Internet giant Google on Tuesday announced a major restructuring of its organisational strategy at the core of which is the appointment of Sundar Pichai as Chief Executive Officer.

A holding company called Alphabet has been created under the new structure. This is aimed at separating its moneymaking businesses from the moonshot ones.

Instead of having everything from maps to driverless cars under a single unit, after the restructuring, Google will encompass all the internet products and services such as search, maps, YouTube and Gmail.

Long-term projects Other long-term projects such as driverless cars, smart thermostat maker Nest, and research and development arm Calico (aimed at increasing the human life-span), will come under Alphabet.

Pichai, who will lead the core of the business, is at the centre of Google’s strategy. Larry Page, the current CEO, said in a blog post that the new structure will allow the company to keep focusing on extraordinary opportunities.

“A key part of this is Sundar Pichai. Sundar has been saying the things I would have said (and sometimes better!) for quite some time now, and I’ve been tremendously enjoying our work together. He has really stepped up since October of last year, when he took on product and engineering responsibility for our internet businesses.” The reorganisation comes even as Google faces tremendous pressure from companies such as Facebook on revenues from core businesses, including mobile-based advertising. Pichai is a products specialist and will be expected to ramp up Google’s mobile platform.

A phenomenal rise According to former company executives, Pichai’s rise within Google has been phenomenal owing to his successful handling of tough but financially important projects, including the Google Toolbar and Chrome. “At a time when Internet Explorer was the leading browser, Pichai came up with the idea of having a search toolbar. That, in a sense, brought Google into the big league,” said a former employee of the company.

Pichai was also behind Google’s move to build its own browser, Chrome. Though this idea did not find full support initially, Chrome now holds 32 per cent of the browser market, ahead of all the other products.

Google’s investors will be hoping that Pichai can continue to weave his magic, especially on products that enhance its revenues from mobile and social networking platforms.

Related Topics