{"id":362441,"date":"2011-04-03T05:34:25","date_gmt":"2011-04-03T05:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/04\/03\/google-co-founder-to-prove-he-is-ready-to-be-ceo\/"},"modified":"2011-04-03T05:34:25","modified_gmt":"2011-04-03T05:34:25","slug":"google-co-founder-to-prove-he-is-ready-to-be-ceo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/03\/google-co-founder-to-prove-he-is-ready-to-be-ceo\/","title":{"rendered":"Google co-founder to prove he is ready to be CEO"},"content":{"rendered":"
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You Are Here: Home<\/a> \u00bb Africa\/International<\/a> \u00bb Google co-founder to prove he is ready to be CEO<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t \tPage last updated at Sunday, April 3, 2011 5:05 AM \/\/ <\/span>\n\t\t\t <\/div>\n

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Larry Page<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Google co-founder Larry Page is known for his vision, passion and intelligence.<\/p>\n

Yet there is a fair amount of concern that Page\u2019s other known traits \u2014 his aloofness, rebellious streak and affinity for pursuing wacky ideas \u2014 might lead the company astray. Page takes over as CEO on Monday as fast-rising rivals and tougher regulators threaten Google\u2019s growth.<\/p>\n

Investors used to Google Inc.\u2019s consistency in exceeding financial targets worry that new leadership will bring more emphasis on long-term projects that take years to pay off. And many people still aren\u2019t sure he has enough management skills to steer the Internet\u2019s most powerful company.<\/p>\n

Page already has learned that smarts alone won\u2019t make him a great leader. Although Page impressed Google\u2019s early investors with his ingenuity, they still insisted that he step down in 2001 as Google\u2019s first CEO. He turned over the job to Eric Schmidt, a veteran executive who began working in Silicon Valley in the early 1980s while Page was still in grammar school.<\/p>\n

Page\u2019s admirers say that at 38, he is more mature and less apt to be chronically late to meetings or tune out of conversations that don\u2019t stimulate his intellect \u2014 habits that he fell into during his first stint as CEO.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are parts of being CEO that don\u2019t fit Larry\u2019s personality,\u201d said Craig Silverstein, the first employee that Page and Google\u2019s other founder, Sergey Brin, hired when they started the company in 1998. \u201cYou wear a lot of different hats when you\u2019re CEO. Some of them are very interesting to Larry and some of them, presumably, are less interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

True to his taciturn form, Page hasn\u2019t said much publicly since Google made its stunning announcement in January that he will replace Schmidt as CEO. Google said Page wasn\u2019t available for an interview.<\/p>\n

Page, though, has left little doubt about his top priority: to dissolve the bureaucracy and complacency that accompanied the company\u2019s rapid transformation into a 21st-century empire. Google is expected to end the year with more than 30,000 employees and $35 billion in annual revenue.<\/p>\n

In Page\u2019s mind, the 13-year-old company needs to return to thinking and acting like a feisty startup. Rising Internet stars such as Facebook, Twitter and Groupon, all less than 8 years old, are developing products that could challenge Google and make its dominance of Internet search less lucrative.<\/p>\n

Page has drawn comparisons to two high-tech geniuses who are even more accomplished: Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates and Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs. Like those two pioneers in personal technology, Page invented and cultivated a product that changed the world.<\/p>\n

But Page has yet to match them in this respect: as CEOs, Gates and Jobs brought out the best in the companies that they created, delighting stockholders as their investments soared.<\/p>\n

Page doesn\u2019t fit the CEO mold, even by the standards of Silicon Valley\u2019s free-wheeling culture. He dropped out of graduate school at Stanford to start Google and doesn\u2019t have a business degree.<\/p>\n

Science and technology, though, seems to be in his DNA even though he grew up in Michigan, where automobiles rule.<\/p>\n

His late father, Carl, was a computer scientist and pioneer in artificial intelligence, and his mother taught computer programming. Page began working on personal computers when he was just 6 years old in 1979, when home computers were a rarity. The geeky impulses carried into his adulthood, leading him to once build an inkjet printer out of Legos.<\/p>\n

Page relishes challenging the status quo and encourages his employees to do so, too. Those who know Page suspect he picked up the anti-establishment mindset as a boy who attended Montessori schools, which discourage structured curricula and encourage independent activities.<\/p>\n

Page has wanted to control his own destiny \u2014 and legacy \u2014 since reading a biography of the inventor Nikola Tesla before he was even in high school. Tesla wasn\u2019t rewarded or widely recognized for his breakthroughs in X-ray, wireless communications and electricity. Page didn\u2019t want that to happen to him as an entrepreneur.<\/p>\n

For that reason, Page embraced the chance to be Google\u2019s CEO when the company started in a rented garage not far from the company\u2019s current headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. It also helps explain why he and Brin created a separate class of stock with greater voting power so they and Schmidt could remain in charge after the company went public in 2004. Page\u2019s stake in Google has made him one of the world\u2019s wealthiest people with an estimated fortune of $20 billion.<\/p>\n

Although the contours of his personality and background are known quantities, Page remains an enigmatic figure on Wall Street.<\/p>\n

To some, he remains best known for uncompromising idealism, reflected in his embrace of his company\u2019s \u201cDon\u2019t Be Evil\u201d motto and his pledge to never cater to investors\u2019 desire for ever-rising quarterly earnings at the expense of long-term investments.<\/p>\n

Page already raised concerns by pushing Google into renewable energy and robotic cars. Those who know him say he has discussed even more far-flung projects behind closed doors.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes his ideas are just way out there and you\u2019re kind of like, \u2018Wow, that came out of left field,\u2019\u201d said Ethan Anderson, a former Google product manager who now runs Redbeacon, a startup that operates a search engine for finding neighborhood businesses.<\/p>\n

Uncertainty about whether Page will be as interested as Schmidt in appeasing Wall Street has contributed to a 6 percent drop in Google\u2019s stock price since the CEO change was announced Jan. 20. The technology-driven Nasdaq index has added 3 percent during that time.<\/p>\n

BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis doesn\u2019t believe it\u2019s a coincidence that Google revealed it would hire more than 6,200 employees this year \u2014 a 25 percent boost, and the most in its history \u2014 less than a week after it announced Page\u2019s comeback as CEO.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t be surprised if Google\u2019s spending goes up, even it means its earnings per share might go down,\u201d Gillis said.<\/p>\n

Page\u2019s supporters believe Google\u2019s current market value of about $190 billion will climb even higher under his leadership. That would mirror what happened after Jobs finally got his chance to run Apple in 1997 after a decade in exile. Since then, Apple has brought out the iconic iPod, iPhone and iPad devices and created more than $300 billion in shareholder wealth.<\/p>\n

But the returns of company founders haven\u2019t always been triumphant. Consider Yahoo Inc. co-founder Jerry Yang\u2019s second stint as CEO from June 2007 to January 2009. Yahoo\u2019s stock fell 56 percent during that period, larger than the 41 percent drop for Nasdaq. Unlike the rest of the Nasdaq, Yahoo shares aren\u2019t close to rebounding to their June 2007 levels.<\/p>\n

Hoping to smooth the transition to a new CEO, Google is keeping Schmidt, 55, in a prominent role as executive chairman and chief liaison with lawmakers and regulators around the world. That\u2019s an important job as Google faces growing scrutiny over its ambitions to use its dominance in search to enter new markets. Brin, 37, intends to focus on long-term projects, leaving Page to manage Google\u2019s daily operations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am quite convinced that this change will result in faster decision-making, better success for the business and ultimately greater value for the shareholders,\u201d Schmidt told The Associated Press after Google announced its shake-up in January.<\/p>\n

In the past, the three made key decisions by committee, though Schmidt was the one responsible as CEO. Schmidt guided Google through an uninterrupted stretch of prosperity that has topped the performances of other technology trailblazers, including Apple and Microsoft, at similar stages of their corporate lives.<\/p>\n

Page is better prepared to be CEO after a decade as Schmidt\u2019s apprentice, said Douglas Merrill, who worked with both executives before leaving Google in 2008 as vice president of engineering.<\/p>\n

\u201cLarry has grown over time,\u201d Merrill said. \u201cHe has learned how to make projects work. He has learned how to make sure things happen on time and in a predictable fashion. Larry is a sort of a learning machine.\u201d
Source: AP<\/p>\n

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You Are Here: Home \u00bb Africa\/International \u00bb Google co-founder to prove he is ready to be CEO Page last updated at Sunday, April 3, 2011 5:05 AM \/\/ Larry Page Google co-founder Larry Page is known for his vision, passion and intelligence. Yet there is a fair amount of concern that Page\u2019s other known traits \u2014 his aloofness, rebellious streak and affinity for pursuing wacky ideas \u2014 might lead the company astray. Page takes over as CEO on Monday as fast-rising rivals and tougher regulators threaten Google\u2019s growth. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-362441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nGoogle co-founder to prove he is ready to be CEO - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/04\/03\/google-co-founder-to-prove-he-is-ready-to-be-ceo\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Google co-founder to prove he is ready to be CEO - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"You Are Here: Home \u00bb Africa\/International \u00bb Google co-founder to prove he is ready to be CEO Page last updated at Sunday, April 3, 2011 5:05 AM \/\/ Larry Page Google co-founder Larry Page is known for his vision, passion and intelligence. 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