Innovation, Technology, Making The World A Better Place. 'Google' stands for all of these. The word, which had no meaning whatsoever about 17 years ago save for its phonetic similarity to the word 'googol' (10 to the power 100) which it was originally going to be called, is now a near inseparable part of our lives. With its numerous products to assist our daily activities, this brainchild of Larry Page and Sergey Brin has earned its place among the greatest organizations in the world.
In a recent turn of events, the company announced that it is no longer going to be called Google. WHAT?!
Please excuse the dramatics, what I meant was that it is now creating a new publicly traded parent company called Alphabet Inc. to house all of its disparate businesses. This conglomerate will have Google as its largest subsidiary, and here's where we Indians have a second of pride, the executive who will replace Larry Page as Google’s CEO is an Indian - Sundar Pichai.
This is the third time in a year that a person with an Indian-origin who started at the bottom has gone on to become the top executive of a tech-giant. It was only last year when Nokia and Microsoft appointed India-born Rajeev Suri and Satya Nadella, respectively, as their CEOs.
I am not going to talk about how the restructuring of Google is similar to that of Berkshire Hathaway, or the transparency that it is supposed to bring in, nor am I going to sing praises for Mr. Pichai, who can be called the reason I, and billions of others are using Google Chrome, or how his management of Android is giving Apple a tough fight. There are, by now, thousands of articles on these and many more topics on the web and in print. Don't get me wrong here, I am not trying to undermine his efforts and success. No person in their right mind would do that.
Born in a humble family in Chennai, Pichai, who will be the first CEO of Google that isn’t a white man. An engineer from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, his family had to put everything they had on the line to facilitate his coming to America to study materials science and semiconductor physics at Stanford. From a product manager at Google to the SVP of Android, Chrome and Apps, and now CEO designate, he has seen it all. Kudos to that.
What I really want to bring to the table is, what makes Indians the best choices for such positions? It cannot be a coincidence that the Indians who have been chosen to head these companies have all been really long term employees.
Indians have been known worldwide for their academic prowess and managerial skills. They have proved their ability to work and deliver under pressure, and have enabled the change of perception that Indians cannot lead, only follow.
The West has realised that the cradle of future technology is on Indian soil, and that in order to get more Indians on board, they must have an exemplary Indian lead them, so as to attract more like him into their fold. If this is true, aren't they getting the better end of the deal? We have been battling a 'brain-drain' from India to the West for decades now. While the drain is due to better living conditions and perceived better opportunities abroad, it is impacting the huge number of untapped vistas we have here.
Opportunity is relative. While some may find more opportunity where most people have achieved success, others create opportunities where there has been limited or no success in recorded history. We have stark examples before us that prove this - right from a taxi service on your beck and call to a space shuttle that takes you to the moon and back; right from setting up a marketplace on the internet to an actual affordable market chain across the world; and finally from a search engine to a driverless car.
So congratulations Mr. Pichai on your remarkable achievement, we couldn't be any prouder. But for those of you who emulate him, remember, where we stay isn't so bad either. After all, the Americans did not invent the Alphabet!
