Google CEO Sundar Pichai looking to improve tech giant's efficiency
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Google CEO Sundar Pichai is looking to make the tech giant more productive with fewer resources amid uncertainty over the current macroeconomic environment.
"We want to make sure as a company, when you have fewer resources than before, you are 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," Pichai said during Vox Media's Code Conference on Tuesday. "So that’s what we are spending our time on."
Sundar Pichai speaks onstage Vox Media's 2022 Code Conference — Day 1 on September 6, 2022 in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Photo by Jerod Harris/Getty Images for Vox Media) ((Photo by Jerod Harris/Getty Images for Vox Media) / Getty Images)
Pichai emphasized that Google has been "slower" to make decisions as its headcount has swelled.
"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%," he added.
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In July, Pichai emailed staff saying the maker of Pixel mobile phones would slow the pace of its hiring for the rest of 2022.
At the time, Pichai said hiring efforts would be focused on engineering, technical and other critical roles. He noted that the company hired approximately 10,000 employees in the second quarter alone and had a "strong number of commitments" with starts in the third quarter.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GOOGL | ALPHABET INC. | 156.28 | +2.19 | +1.42% |
In the second quarter, Google reported net income of $16 billion, down from $18.5 billion during the same period a year ago. Revenue rose 13% to $69.7 billion compared to the same period last year.
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Last week, Snapchat app maker Snap laid off 20% of its workforce following a revenue decline in its latest quarter.
The Snapchat messaging application is seen on a phone screen August 3, 2017. (REUTERS/Thomas White/File Photo / Reuters)
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SNAP | SNAP INC. | 11.14 | -0.02 | -0.18% |
| MSFT | MICROSOFT CORP. | 400.96 | +1.84 | +0.46% |
| META | META PLATFORMS INC. | 481.73 | +0.66 | +0.14% |
| TWTR | n.a. | n.a. | n.a. | n.a. |
Meanwhile, Apple said it would slow hiring growth in 2023, Microsoft cut "a small number of jobs" as part of a "strategic alignment" in July and Facebook parent Meta Platforms froze and Twitter paused most hiring in May.
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| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WMT | WALMART INC. | 60.14 | +0.61 | +1.02% |
| ORCL | ORACLE CORP. | 114.53 | -0.35 | -0.30% |
| SPOT | SPOTIFY TECHNOLOGY SA | 272.36 | -3.50 | -1.27% |
| TSLA | TESLA INC. | 142.05 | -5.00 | -3.40% |
| NFLX | NETFLIX INC. | 554.60 | -0.44 | -0.08% |
| PTON | PELOTON INTERACTIVE INC. | 3.05 | +0.02 | +0.66% |
Other companies that have laid off employees or slowed or paused hiring include Walmart, Oracle, Spotify, Tesla, Netflix and Peloton.