It’s been a decade since Sundar Pichai took the reins as CEO of Google. How did this Indian-born American who was a product manager in his early 40s climb through the ranks to reach the top positions of one of the largest and most powerful tech companies of all time?
Life before Google
Pichai grew up in Madras (now Chennai) where his father worked as an electrical engineer at the British multinational GEC. His father ensured that the boys received a good education. At an early age Pichai showed an interest in technology and could remember phone numbers showcasing his extraordinary memory. After completing his undergraduate studies in metallurgy engineering in 1993 and earning a silver medal at the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Pichai headed to Stanford University where he earned a Master’s degree in material sciences and engineering. He abandoned plans for a PhD and instead worked as an engineer and product manager at Applied Materials before getting his MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
After a short stint at the management consulting firm McKinsey & Company, Pichai joined Google in 2004, and 11 years later found himself named CEO as part of the Alphabet reorganization of the firm.
Product leader at Google
Pichai started at Google as the head of product management and development. He initially worked on the Google toolbar, which enabled those using the Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox Web Browsers to easily access Google’s search engine. Over the next few years, he was directly involved in developing the Google’s own browser, Chrome which was launched in 2008.
Chrome wasn’t just another alternative web browser, it was a foothold on the desktop extending Google’s reach into the consumer web experience. Google was no longer just the homepage when you launched your browser or the results that came up when you entered a search query, it was now an end-to-end browsing experience.
It was important for Google to own the browsing experience as more and more applications became web based, many of which were offered by Google. From Gmail to Google Docs, people were spending more of their time in their browser, and since those apps were built by Google, they naturally worked best in their own Chrome browser. Creating their own browser was a wise move for Google, as they have secured a dominant market share of 64 per cent vs the 4 per cent for Firefox while Internet Explorer is no longer even officially supported.
Under Pichai’s direction, Chrome also evolved into Chrome OS for its Chromebooks and Chromecast to connect to TVs beyond being just a browser. Meanwhile Google was leapfrogging the competition in the mobile OS market with Android, dominating market share and becoming the default OS for anyone trying to make a smartphone or tablet not headquartered in Cupertino. Pichai’s expanded his portfolio, adding Google Apps and Android to his ever-growing empire, as their leaders eventually left Google for other opportunities.
So when Larry Page decided to break up Google into a family of companies under the Alphabet umbrella, it wasn’t a surprise when Pichai was named CEO of the new Google. He’d already ascended from director of product management to vice president of product management to senior vice president to product chief, all while managing some of the highest profile and strategically important products in Google’s portfolio.
As CEO, Pichai strongly supported Alphabet’s artificial intelligence initiatives, leading the company to breakthroughs in voice recognition, image processing, self-driving vehicles (Waymo), and the creation of Google’s generative AI chatbot Google Gemini. Pichai oversaw numerous other initiatives, including the launch of the Pixel smartphone line; Google Nest (rebranded from Google Home), which includes routers and thermostats; Google Workspace, which includes applications such as Gmail and Google Docs; Google Meet; Wing Aviation, a drone delivery service; and Google Cloud.
Pichai laid a strong foundation for his career by working as a product manager and was well prepared for the role as CEO. Sundar Pichai has proved that a bold vision, resilience and determination can do wonders in the world of tech.
