Google CEO Pichai: We need to up productivity by a fifth
(2022/09/07)
- Reference: 1662562814
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/09/07/google_ceo_sundar_pichai_productivity/
- Source link:
Google execs are embarking on a company-wide efficiency drive to make the digital advertising and cloud computing business 20 percent more productive.
Taking to the stage at the Code Conference in Los Angeles, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and its parent Alphabet, pointed to economic storms on the horizon.
"The more we try to understand the macroeconomic [situation], we feel very uncertain about it," he said. "The macroeconomic performance is correlated to ad spend, consumer spend and so on."
[1]
Pichai and his organization are set to pull internal levers to tweak the business to make it leaner and perhaps operate more smoothly in an effort to hedge against uncertainty.
[2]
[3]
He admitted Google was moving "slower" after hiring thousands of people during the pandemic. Google's workforce was 118,988 in 2019, swelled to 156,500 in 2021 and is now up to 174,000.
The company, like many others in tech, [4]slowed hiring from July, and last month leaned on staff to generate ideas to be more productive via the [5]Simplicity Sprint initiative . Pichai said at the time he was worried, given the headcount, "our productivity as a whole is not where it needs [to be]."
[6]
This followed [7]calendar Q2 results that were 13 percent higher than a year earlier at $69.69 billion, falling slightly short of analysts' consensus estimates and representing something of a slowdown from prior recent quarters.
[8]Google cancels bi-annual performance reviews, shifts to GRAD system
[9]Microsoft asks staff to think twice before submitting expenses
[10]Microsoft closes unfilled job openings in cloud and security
[11]Cisco dials back on hiring, cool winds blow through economy
On stage yesterday at the Code Conference, Pichai said it was essential Google's managers were "prioritizing all the right things to be working on and your employees are really productive that they can actually have impact on the things they're working on – so that's what we are spending our time on."
"Across everything we do, we can be slower to make decisions," Pichai said. "You look at it end-to-end and figure out how to make the company 20 percent more productive."
He added: "Sometimes there are areas to make progress [where] you have three people making decisions, understanding that and bringing it down to two or one improves efficiency by 20 percent."
According to an [12]Insider report , the CEO last week told staff at the monthly all-hands meeting that he intends to "simplify" the organization.
[13]
"I see so many opportunities ahead, and I think we can continue scaling and driving massive impact," Pichai said. "But to do that, we need to simplify the company and manage the complexity as we scale."
Ideas being considered include reducing by a third the list of "objectives and key results" to set goals for staff in 2023 and expunging needless meetings. No doubt merging some products group or tweaking a layer of management to clip bureaucracy could help too.
Pichai said he received 6,000 responses from staff under the Simplicity Sprint initiative and the most "striking" feedback pertained to Google's internal tooling systems and the way it brings on board employees.
The Register has asked Google to comment.
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[4] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/13/google_hiring_slowing/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/02/google/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YxjAE2e5kEkuz8Hsq1-XFgAAAA0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/27/alphabet_q2_2022/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/05/google_cancels_biannual_performance_reviews/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/10/microsoft-business-travel/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/21/microsoft_unfilled_jobs/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/16/cisco_dials_back_on_hiring/
[12] https://www.businessinsider.com/google-cut-back-meetings-distractions-okrs-goals-simplicity-sprint-2022-9?r=US&IR=T
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YxjAE2e5kEkuz8Hsq1-XFgAAAA0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Taking to the stage at the Code Conference in Los Angeles, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and its parent Alphabet, pointed to economic storms on the horizon.
"The more we try to understand the macroeconomic [situation], we feel very uncertain about it," he said. "The macroeconomic performance is correlated to ad spend, consumer spend and so on."
[1]
Pichai and his organization are set to pull internal levers to tweak the business to make it leaner and perhaps operate more smoothly in an effort to hedge against uncertainty.
[2]
[3]
He admitted Google was moving "slower" after hiring thousands of people during the pandemic. Google's workforce was 118,988 in 2019, swelled to 156,500 in 2021 and is now up to 174,000.
The company, like many others in tech, [4]slowed hiring from July, and last month leaned on staff to generate ideas to be more productive via the [5]Simplicity Sprint initiative . Pichai said at the time he was worried, given the headcount, "our productivity as a whole is not where it needs [to be]."
[6]
This followed [7]calendar Q2 results that were 13 percent higher than a year earlier at $69.69 billion, falling slightly short of analysts' consensus estimates and representing something of a slowdown from prior recent quarters.
[8]Google cancels bi-annual performance reviews, shifts to GRAD system
[9]Microsoft asks staff to think twice before submitting expenses
[10]Microsoft closes unfilled job openings in cloud and security
[11]Cisco dials back on hiring, cool winds blow through economy
On stage yesterday at the Code Conference, Pichai said it was essential Google's managers were "prioritizing all the right things to be working on and your employees are really productive that they can actually have impact on the things they're working on – so that's what we are spending our time on."
"Across everything we do, we can be slower to make decisions," Pichai said. "You look at it end-to-end and figure out how to make the company 20 percent more productive."
He added: "Sometimes there are areas to make progress [where] you have three people making decisions, understanding that and bringing it down to two or one improves efficiency by 20 percent."
According to an [12]Insider report , the CEO last week told staff at the monthly all-hands meeting that he intends to "simplify" the organization.
[13]
"I see so many opportunities ahead, and I think we can continue scaling and driving massive impact," Pichai said. "But to do that, we need to simplify the company and manage the complexity as we scale."
Ideas being considered include reducing by a third the list of "objectives and key results" to set goals for staff in 2023 and expunging needless meetings. No doubt merging some products group or tweaking a layer of management to clip bureaucracy could help too.
Pichai said he received 6,000 responses from staff under the Simplicity Sprint initiative and the most "striking" feedback pertained to Google's internal tooling systems and the way it brings on board employees.
The Register has asked Google to comment.
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YxjAE2e5kEkuz8Hsq1-XFgAAAA0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
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[4] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/13/google_hiring_slowing/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/02/google/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YxjAE2e5kEkuz8Hsq1-XFgAAAA0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/27/alphabet_q2_2022/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/05/google_cancels_biannual_performance_reviews/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/10/microsoft-business-travel/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/21/microsoft_unfilled_jobs/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/16/cisco_dials_back_on_hiring/
[12] https://www.businessinsider.com/google-cut-back-meetings-distractions-okrs-goals-simplicity-sprint-2022-9?r=US&IR=T
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YxjAE2e5kEkuz8Hsq1-XFgAAAA0&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Depressing
trevorde
Worked on an NHS project where there were a *lot* of pointless meetings and people whose raison d'etre seemed to be attending meetings.
After one particularly pointless meeting, I looked at the number of people in the room and said:
"That meeting just cost us £1200. Just think how many cancer treatments that could fund."
Re: Depressing
Victor Ludorum
Don't leave us guessing, what was the reaction?
Re: Depressing
Drat
> Don't leave us guessing, what was the reaction?
Their reaction was probably: Let's have a meeting to discuss that
So just fire 20%
Yet Another Anonymous coward
Google runs ads for other people's successful business. The ads are priced and sold automatically by a bidding algorithm. It needs a couple of admins to keep the lights on. All Google has to do is reduce it's own costs faster than other successful businesses reduce their ad spend.
Meeting Tax
Worked at a company where my manager was in back to back meetings 8hrs a day, 5 days a week. I suggested the idea of a 'meetings tax':
* 10% of your salary is allocated as a 'meetings allowance'
* any meetings you attend are charged at £100/hr from your allowance
* first 15 mins of a meeting are free, after that it is chargeable
* you can leave a meeting at any time
* all meetings are optional
* if you absolutely require someone at a meeting, you have to pay for them
* at the end of the year, you get to keep anything in your 'meetings allowance' as a bonus
The idea is to incentivize:
* short, focused meetings
* emails not meetings
* only going to meetings if you can contribute or get value
* only call meetings if absolutely necessary
He thought I was joking. I wasn't.