Culture—not products or moonshots—is Sundar Pichai’s biggest challenge
Giving Google’s CEO control of Alphabet makes eminent sense. But dealing with the company’s current cultural breakdown will require everything he’s got.
The last time that Larry Page tweaked his job responsibilities at Google—by creating a new holding company called Alphabet and focusing his energy on “moonshot” projects while Sundar Pichai ran Google—it was one of the most genuinely shocking moments I can remember in big-tech history. Four years later, Page is stepping down as Alphabet CEO, with Pichai succeeding him in that role as well as keeping his post at Google. Along with cofounder Sergey Brin, Page is abandoning his executive role but staying on Alphabet’s board. And though the timing is a surprise, the move itself feels inevitable.