4 ms·

I wonder how much of this is due to some of the bad decisions Eric Schmidt has made with google.

by toisanji 16y ago

thedjpetersen 16y ago
He wasn't fired, his role is just changing
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
  - nostrademons 16y ago
    Edit: parent post suggested that Eric had been demoted. Executive Chairman is technically higher than the CEO: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chairman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chairman The Board of Directors is the CEO's boss, the Chairman is the leader of the Board of Directors.
    - ghshephard 16y ago
      The executive chairman is not part of the corporate leadership. In the United States, the CEO is the singular head of the corporate, accountable to only the majority vote of the board. The Executive Chairman position is quite often, a polite way of keeping someone associated with a company (and all the travel, influence perks) without putting them in the management chain. Quite often seen during (friendly) mergers and takeovers. Nobody is confused as to what the responsibilities, and authority Larry and Eric will have after April 4th.
      - nostrademons 16y ago
        Hence the "technically".
mdwrigh2 16y ago
What decisions made by Eric Schmidt would you consider "bad"?
- siglesias 16y ago
  Leading a decade of mediocre home-grown products (save for Gmail)? EDIT: Name one hit Google product Schmidt oversaw (again, save for Gmail) that wasn't an acquisition. This is supposed to be a company of innovation. EDIT 2: I regret the use of mediocre. I'm sure the technology, like everything that comes out of Google, was top notch. Certain products though, like Buzz, Wave, and TV, and the bizarrely bifurcated-from-Android Chrome OS, lacked a degree of oversight and discipline before launch that ended up hurting their brand in the space of consumer products. I also think something to consider is that this culture of acquisition has to be very bad for their employee turnover rate.
  - jonknee 16y ago
    Being able to execute upon acquisitions and bring them to Google-scale is nothing to scoff at. Example, Android. Despite the Gruber's of the world thinking it is an iPhone rip off, Google made the acquisition (of a very small company--the Android we know today was quite simply built by Google) in 2005. Update: Also, thought of a few... Translate, Chrome, Talk, and Reader. I'm sure there are more, definitely if you include ones based on acquisitions (Analytics, Earth, Apps, etc).
    - deleted 16y ago
      [deleted]
      - sandipc 16y ago
        there is more to Chrome than WebKit
      - nostrademons 16y ago
        WebKit is based on KHTML, which the KDE team made. And Konqueror and Safari together have less market share than Chrome, despite being around for much longer.
minalecs 16y ago
His role just changed to Executive Chairman to handle more of the business operations and be less product decisions
hugh3 16y ago
Eric Schmidt has been CEO of google for ten years. In that time it's gone from (maybe) a $200 million company to a $200 billion company. I think any bad decisions he might have made along the way can be forgiven.
- lehmannro 16y ago
  While true there might be a slight portion of outcome bias -- the tendency to judge a decision by its eventual outcome instead of based on the quality of the decision at the time it was made (source: List of cognitive biases, Wikipedia) -- involved in that analysis.

I wonder how much of this is due to some of the bad decisions Eric Schmidt has made with google.

thedjpetersen 16y ago

He wasn't fired, his role is just changing

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
- nostrademons 16y ago
  Edit: parent post suggested that Eric had been demoted. Executive Chairman is technically higher than the CEO: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chairman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chairman The Board of Directors is the CEO's boss, the Chairman is the leader of the Board of Directors.
  - ghshephard 16y ago
    The executive chairman is not part of the corporate leadership. In the United States, the CEO is the singular head of the corporate, accountable to only the majority vote of the board. The Executive Chairman position is quite often, a polite way of keeping someone associated with a company (and all the travel, influence perks) without putting them in the management chain. Quite often seen during (friendly) mergers and takeovers. Nobody is confused as to what the responsibilities, and authority Larry and Eric will have after April 4th.
    - nostrademons 16y ago
      Hence the "technically".

mdwrigh2 16y ago

What decisions made by Eric Schmidt would you consider "bad"?

siglesias 16y ago
Leading a decade of mediocre home-grown products (save for Gmail)? EDIT: Name one hit Google product Schmidt oversaw (again, save for Gmail) that wasn't an acquisition. This is supposed to be a company of innovation. EDIT 2: I regret the use of mediocre. I'm sure the technology, like everything that comes out of Google, was top notch. Certain products though, like Buzz, Wave, and TV, and the bizarrely bifurcated-from-Android Chrome OS, lacked a degree of oversight and discipline before launch that ended up hurting their brand in the space of consumer products. I also think something to consider is that this culture of acquisition has to be very bad for their employee turnover rate.
- jonknee 16y ago
  Being able to execute upon acquisitions and bring them to Google-scale is nothing to scoff at. Example, Android. Despite the Gruber's of the world thinking it is an iPhone rip off, Google made the acquisition (of a very small company--the Android we know today was quite simply built by Google) in 2005. Update: Also, thought of a few... Translate, Chrome, Talk, and Reader. I'm sure there are more, definitely if you include ones based on acquisitions (Analytics, Earth, Apps, etc).
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
    - sandipc 16y ago
      there is more to Chrome than WebKit
    - nostrademons 16y ago
      WebKit is based on KHTML, which the KDE team made. And Konqueror and Safari together have less market share than Chrome, despite being around for much longer.

minalecs 16y ago

His role just changed to Executive Chairman to handle more of the business operations and be less product decisions

hugh3 16y ago

Eric Schmidt has been CEO of google for ten years. In that time it's gone from (maybe) a $200 million company to a $200 billion company. I think any bad decisions he might have made along the way can be forgiven.

lehmannro 16y ago
While true there might be a slight portion of outcome bias -- the tendency to judge a decision by its eventual outcome instead of based on the quality of the decision at the time it was made (source: List of cognitive biases, Wikipedia) -- involved in that analysis.