Perhaps it's like a king placing his vassals at key places in his domain? Google's new chief executive Larry Page has reorganized six key managers to head strategic parts of the Google empire and report directly to him.
While this is common to any new CEO, it is unique for Google, which uses a central operating committee to approve or reject proposals and decisions. Essentially, democracy is out at Google and the dictatorship has begun. (Read Page's memo that bonuses will be handed out only if social-networking performance has greatly improved.)
According to the Los Angeles Times, the new generals in the Google army are:
- Andy Rubin, senior vice president of mobile
- Vic Gundotra, vice president of social
- Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of Chrome
- Salar Kamangar, senior vice president of YouTube and video
- Alan Eustace, senior vice president of search
- Susan Wojcicki, senior vice president of ads
While some say Page is positioning himself as a powerful CEO like Steve Jobs at Apple, others say that Google needs strong direction to run a technological race against Facebook. Page plans on being kept up to date by meeting with his trusted generals once a day, encouraging employees to focus on meeting with decision-makers and reviewing current Google projects to see if they should be shut down.
Google has had close to a decade of being rule by consensus, perhaps it's now time to have the company run by a benevolent dictator.
