2 min

Google CEO Sundar Pichai believes that the organization could be more focused. According to CNBC, the executive recently convened an all-hands meeting and stated that he wants a more efficient Google after saying that the business is “not currently” considering layoffs.

Pichai said there are serious worries that Google’s overall productivity is not where it ought to be. The CEO has stated that he wishes to establish a more mission-focused, product-focused, and customer-focused culture. He believes that Google should consider how it can reduce distractions while raising the bar on product excellence and efficiency. During the meeting, Pichai introduced a ‘Simplicity Sprint’ campaign to solicit employee feedback.

What Google plans to do

The request for greater focus follows Google’s Q2 results report last week, in which parent company Alphabet missed sales projections. CFO Ruth Porat explained the numbers with “uncertainty in the global economic environment.”

Last month, Pichai also announced intentions to limit recruiting for the remainder of the year. Google overhauled its performance review procedure this year to create a smoother path to promotions and bust bureaucracy. According to a 2021 New York Times article on Pichai’s managerial style, Google is a fading, indecisive firm with “paralyzing bureaucracy”.

Pichai’s management

From the outside, an unending cycle of product churn and duplication appears to be a significant source of Google’s inefficiency. The worst example is the 10-plus messaging applications Google has launched since Pichai took over in 2015.

We gained some insight from Manu Cornet’s internal-only Google cartoons, which typically highlight introducing a new product as the quickest way to get promoted at Google, as opposed to maintaining and developing current ones.

Because of Pichai’s hands-off, “let a thousand flowers bloom” management approach, Google’s weaker product lines are vulnerable to disruption by these promotion-boosting experiments with no long-term goal. Google prioritizes office politics above competitiveness since there is no top-down leadership mapping out a route for less established products.