of God. And everyone interprets the word of God at Google.”
It’s very hard not to defer to founders who have been right so often. But here’s where Schmidt is criticized for not imposing his will. One reason, said a former Google executive, is because “He hates confrontation.” A second reason, said another former manager, is because “Eric runs the company—unless there’s someting Larry really cares about. Anything Larry cares about, he runs. Like products.” Brin is said to assert himself on fewer things, but on advertising and privacy policies, business deals, or “Google’s approach to China, Sergey rules.” The prominent CEO of one company that does business with Google said he found Schmidt “odd, as if he’s holding something back. In the guise of someone who is straight—a sincere, decent, thoughtful, kind man—he is something different than all of those qualities. In his business dealings people will tell you that if he said, ‘OK, I agree to this,’ you will find that he actually hasn’t done so. If you confront him, he said he couldn’t. Or he forgot. Or he gives you gobbledegook.”
Why? “He is not the decider,” the CEO answered. “Yet in certain areas he pretends that he is. Eric is smoothly duplicitous.”
Silicon Valley venture capitalist Roger McNamee of Elevation Partners calls “Google the most impressive company I’ve ever seen.” Yet in mid-2008 he also said, “I am very disappointed in Eric Schmidt. He got off to a great start because he was wise enough to leave a crazy culture alone. The Google culture has become a monster.”
Even Coach Campbell, who has no direct managerial responsibilities, is not immune from criticism. “He’s more a crutch than a coach,” said a former Google executive, who believes Campbell compliments too much and challenges too little. A senior Google executive observes that until late 2008, Google never had an internal budget that apportioned capital, made choices about what resources to allocate; instead, it projected expenditures and revenues month by month. He blames the CEO for this, but also asked of the experienced coach, “Where was Bill?” He said Campbell spends too much time dispensing hugs. “I find him all hat and no cattle.”
MARC ANDREESSEN was of two minds about Google. On the one hand, he believed, “Google is in a great position,” particularly with YouTube, which he thought will find a way to monetize. On the other hand, he cautioned against Google’s “trying to do everything. You saw their energy initiative! History suggests that people have circles of competence and when you go outside the circle, they fail.”
Columbia’s Tim Wu concurs. “Google is a precocious company. Great grades. Perfect IPO. A typical high school standout,” he observed. “The basic problem is whether they remain true to their founding philosophy. I don’t just mean ‘Don’t be evil.” Will they stay focused on search, on “their founding philosophy, which is really an engineers’ aesthetic of getting you to what you want as fast as you can and then getting out of the way?” Or will Google become “a source of content, a platform, a destination that seeks to keep people in a walled Google garden? I predict that Google will wind up at war with itself.”
Brin rejects this analysis, but when asked what his biggest worry was, he answered simply, “I worry about complexity. I admire Steve Jobs. He has been able to keep his products simple.”
Advertising pressures may add to Google’s complexity, for there is a built-in tension between the interests of users and of advertisers. Recall the aversion the founders once had to banner ads because, they said, “they don’t give the user the best experience.” And now Google heralds its purchase of DoubleClick as a means to get into the banner advertising business it once shunned. Because Google now admits to being in the advertising business, which produces almost all its revenues, they will have to answer this question: Is Google’s customer the advertiser or the user?
“I don’t think I’m worried about that changing at Google,” Brin said. He would not make the same argument for others. “I see other Web sites making trade-offs that I wouldn‘t,” including allowing “pop-ups and pop unders,” or online publications that allow “eight columns of ads on the side and one teensy article.”
But with such a wealth of data at Google’s disposal, their advertising customers will want more. And if Google’s growth sputters, pressure to satisfy advertisers will intensify. Richard Sarnoff, now the president of Digital Media Investments at Bertelsmann AG, whose great-uncle was David