was bound to ascend to the leadership of the company as the CEO.
During Pichai’s reign, Google’s growth has been
impressive; it expanded its scope and offerings beyond search and advertising and ventured into areas such as artificial intelligence, cloud, and hardware. He
focused on the development of a company that is based on artificial
intelligence where machine learning, data decision-making and, improving the
user experience in every application were given top-most precedence.
Further, as the CEO, he has been able to uphold the company’s
values and ethical standards in addressing issues such as privacy, regulation,
as well as commanding a workforce exceeding 100000 subordinates. However, with
Pichai’s steady and thoughtful leadership, the company has survived all these
challenges to remain one of the most valuable and innovative companies in the
world.
Taking up Alphabet’s CEO Role
As Larry Page and Sergey Brin relinquished operational control of Google in December 2019, they announced their departure from the day-to-day operations at Alphabet in December 2019, promoting Sundar Pichai to not only the CEO of Google but also Alphabet Inc., an even greater level of authority within the company established him as one of the most influential executives in the technology sector today.
Sundar Pichai is not only the current owner of Google,
but also of Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google and other companies
working for Alphabet, such as Waymo (developing self-driving cars), Verily
(focusing on the field of life sciences), and DeepMind (AI research). His work
involves leading the company through regulatory issues, promoting growth in new
unknown terrains, and maintaining Google’s dominance in its key areas of
specialty including the search engine and advertising and cloud services.
Conclusion
Sundar Pichai is a living embodiment of how a bright boy
who grew up in Chennai, India, dreams of and finally achieves the position of
the head of one of the largest corporations in the world. His organizational
and interpersonal skills, diplomatic persona, and business acumen have made him
popular amongst Google’s owners including its co-founders as well as its
employees. During his tenure, Google and Alphabet remain relevant and
influential in the development of society’s future trends such as
Artificial Intelligence, cloud computing, and mobile technologies. Lessons seen
from Pichai are an example of how talent, hard work, and humility can propel
one to great success in the global market.
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I want Google Service to belongs to me.... Im Femistephen
Oluwafemi Stephen O