Introduction: Sundar Pichai’s Early Life and Education
Pichai was born in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. His mother, Lakshmi, was a stenographer, while his father, Regunatha Pichai, worked for the British company GEC. His father also had an electrical component manufacturing firm. Pichai attended Jawahar Vidyalaya Senior Secondary School in Ashok Nagar, Chennai, and graduated from Vana Vani School at IIT Madras (Brown, 2022). He is a prominent alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, where he received his degree in metallurgical engineering. He has an MS in materials science and engineering from Stanford University and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, where he was designated a Siebel Scholar and a Palmer Scholar, respectively.
Sundar Pichai’s Career Journey
Pichai formerly worked at Applied Materials in engineering and product management, as well as at McKinsey & Company in management consulting. Pichai joined Google in 2004, where he was in charge of product management and innovation for a number of Google’s client software products, including Google Chrome and Chrome OS. Pichai added Android to the list of Google products he oversees on March 13, 2013 (Brown, 2022). From April 2011 through July 30, 2013, he was a director at Jive Software. Pichai was chosen as Google’s new CEO on August 10, 2015, after previously serving as Product Chief under CEO Larry Page (Brown, 2022). He assumed the new post on October 24, 2015, following the completion of the establishment of Alphabet Inc.
Sundar Pichai’s Net Worth
He assumed the new post on October 24, 2015, following the completion of the establishment of Alphabet Inc., the new holding company for the Google firm family. In 2014, Pichai was mentioned as a possible candidate for Microsoft CEO, a post that finally went to Satya Nadella. Pichai gained attention in August 2017 after dismissing a Google employee who penned a ten-page screed attacking the company’s diversity practices. Pichai was appointed CEO of Alphabet Inc. in December 2019. Pichai will give a virtual lecture at the Singapore FinTech Festival in December 2020, highlighting an inclusive digital economy.
How Sundar Pichai Is Communicating About Google
Pichai’s success at Google, as he says, is not all about him but teamwork with Google’s employees, who have done a great job in ensuring that their goals are met. The CEO communicates about his company’s visions, more technology to come, and how flexible and hardworking the company’s workers are. Google is there to help humanity improve or try to make things easier. Collaboration of devices is one of the things Google is trying to achieve, and also the use of AI to enhance the maps, especially in Africa, to make locations and reviews easier for people (Brown, 2022). Pichai and his team have only good attributes to the world, which are the basis of the company’s functionality. He explains why Google company is working hard to achieve its goals.
Sundar Pichai’s Take on Google
An example of this is getting rid of carbon which affects the world’s health. Google has a plan for 2030 to build devices that do not have to produce carbon. Sundar Pichai also encourages the workers to be together during breaks, brainstorm, and talk to each other about personal life or work, which he believes brings a good and hospitable environment for work. The Google company plans to impart knowledge, protect people’s health, and bring success to the world.
Sundar Pichai’s Communication Style and Impact
The communication style of a leader mostly goes along with how they lead. Pichai, as a leader, has to interact with his employees to ensure that the company’s objectives and visions are to be realized or on course. His field is technology; hence, his leadership style is transformational leadership. Besides, he uses an introverted leadership style, which is efficient for this job. Google is an internet company; hence would expect changes daily and the need for a transformational leader. Changes do not necessarily need to have a plan, but it is done according to the customers’ needs and responses in various businesses (Haywood, 2020). Sundar Pichai states they have a flexible routine for the employees and himself.
Furthermore, changing employees three days a week in shifts enhances sharpness and a thin margin for error due to fatigue. Google works day and night, and workers should rest; hence flexibility is important for the workers and the boss. A transformational leader must also keep up with the status quo and communicate well while introducing new technologies, advancements, and innovations.
The leader of Google company is also an introverted CEO. It is because proactive workers require the CEO to listen to them. The CEO listens carefully to the ideas and addresses them in the company for implementation. In addition, the communication style of the transformational leader should achieve its meaning through mentoring. Sundar Pichai shares his wisdom with the workers and the world on how he runs things to succeed.
Coaching is the other value in his communication, whereby he encourages the workers to be proactive and also encourages them to sit together during breaks to learn from each other. The work of CEOs is to direct workers to get the best result for the company’s good. CEOs can come up with ideas and then delegate them to workers to finish them for the good of the company and its profits. Coaching, mentoring, directing, and delegating philosophies in communication have brought great success to Google company. Growth and success have also brought togetherness in the corporation and hence sustained happiness in the organization.
The transformational way of leading makes the leader faster and more flexible, sharp, keen to learn new trends, and knowledgeable. Using the introverted style, the leader learns a lot from his employees, for they become more proactive in finding solutions, which would help the leader know the type of employees he needs. Furthermore, the communication and leadership style make the CEO realize his effectiveness personally. Make sure he gives quality work, sure that employees are happy, has good relationships in the workplace, influences people positively, expands his career, salary increase, has respect from workers, and is an expert in a certain area, as he has in Android. Moreover, Sundar Pichai’s communication style would make him more effective in decision-making and critical thinking.
Sundar Pichai’s Influence on Google’s Growth
The CEO has brought numerous influences to the company. Sundar Pichai’s efforts are all on the importance of technology to ensure people access information worldwide. The attributes he stated, knowledge, success, health, and happiness, are key things the world wants to achieve. Helping other bodies like the United Nations is reason enough to support Google and its growth (Patel & Bohn, 2020). The use of AI, which Pichai is backing up, could help in numerous occasions like improving Google search, making YouTube a better learning place, self-driving cars, diabetes, and also help solve the biggest issue with climate change.
Pichai has also introduced a new work structure called a “flexible” work structure, where one could work from home and have a few days in the office. A flexible work structure means that Google employees are being trusted to do the right thing from their homes, which boosts their morale in how they work. It also brings happiness to the employees, something not seen in other companies (Haywood, 2020). The company invests in equity and diversity (Patel & Bohn, 2020). It will help solve societal problems and will have a deep impact on society. Billions of people use Google products by far, so diversity will enable the company to have good and more reliable products.
What Would I Do Differently as the CEO
The Google company and culture can be said to be good. It is because they are the leading search engine in the current century. Sundar Pichai has done a good job in bringing the culture present in the company; therefore, changing his ideas would be catastrophic. The belief that the company has entrusted its employees to work at home and only attend a few days in the office brings happiness and morale, especially to families and those who had trouble taking parental leaves. Mr. Sundar, therefore, is a great leader and communicator, bringing happiness, cohesiveness, and joy to the Google family, hence the staff’s fast advancements, hard work, and commitment to helping the world become a better place.
What to Include in Communication as the CEO
Collaborating and communicating with the staff or workers is a vital thing. Power and politics affect how the boss can share with their followers; hence, workers will be led according to the rewards they get from the company. The boss also benefits from this relationship to run the company well; therefore, even though the boss could be introverted, he is supposed to be more involved in what his followers are doing as a gesture of trust and team spirit. The CEO should delegate work to their followers and work together to finish the innovations in time. The interactions bring benefits where even the boss could learn a few from his followers hence symbiotic.
Furthermore, with the interaction comes the followers’ visualization of the future, which would help them work harder towards the goal. Besides, good communication through interaction enables the boss to speak about the company’s current state and where the target should be, allowing the organization to see its destination in a stipulated period. In communicating, the leader should understand his follower; difficulties and offer them security by convincing them that everything can be done hard instead of giving deadlines and firing them. It ensures a good and hospitable environment for work.
Conclusion
Sundar Pichai is an excellent leader and communicator who has brought amazing culture to the Google industry. With his four attributes of knowledge, success, health, and happiness, the Google company is only working harder to make things easier and make the world better and safer.
References
Brown, S. (2022). Google’s Sundar Pichai says tech is a powerful change agent. MIT Sloan.
Haywood, J. (2020). Communication Styles for Effective Leaders. Illuminate You.
Patel, N., & Bohn, D. (2020). Sundar Pichai on managing Google through the pandemic. The Verge.