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The new CEO is the former President of Product Development at Oracle...I wanna puke. Oracle has some of the most hated products in the industry. I hope he's abl

The new CEO is the former President of Product Development at Oracle...I wanna puke. Oracle has some of the most hated products in the industry. I hope he's able to adapt to Google's style and not the other way around.

compiler-guy 8y ago
This isn't the first time Google has gone outside the company for a top leadership role. Vic Gundotra was another one--and that didn't work out too well. But this is happening with increasing frequency even for mid-level leadership positions, and it is showing more and more in the culture.
- me551ah 8y ago
  Is there a reason to why google is doing this? From what I get from my friends Google has issues with employee growth and it's pretty easy to stagnate. If google keeps going outside for leadership roles then is it overlooking capable internal employees?
  - cpeterso 8y ago
    Companies typically hire outside people for leadership roles when they want to change their culture or gain some new industry connections. Promoting someone from within will reinforce the existing culture, for better or worse.
  - compiler-guy 8y ago
    I think Google just can't find people internally who want to do it. I know of two groups (one of maybe 10, and another maybe 30 engineers) that sat essentially leaderless for several months each before Google hired a manager from outside the company. Neither one of these, in my opinion, have a good handle on Google culture. There is no real reward for becoming a manager (no more pay, no more level, no more nothing), but a lot of hassle, so very few engineers want to do it. At least that is what I see from my limited vantage point.
    - jkaplowitz 8y ago
      It's also hard for those Googlers who want to do it to be given the chance, unless already senior enough on the technical ladder to correspond to the top 20% of technical people at Google (a far higher bar than the technical competence required of a manager). Source: personal experience circa 2013-2015, when I was there and trying to transition from individual contributor and tech lead to first-time people manager. Of course I wasn't considering executive roles like this article is about.
  - hcnews 8y ago
    It's because Google's culture is engineering focussed while pretending to be product focussed. As a result, Google breeds great engineers but not great product people. Also, their promotion process shamelessly promotes peer cannibalization. So, its easy for naive people to stagnate. Source: Ex-googler.
    - defen 8y ago
      > their promotion process shamelessly promotes peer cannibalization. What does "peer cannibalization" mean?
      - dx87 8y ago
        It means that making your peers looks bad is as important as making yourself look good. There's only so many spots for promotion, so employees have to stab each other in the back in order to look impressive enough to be promoted.
        xx_alpha_xx 8y ago
        Not sure that's a culture that only exists at Google... pretty much true at the higher levels of almost any big company that I've worked at.
        oculusthrift 8y ago
        i’ve only noticed at least teams/products in google that are more stagnant or don’t have as much work to do. therefore they compete and are territorial with the work. other products that are growing there is plenty for everyone
      - deleted 8y ago
        [deleted]
- spiderPig 8y ago
  Wasn't Diane greene from VMWare?
  - jvolkman 8y ago
    She was one of its founders and its former CEO.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
matthewaveryusa 8y ago
He's going to be used as the heavy-hitter salesman that goes around and says "I see you're using Oracle, I know Oracle, trust me when I say GCP will meet your needs" and he'll have tremendous credibility saying that.
- CobrastanJorji 8y ago
  That's great and all, and I'm sure he'll be very successful at that, but what if he also tries to develop some products?
  - wjossey 8y ago
    That's not what someone in his role is expected to be doing. He may support, or defund, certain initiatives, but he won't be the "originator" of anything major. The better question is, "But what type of people will he gravitate towards hiring to develop some products?"
- travisjungroth 8y ago
  That's a reason to bring on an Account Executive, not leadership for the whole department. I doubt he'll be on sales calls.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - ocdtrekkie 8y ago
    Depends who the customer is. If you're trying to grab another Spotify, you absolutely put your department leadership on the sales call.
  - manigandham 8y ago
    The CEO is the most important salesperson. Meeting customers is 50% of the job.
    - 8y ago
atonse 8y ago
Oh this is a huge red flag. Although I'm not so sure what Google's style is, it's been changing so much in the past few years, and a lot of their slimy stuff has been exposed too.
tyingq 8y ago
"hope he's able to adapt to Google's style and not the other way around" For some areas, I agree. But Google does need some outside influence on how to sell/service the Fortune 500. They are ceding business to Amazon not because Amazon is great at it, but only because Amazon is less terrible at it.
- greenail 8y ago
  is Amazon (AWS) really bad at selling to the F500? What are they doing wrong?
  - tyingq 8y ago
    They are good in their space, but aren't as good as companies that have more experience. IBM, CA, etc can sell pure garbage because their sales folks understand how the game is played, who to please, etc. Amazon won't even do simple stuff like relatively minor redline changes to contract terms. Also, by "good" I mean maximize revenue/sales/renewals. Not specifically delivering something good in the end.
matt4077 8y ago
At that level, he just isn't the guy making the decision to add a boolean type to the DB server or not. According to wikipedia, Oracle has 3000 products, each with their own management. The role is organisation and team psychologist more than API design. If you want to rate his performance, the products are a worse indicator than, say, how well-adjusted and mentally stable his teams were...yeah, you're right. GCP is fucked.

compiler-guy 8y ago

This isn't the first time Google has gone outside the company for a top leadership role. Vic Gundotra was another one--and that didn't work out too well. But this is happening with increasing frequency even for mid-level leadership positions, and it is showing more and more in the culture.

me551ah 8y ago
Is there a reason to why google is doing this? From what I get from my friends Google has issues with employee growth and it's pretty easy to stagnate. If google keeps going outside for leadership roles then is it overlooking capable internal employees?
- cpeterso 8y ago
  Companies typically hire outside people for leadership roles when they want to change their culture or gain some new industry connections. Promoting someone from within will reinforce the existing culture, for better or worse.
- compiler-guy 8y ago
  I think Google just can't find people internally who want to do it. I know of two groups (one of maybe 10, and another maybe 30 engineers) that sat essentially leaderless for several months each before Google hired a manager from outside the company. Neither one of these, in my opinion, have a good handle on Google culture. There is no real reward for becoming a manager (no more pay, no more level, no more nothing), but a lot of hassle, so very few engineers want to do it. At least that is what I see from my limited vantage point.
  - jkaplowitz 8y ago
    It's also hard for those Googlers who want to do it to be given the chance, unless already senior enough on the technical ladder to correspond to the top 20% of technical people at Google (a far higher bar than the technical competence required of a manager). Source: personal experience circa 2013-2015, when I was there and trying to transition from individual contributor and tech lead to first-time people manager. Of course I wasn't considering executive roles like this article is about.
- hcnews 8y ago
  It's because Google's culture is engineering focussed while pretending to be product focussed. As a result, Google breeds great engineers but not great product people. Also, their promotion process shamelessly promotes peer cannibalization. So, its easy for naive people to stagnate. Source: Ex-googler.
  - defen 8y ago
    > their promotion process shamelessly promotes peer cannibalization. What does "peer cannibalization" mean?
    - dx87 8y ago
      It means that making your peers looks bad is as important as making yourself look good. There's only so many spots for promotion, so employees have to stab each other in the back in order to look impressive enough to be promoted.
      - xx_alpha_xx 8y ago
        Not sure that's a culture that only exists at Google... pretty much true at the higher levels of almost any big company that I've worked at.
        oculusthrift 8y ago
        i’ve only noticed at least teams/products in google that are more stagnant or don’t have as much work to do. therefore they compete and are territorial with the work. other products that are growing there is plenty for everyone
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
spiderPig 8y ago
Wasn't Diane greene from VMWare?
- jvolkman 8y ago
  She was one of its founders and its former CEO.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

matthewaveryusa 8y ago

He's going to be used as the heavy-hitter salesman that goes around and says "I see you're using Oracle, I know Oracle, trust me when I say GCP will meet your needs" and he'll have tremendous credibility saying that.

CobrastanJorji 8y ago
That's great and all, and I'm sure he'll be very successful at that, but what if he also tries to develop some products?
- wjossey 8y ago
  That's not what someone in his role is expected to be doing. He may support, or defund, certain initiatives, but he won't be the "originator" of anything major. The better question is, "But what type of people will he gravitate towards hiring to develop some products?"
travisjungroth 8y ago
That's a reason to bring on an Account Executive, not leadership for the whole department. I doubt he'll be on sales calls.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- ocdtrekkie 8y ago
  Depends who the customer is. If you're trying to grab another Spotify, you absolutely put your department leadership on the sales call.
- manigandham 8y ago
  The CEO is the most important salesperson. Meeting customers is 50% of the job.
  - 8y ago

atonse 8y ago

Oh this is a huge red flag. Although I'm not so sure what Google's style is, it's been changing so much in the past few years, and a lot of their slimy stuff has been exposed too.

tyingq 8y ago

"hope he's able to adapt to Google's style and not the other way around" For some areas, I agree. But Google does need some outside influence on how to sell/service the Fortune 500. They are ceding business to Amazon not because Amazon is great at it, but only because Amazon is less terrible at it.

greenail 8y ago
is Amazon (AWS) really bad at selling to the F500? What are they doing wrong?
- tyingq 8y ago
  They are good in their space, but aren't as good as companies that have more experience. IBM, CA, etc can sell pure garbage because their sales folks understand how the game is played, who to please, etc. Amazon won't even do simple stuff like relatively minor redline changes to contract terms. Also, by "good" I mean maximize revenue/sales/renewals. Not specifically delivering something good in the end.

matt4077 8y ago

At that level, he just isn't the guy making the decision to add a boolean type to the DB server or not. According to wikipedia, Oracle has 3000 products, each with their own management. The role is organisation and team psychologist more than API design. If you want to rate his performance, the products are a worse indicator than, say, how well-adjusted and mentally stable his teams were...yeah, you're right. GCP is fucked.