From Modi to Nadella; Praises pour in for Pichai

With just 1,66,778 followers on Twitter, Sundar Pichai may still be far behind Microsoft’s India born chief Satya Nadella (5,04,020) and Apple chief Tim Cook who has over 1.3 million followers, but Monday’s announcement which elevated Pichai as the chief of Google Inc. has put him into the same league as Nadella and Cook within a very short span of time.

Even as Pichai had not updated his bio on Twitter which still introduced him as senior vice president of products till late Tuesday evening, reactions and congratulatory messages poured in from all corners. From Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Nadella's contemporaries in rival firms to former colleagues, all came out to wish Pichai on his new role.

With Monday’s announcement the three largest technology companies will be run by professionals who did not originally found them, with Microsoft and Google both having Indians as their CEOs. While Modi congratulated Pichai by saying, “My best wishes for the new role at @google (sic),” Pichai’s former colleague Nikesh Arora retweeted Modi’s message joking, “Now I feel cheated :). Lol. Congrats @sundarpichai (sic). In an earlier tweet Arora who recently left Google to join SoftBank Corp and is now its President said, “Brilliant guy, clear thinker, gets things done and a wonderful person at that. @sundarpichai (sic).”

Appointment of Pichai as chief of Google just almost a year after Hyderabad born Nadella was elevated to the top job at Microsoft has sent a strong message to the large Indian tech community in Silicon Valley.

Commenting on what Pichai’s elevation means for the Indian talent in the Valley, Indian-American technology entrepreneur and academic, Vivek Wadhwa told Business Standard, “It is indeed amazing to see how much success Indians have achieved given that they constitute less than 1% of the US population. I have been researching Silicon Valley and immigration and what I learned is that a group that constitutes 6% of the working population starts 16% of the companies there.”

He added that the reasons behind the success of Indians is that they were well educated, worked hard, and helped one another. “They formed entrepreneurial networks and mastered the rules of engagement of Silicon Valley—which are about sharing information, networking, and mentoring. Imagine if Indians in India started doing this. It would uplift the country,” he said.

Wadhwa who is an academic and fellow at Stanford Law University added, “Indians have truly earned their success. Like anywhere else, foreigners face discrimination and stereotyping. They worked hard and proved themselves...”

Pichai who joined Google in 2004 was made head of products only in October last year. Since his last promotion, it was being speculated that he is being groomed for the top job at Google.

Another prominent Indian who was previously the Chief Technology and Strategy Officer for Cisco tweeted, “I am sure all IITs are celebrating today. Proud of you. (sic)”

Pichai who went to IIT Kharagpur for his undergraduate in engineering and later to Stanford University for his MS also has an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennslyvania.