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Ask HN: Why was Eric Schmidt Hired to Run Google?

4 points by DevX101 ↗ HN
In light of recent news of Schmidt's departure, I did some wikipediaing of his bio, but there wasn't anything in his track record that made it seem immediately obvious that he should lead the biggest tech company around.

He did a pretty good job at the helm IMO, but I'd like some insight into why he was chosen.

2 comments

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AngeloAnolin
Pretty much I assume both Larry Page and Sergey Brin trusts Eric who has both the technical and soft skills to lead their business.
jacquesm
I think both Larry and Sergey realized that even though they were well versed in the technology aspects of running Google they were not prepared to run the business aspect of the largest tech company on the internet at that point in time.

It's actually much to their credit that they were able to recognize this and act on it rather than to try to go it alone, at the same time since you only get to live your life once there is no telling where they would be today if they had done just that.

I think they might have had a rockier ride but they're both pretty clever guys to put it mildly and I think they would have been able to overcome the challenges that were thrown at them.

Personally I'm pretty happy to see this change, I think the 'face' of google needs a person that does not give you a feeling of old guard corporate but instead should be fresh and young.

Time will tell where it all leads, I'm pretty hopeful about this being a positive change.