Nearly 15 years ago, Google got its start as a research project by then-Stanford students Larry Page and Sergey Brin. 10 years ago, they brought Eric Schmidt on as CEO and since, the company has grown to dominate search and become one of the largest forces on the Internet.
Today, Schmidt announced that he will be stepping down as the company’s chief executive officer and passing the torch to co-founder Larry Page. In turn, Schmidt says he will take on the role of “executive chairman” in an effort to speed up decision making at the company and simplify the management structure.
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“As Executive Chairman, I will focus wherever I can add the greatest value: externally, on the deals, partnerships, customers and broader business relationships, government outreach and technology thought leadership that are increasingly important given Google’s global reach; and internally as an advisor to Larry and Sergey,” writes Schmidt.
According to Schmidt’s announcement, titled “An update from the Chairman“, the decision has been long in the making. The move will place Schmidt in an external advisory role, make Page CEO and give Brin the title of “co-founder” where he will “devote his time and energy to strategic projects, in particular working on new products. […] He’s an innovator and entrepreneur to the core, and this role suits him perfectly.” Page will take on the role of CEO as of April 4.
Page offers a statement on the transition in the company’s fourth quarter earnings statement:
“Eric has clearly done an outstanding job leading Google for the last decade. The results speak for themselves. There is no other CEO in the world that could have kept such headstrong founders so deeply involved and still run the business so brilliantly. Eric is a tremendous leader and I have learned innumerable lessons from him. His advice and efforts will be invaluable to me as I start in this new role. Google still has such incredible opportunity–we are only at the beginning and I can’t wait to get started.”
Read on for the entirety of Schmidt’s announcement:
When I joined Google in 2001 I never imagined–even in my wildest dreams–that we would get as far, as fast as we have today. Search has quite literally changed people’s lives–increasing the collective sum of the world’s knowledge and revolutionizing advertising in the process. And our emerging businesses–display, Android, YouTube and Chrome–are on fire. Of course, like any successful organization we’ve had our fair share of good luck, but the entire team–now over 24,000 Googlers globally–deserves most of the credit.
And as our results today show, the outlook is bright. But as Google has grown, managing the business has become more complicated. So Larry, Sergey and I have been talking for a long time how best to simplify our management structure and speed up decision making–and over the holidays we decided now was the right moment to make some changes to the way we are structured.
For the last 10 years, we have all been equally involved in making decisions. This triumvirate approach has real benefits in terms of shared wisdom, and we will continue to discuss the big decisions among the three of us. But we have also agreed to clarify our individual roles so there’s clear responsibility and accountability at the top of the company.
Larry will now lead product development and technology strategy, his greatest strengths, and starting from April 4 he will take charge of our day-to-day operations as Google’s Chief Executive Officer. In this new role I know he will merge Google’s technology and business vision brilliantly. I am enormously proud of my last decade as CEO, and I am certain that the next 10 years under Larry will be even better! Larry, in my clear opinion, is ready to lead.
Sergey has decided to devote his time and energy to strategic projects, in particular working on new products. His title will be Co-Founder. He’s an innovator and entrepreneur to the core, and this role suits him perfectly.
As Executive Chairman, I will focus wherever I can add the greatest value: externally, on the deals, partnerships, customers and broader business relationships, government outreach and technology thought leadership that are increasingly important given Google’s global reach; and internally as an advisor to Larry and Sergey.
We are confident that this focus will serve Google and our users well in the future. Larry, Sergey and I have worked exceptionally closely together for over a decade–and we anticipate working together for a long time to come. As friends, co-workers and computer scientists we have a lot in common, most important of all a profound belief in the potential for technology to make the world a better place. We love Google–our people, our products and most of all the opportunity we have to improve the lives of millions of people around the world.
How do you think this will affect Google? Will Page be able to keep Google rolling along as it has over the last decade or was Schmidt the driving force?
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