Google CEO Sundar Pichai says productivity is "not where it needs to be"

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Google CEO Sundar Pichai apparently thinks Google has room to be a more focused company. CNBC reports that the executive recently called a town hall meeting and, after saying the company was "not currently planning" any layoffs, said it wanted a more efficient Google.

“There are real concerns that our productivity as a whole is not where it should be for the workforce we have,” Pichai said in the report. The CEO added that he wants to "create a culture that's more mission-driven, more product-driven, more customer-driven. We should be thinking about how we can minimize distractions and really raise the bar when it comes to... 'product excellence and productivity.'

The call for more attention came after Google's second-quarter earnings report last week, where Google's parent company Alphabet missed revenue expectations amid what the chief financial officer Ruth Porat called it "uncertainty in the global economic environment". Last month, Pichai also announced plans to slow hiring for the rest of the year. Google also revamped its performance review process this year in an effort to "create an easier path to promotions" and "break through the bureaucracy." A 2021 New York Times exposé on Pichai's management style described Google as a declining and indecisive company in "a crippling bureaucracy."

During the meeting, Pichai announced a "Simplicity Sprint" program to get employee feedback. The program includes a survey with questions such as: "What would help you work with more clarity and efficiency to serve our users and customers? Where should we remove speed bumps for better results faster? How do we eliminate waste and stay enterprising and focused as we grow?"

From the outside, one of Google's biggest sources of inefficiency appears to be an endless cycle of product turnover and duplication, the worst example being the more than 10 messaging apps Google has produced since the Google takeover. Pichai in 2015. Our best insight into Google's office politics comes from a series of previously in-house Google comics by Manu Cornet, who frequently portray a new product launch at Google as the most easy to get a promotion, compared to maintaining and improving existing products. Pichai's "let a thousand flowers bloom" style of management means these weaker areas of Google's product line are ripe for disruption by these promotional projects that lack a long-term plan. With no top-down direction paving the way for these less established products, Google ends up prioritizing desktop politics over competitiveness.

It's hard to know exactly what Pichai's main goals are. You could line up the "two of everything" narrative with many of the keywords used to describe Pichai's recent changes, but Pichai's vague claims of "efficiency" make it hard to put your finger on it. what changes.< /p>