Larry Page’s story is fascinating
Nicholas Carlson just published a fascinating in depth article about Larry Page. It covers his evolution over the last 15 years. When he started out at Google, he was an immature CEO who fostered conflict and micromanaged. He resisted the idea of giving up the CEO role to Eric Schmidt and over the years disengaged himself from the product role at Google.
Android fostered his renaissance. He had the vision to buy the company without permission (which was not blocked because the $50 million made no difference to Google’s bottom line) and to foster its development. He learned to delegate and improved his management skills.
At the same time, despite all of Eric Schmidt’s success at Google the company, the company became slower and more risk averse, loth to go for moonshots. Having built up his management experience during his wilderness years, Larry Page had become just the person required to take the company forward with the proper combination of vision, ambition and experience.
Read the full story at: http://www.businessinsider.com/larry-page-the-untold-story-2014-4
Do you mean “loath” to go for moonshot? ( I know it is your second language…and you speak it like a native )
It is interesting how success brings arrogance and lack of trust in other people. Or maybe Page had early success because he was a perfectionist and had higher standards than anybody else in the first place? Most likely both. Sometimes founders has so much respect that he/she can treat people like s**t. The closest team can handle it, they are AAA players. The challenge comes when the next management layer start to copy the style. People take crap and harsh feedback from people they admire and want to become. Not from a former peer that was promoted last quarter. That happens when you grow fast and not everyone you hire are top performers. Soon churn increases and execution get diluted and slow to react. Most founders do not have the luxury of an Eric Schmidt for 10 years making billions in free cash flow. They must become an example right away and grow with the company.
Amazing story!