The success that Google as an industry titan is self-evident. And over the years, the company has become the most extensive Operating system in all smartphones as well. At the same time, Google has also developed into one of the most valuable companies globally. And many believe that there is no stopping the success of Google at least for the near foreseeable future. Day by day, it is growing, while also coming up with different apps such as Google pay, tankmates, and Wifinanscan app, to mention a few. With all that being the case, one cannot imagine this success without Sundar Pichai and his innovations, revolutionary ideas and more importantly wanting to offer the best to their users. The story of this former IIT graduate who is the CEO of Google and who is also the first Indian to lead the company, is nothing short of awe-inspiring. The typical Rags to Riches story, we all like it and there is something that is extremely pleasing to see someone work hard and become successful in life. The life of Google CEO, Sundar Pichai is one that can be inspirational and at the same time educational.
Sundar Pichai’s story begins in Chennai where his father worked as an electrical engineer for a UK-based company and his mother was working as a stenographer. Young Pichai grew up in a typical Indian middle class family setup where his family didn’t even have a television.
During one of the interviews he had with New York Times, Pichai once shed an interesting fact about his modest childhood- "There was a simplicity to my life, which was very nice compared with today's world. We lived in a kind of modest house, shared with tenants. We would sleep on the living room floor. There was a drought when I was growing up, and we had anxiety. Even now, I can never sleep without a bottle of water beside my bed. Other houses had refrigerators, and then we finally got one. It was a big deal."
The Making of a Global Tech Leader
Having completed his schooling from Jawahar Vidyalaya, a CBSE-affiliated school in Chennai, and Sundar did his 12th grade from Vana Vani school which is situated in the clamor of IIT, Madras. As a student, Pichai excelled in his academics when he was in school. At the same time, he was also into sports and he had even captained the school cricket team. With that said, Pichai had to see his fair share of failures during his early days as well. During a speech while he was addressing the students of IIT Kharagpur, he had said that once during his academic life, he got C grade in one paper but he made sure that he got over that set back soon enough. "I think I did get C sometimes (when I was at IIT). My first year CGP was so bad I had to work hard to make up for it for the next three years," he told the young aspiring students in IIT. IIT also played a crucial role in Pichai’s personal life as it will turn out to be the place that he met the woman he would go on to marry later. "I met my wife Anjali at IIT Kharagpur, so whenever I asked a friend to call her, they would shout loudly Anjali, Sundar is here for you," he said in 2017.
After his graduation from IIT, Pichai did win a scholarship that gave him the opportunity to study at Stanford University. At the same time, the plane ticket from Chennai did cost more than his father’s annual salary. After moving to the US, Pichai has also done his MBA from the prestigious University of Pennsylvania as well.
Professional Journey
Many might be unaware about this, but prior to joining google in 2004, he had the experience of working in the engineering and product management department at Applied Materials. Pichai had also previously worked in management consulting at McKinsey & Company. With that said, his success at Google can be largely contributed to the phenomenal success with the very famous Chrome project. Pichai, and his team had played an key role when it came to not only creating Google Chrome but also getting it into the spot of world's most used web browser. It was after that success, Pichai gradually started appearing at the various Google developer and media events. Then, later in 2013, he took charge of running the Android division which eventually led to him taking the position of CEO of Google in 2015. It was also at the same time, when the company had been restructured and Alphabet was established. Now, Pichai also holds the office as CEO of Alphabet as well.
Till now, we just looked at Sundar Pichai’s early days as well as a brief outlook during his time as of now with Google. Now, let’s delve deep into what made Sundar Pichai reach the top at one of the biggest and most influential companies in the world.
Soaring to Success with Google
Pichai began his journey with google by being placed in Google toolbar and search engine department. Prior to him, this particular search engine used Microsoft Internet explorer’s default option. But Sundar quickly came to the realization that maybe in the future, Microsoft will be creating a search engine of their own and that can adversely impact Google. To tackle this scenario, Pichai presented his proposal about the Google Chrome project Eric Schmidt who was the CEO of Google at that time. Even though, he did face some struggles with the approval of the project, finally, he got permissions from the Google makers Larry Page and Sergey brin to go ahead with the project.
As anticipated by Sundar, Microsoft created their own search engine and set that as their default search engine. And this led to major losses for Google but thanks to Sundar's far-sightedness, Google within 24 hours was able to identify the flaws of the Internet Explorer which led to Google getting back 60 percent of their users. This was just the beginning of a long and illustrious career Sundar Pichai is having with Google. And it was his constant efforts that was directed to the success and development of Google that made him the head of all Google products including Google search, Google Maps, as well as Google ads to mention a few. Throughout his professional career, Sundar Pichai has never shied away from challenges and it was his ability to see through all the problems and think innovatively that led to him now being recognized as one of the prominent figures of the modern tech world.
Joining Alphabet
As mentioned earlier, Pichai is also the CEO of Alphabet and the establishment of the company was prompted by a desire in order to make the core Google business cleaner while at the same time ensuring that the business is more accountable. Allowing greater autonomy to group companies that is operating in the businesses other than Internet services was also one of the many goals which led to the establishment of Alphabet. It was in 2019 that Larry Page and Sergey Brin said that they will be stepping down from their positions and Pichai will be taking the position of CEO.
