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Sundar Pichai says that making decision is always superior to wasting time. The only alternative is succumbing to pressure. He believes mistakes offer opportunities for learning.
Sundar Pichai became Google CEO in 2015.
Running one of the world’s biggest tech companies isn’t exactly a stress-free job. For Sundar Pichai, every day as CEO of Google and Alphabet comes with high-stakes decisions and constant pressure. But over the years, he has learned to keep his cool, and it is all because of a simple two-step mantra that helps him stay grounded and lead with clarity.
Speaking at Stanford Business School in 2022, Pichai opened up about how this mindset has shaped his approach to leadership.
“One is: making that decision is the most important thing you can do. You’re breaking a tie and it unlocks the organisation to move forward,” he said.
“The second is, with time, you realise most of those decisions are inconsequential,” he added.
According to Pichai, while a decision might “appear very tough” in the moment, it is often only later that you realise it wasn’t “that consequential.”
“There are few consequential decisions, and judgment is a big part of leadership,” he added.
Pichai credits his practical mindset to his mentor Bill Campbell, a former Intuit CEO, who would often check in on him during his time at Stanford.
“Every week [Campbell] would see me, he would ask me, ‘What ties did you break this week?’” Pichai recalled. It taught him to be confident in making tough calls, especially when a team was stuck and needed direction. “It’s always stuck with me,” he said.
Pichai joined Google in 2004 as a product manager and rose steadily through the ranks. He became CEO in 2015 and has since led the company through several turning points.
“The higher up you are in an organisation, the easier decisions don’t come to you,” Pichai said. Still, the mantra helps him stay grounded. “It’s just another normal day in the office, and so you keep going through it,” he added.
And while the job might seem overwhelming from the outside, Pichai says the ability to help the company move forward makes it all worth it.
“You’re really helping the company, and so that makes it a bit more fun,” he said.
Recently, at a tech conference in San Francisco, Pichai also spoke about what kind of leader should eventually step into his shoes. While he didn’t name any successors or hint at stepping down soon, he said the next CEO must deeply understand both the weight and responsibility that comes with leading Google.
A team of writers at News18.com bring you stories on what’s creating the buzz on the Internet while exploring science, cricket, tech, gender, Bollywood, and culture.
A team of writers at News18.com bring you stories on what’s creating the buzz on the Internet while exploring science, cricket, tech, gender, Bollywood, and culture.
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