Restructuring Sees Wharton MBA Take Charge of Google

Now appointed Google CEO, the Wharton MBA will take on responsibility for developing its brand and overseeing many of its core businesses, including the infamous search engine and advertising interests as well as YouTube and Android.

“I feel very fortunate to have someone as talented as he [Sundar Pichai] is to run the slightly slimmed down Google and this frees up time for me to continue to scale our aspirations…I know Sundar will always be focused on innovation - continuing to stretch boundaries,” wrote Page, who added that it was not his intention to build a brand around Alphabet and that each of its wholly-owned subsidiaries would remain independent. Examples of those companies not falling under the Wharton MBA’s remit include its venture capital arm, Google Ventures, and its automated household products acquisition of last year, Nest Labs.   

Even so, there are many who now view Pichai as the most obvious successor to Page, in the event that Google’s cofounder looks at downshifting his activities. Pichai is said to have great interpersonal skills and a refreshing lack of ego, making his promotion to Google CEO likely to be a popular decision within the company. Indeed, there have been suggestions that his rise is also intended to ward off any headhunters interested in luring Pichai away from Google.

Having said that, Sundar Pichai – who hails from Chennai (formerly known as Madras) – is now CEO of a company that is often first on the wish lists of prospective MBA students. Google came top in a Universum list of employers based on the preferences of business undergraduates in the US. It is also a company that increasingly looks to MBA graduates in its recruitment strategy and features among the top recruiter lists by volume of recent MBAs hired from individual schools in both the US and Europe. Indeed, Google features on a list of employers who hired at least two MBAs from the class of 2014 at Pichai’s alma mater and it’ll be interesting to see whether his appointment to CEO has any impact on Google’s relationship with the school and its students in the near future.