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Pichai: The Future of Google
An incisive look into the world’s most innovative tech company and the man chosen to lead it
On 10 August 2015, an unassuming product expert who learnt his ropes at IIT Kharagpur was declared the next CEO of tech giant Google. Sundar Pichai’s appointment was hardly an unexpected one. Pichai is a man known as much for his veritable Midas touch with every product he has developed or led for Google – Chrome, Chrome OS and Android, to name just a few – as for his superlative people skills and open-minded approach to innovation.
Yet, the company’s decision to restructure its product lines and appoint Pichai as the head of a leaner, more focused Google, has raised inevitable questions:
• What does Pichai’s role augur for the future of the tech giant?
• Will Google consolidate its position for existing products or will they focus on creating new ones?
• And will Pichai transform the organization that Schmidt, Page and Brin created and led, or confirm the belief of a minority of naysayers that he is not yet ready for this daunting role?
Pichai: The Future of Google provides answers to these questions while throwing light on Sundar Pichai’s childhood and education; his entry into the tech world and quick rise up the ranks in Google; and his key contributions as a leader and tech-guru to Google’s most successful properties.
Timely and insightful, this book offers a rare glimpse into the fascinating ecosystem of a path-breaking company and shows us what it takes to be a dynamic leader in the 21st century.
On 10 August 2015, an unassuming product expert who learnt his ropes at IIT Kharagpur was declared the next CEO of tech giant Google. Sundar Pichai’s appointment was hardly an unexpected one. Pichai is a man known as much for his veritable Midas touch with every product he has developed or led for Google – Chrome, Chrome OS and Android, to name just a few – as for his superlative people skills and open-minded approach to innovation.
Yet, the company’s decision to restructure its product lines and appoint Pichai as the head of a leaner, more focused Google, has raised inevitable questions:
• What does Pichai’s role augur for the future of the tech giant?
• Will Google consolidate its position for existing products or will they focus on creating new ones?
• And will Pichai transform the organization that Schmidt, Page and Brin created and led, or confirm the belief of a minority of naysayers that he is not yet ready for this daunting role?
Pichai: The Future of Google provides answers to these questions while throwing light on Sundar Pichai’s childhood and education; his entry into the tech world and quick rise up the ranks in Google; and his key contributions as a leader and tech-guru to Google’s most successful properties.
Timely and insightful, this book offers a rare glimpse into the fascinating ecosystem of a path-breaking company and shows us what it takes to be a dynamic leader in the 21st century.
172 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2015
45 people are currently reading
387 people want to read
About the author
Jagmohan S. Bhanver
6 books44 followersComing from a family with a defense background, I got used to traveling from a rather early age. That sense of adventure and exploring new places has been a part of me ever since. Each place has a story to tell and I usually weave my stories from anything I see happening around me.
Having worked with three of the largest banks in India, i had the good fortune of handling national and international roles within these organizations. Growth was rapid but in 2004 I turned to my three loves - (1) my family, (2) working with people and (3) writing.
While writing took up my attention between 2004 and 2006 (came out with 2 bestsellers in the non fiction genre), the ensuing eight years were spent growing my business ventures. In 2013, i went back to writing and penned down a book that had been begging to be written for the last one decade. This was "The Curse of Brahma" - the first volume in the Krishna trilogy. This was released in 2014 with great success, The same year, I also wrote a book for Hachette titled Nadella: The changing face of Microsoft. Earlier this year (2016) Pichai - the future of Google was released. I have another two releases slated for this year. One is the much awaited second volume in the Krishna Trilogy (Rise of the Yadavas) and the other is a non fiction for Hachette.
All along, what has given me the strength to multi-task is the love of my family and the company of my friends and people I have worked with....
Having worked with three of the largest banks in India, i had the good fortune of handling national and international roles within these organizations. Growth was rapid but in 2004 I turned to my three loves - (1) my family, (2) working with people and (3) writing.
While writing took up my attention between 2004 and 2006 (came out with 2 bestsellers in the non fiction genre), the ensuing eight years were spent growing my business ventures. In 2013, i went back to writing and penned down a book that had been begging to be written for the last one decade. This was "The Curse of Brahma" - the first volume in the Krishna trilogy. This was released in 2014 with great success, The same year, I also wrote a book for Hachette titled Nadella: The changing face of Microsoft. Earlier this year (2016) Pichai - the future of Google was released. I have another two releases slated for this year. One is the much awaited second volume in the Krishna Trilogy (Rise of the Yadavas) and the other is a non fiction for Hachette.
All along, what has given me the strength to multi-task is the love of my family and the company of my friends and people I have worked with....
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
March 6, 2016
Biography of Pichai or of Google & his competitors ?
Pichai : The Furture of the Google is a lucidly written biography of Sundar Pichai written by Jagmohan S. Bhanver . Books holds only a very brief account of Pichai's lifefrom being a school student to the designation as the CEO of a Tech giant Google . Author had embedded the events which leads Pichai to steadily climb the ladder of management to top .
Situation : I felt as if Author had collected the details on Pichai from Google and international papers & then put the excerpt in the book . So the lack of research was clearly felt . And major part of the book covers the working & competitiveness in Tech world .
Pichai : The Furture of the Google is a lucidly written biography of Sundar Pichai written by Jagmohan S. Bhanver . Books holds only a very brief account of Pichai's lifefrom being a school student to the designation as the CEO of a Tech giant Google . Author had embedded the events which leads Pichai to steadily climb the ladder of management to top .
Situation : I felt as if Author had collected the details on Pichai from Google and international papers & then put the excerpt in the book . So the lack of research was clearly felt . And major part of the book covers the working & competitiveness in Tech world .
October 16, 2018
I had picked up this book with an intention of knowing about Sunder Pichai, a man who has achieved unparalleled success in life at very young age. Not only this book does not serve this purpose but also it just seems compilation of random articles into a book with no clear direction whatsoever. When I finished the book, I quite could not understand what the writer was trying to achieve. Unrelated chapters and half hearted efforts are quite visible when you seat and try reading this book.
I think if there was an example of how to not write a biography then this book would serve as a great example.
I think if there was an example of how to not write a biography then this book would serve as a great example.
December 28, 2018
A primer on Sundar Pichai interlaced by professional and personal incidents that shaped him as of 2016. A very short read from the point of view of Jagmohan S Bhanver based on a fair amount of in-depth research would best describe this book. The key highlights and anecdotes that correlate with the subsequent passages are well thought by the author. The author has presented a mini biography that might be More inclined towards glorifying Pichai in spite of its fair share of cherishable moments that offer a peek inside the life of P. Sundarajan.
Unfortunately, This book does little to discuss the other side of the coin to Pichai's life. Though it may be unfair to expect so much in a terse review, In few instances, mentions of critiques aimed at Pichai about being an elitist have been rebuffed by the author with sufficient backing. Undeniably, his admiration for Pichai is overwhelming throughout the book which makes you rethink if there is any the flip side about Pichai. Another case in point is the briefly pointed out timed-and-high-profile exits within Google due to Pichai's acceleration on the growth ladder.
Overall, the book has interesting notes pertaining to Pichai's career, childhood, college days, ambitions, technical enthusiasm, vision, people management, relationship at work, and business challenges. All this in a nutshell. So why not take a moment to glimpse into Sundar Pichai's life? Only disappointment for me is the more than required focus on Nadella in the latter part of this book. Probably, the fact that the author has written a prior book on Nadella has influenced his content besides the justified need to raise competitors into the scene when penning about technological giants.
Unfortunately, This book does little to discuss the other side of the coin to Pichai's life. Though it may be unfair to expect so much in a terse review, In few instances, mentions of critiques aimed at Pichai about being an elitist have been rebuffed by the author with sufficient backing. Undeniably, his admiration for Pichai is overwhelming throughout the book which makes you rethink if there is any the flip side about Pichai. Another case in point is the briefly pointed out timed-and-high-profile exits within Google due to Pichai's acceleration on the growth ladder.
Overall, the book has interesting notes pertaining to Pichai's career, childhood, college days, ambitions, technical enthusiasm, vision, people management, relationship at work, and business challenges. All this in a nutshell. So why not take a moment to glimpse into Sundar Pichai's life? Only disappointment for me is the more than required focus on Nadella in the latter part of this book. Probably, the fact that the author has written a prior book on Nadella has influenced his content besides the justified need to raise competitors into the scene when penning about technological giants.
July 8, 2018
The author has used the power of Google to write a book on Google's CEO, his education, growth within the company through the visionary approach on Chrome/ChromeOS/Toolbar, ability to collaborate and get outside-in learnings/wins for Google, comparison with Satya Nadella and also leaving some open questions on Google's future. Limited research has been done beyond what is already available in the public domain (funny to read that Sundar started loving tech from the rotatory phone or he played cricket seriously at high school when he had no inclination towards actually playing the game himself). Could be useful for those who want to understand about Sundar Pichai's life through a quick 150+ page read in 1-2 hours with good life experiences on how he converted the art of impossible to possible persisting and winning on building Chrome even when his CEO had a different view.
September 17, 2020
It was chaos. In the beginning, it was on the track. It was all about Pichai. But in the latter half, it was just about more of the google and other companies and less of Pichai. Still, I get to know a lot of stuff from this book like the journey of Pichai, the compeattive market, challenges faced by google, why google lost many of their highly skilled employees and later to be the founder of some famous startups like Sandberg, Marissa Mayer, Evan Willams and many more.
So if you know some technical stuff or have little technical background you will have a good time reading this book but if you just want to read about Pichai, this book lacks behind.
So if you know some technical stuff or have little technical background you will have a good time reading this book but if you just want to read about Pichai, this book lacks behind.
May 23, 2025
The book seems quite well researched. I got to know how Sundar had been a key player in the early Google decisions.
There was a time I saw Google as a great company. But somewhere along the way in the last 10 years I think it's safe to say that the company has not seen much innovation.
For example, I read somewhere else Pichai stopped innovation by removing the 20% free time for all employees where they could innovate.
Apart from the good research the author also has a tendency to deviate into business details of various other companies which makes it boring unless you're into that topic.
I read it until the 60% mark before dropping it.
There was a time I saw Google as a great company. But somewhere along the way in the last 10 years I think it's safe to say that the company has not seen much innovation.
For example, I read somewhere else Pichai stopped innovation by removing the 20% free time for all employees where they could innovate.
Apart from the good research the author also has a tendency to deviate into business details of various other companies which makes it boring unless you're into that topic.
I read it until the 60% mark before dropping it.
November 18, 2016
Very nice book. It explains in detail not only about Sundar Pichai but about Google also. Almost everything is covered about complete lifeline of Pichai and Google both. Though some products may be covered in more detail like Google Maps, GMail for Business etc.
It would have been amazing if one more thing is also covered in this book which is, what all young generation can learn from Sundar Pichai. I would request Mr. Jagmohan (author of this book) that in next version of this book, please cover this topic in detail. There should be a dedicated chapter for that.
It would have been amazing if one more thing is also covered in this book which is, what all young generation can learn from Sundar Pichai. I would request Mr. Jagmohan (author of this book) that in next version of this book, please cover this topic in detail. There should be a dedicated chapter for that.
July 24, 2017
Its not a biography of Sundar Pichai. It is a very long article / blog in a book format, that we can easily find on the internet! Not worth reading.
The author is highly opinionated about so many different aspects of Google's business is not too pleasant to read. Citing few examples (without spoiler) -- 1) Why Google failed in social media. 2) Why was Sundar Pichai selected over Andy Rubin as Android's EVP. 3) Brain drain issues in Google.
Earlier I had thought of reading about Satya Nadella as well from the same author, but after reading this, not interested anymore.
The author is highly opinionated about so many different aspects of Google's business is not too pleasant to read. Citing few examples (without spoiler) -- 1) Why Google failed in social media. 2) Why was Sundar Pichai selected over Andy Rubin as Android's EVP. 3) Brain drain issues in Google.
Earlier I had thought of reading about Satya Nadella as well from the same author, but after reading this, not interested anymore.
July 13, 2020
I never knew that the world famous CEO of Google Mr. Sundar Pichai had gone through such hardships to enter this field. Very inspirational book. Gives all the technological search engines in the world and how they competed with each other to become the technology giants like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, etc. Got to know names of different technology related peoples names such as Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Satya Nadella, Jeff Benzos, etc. I would suggest this book to all computer science students and students interested in the field of technology as this book provide extra bit of inspiration.👌👌👌
October 31, 2021
A good book about Sundar Pichai - however the book is limited to his ascending to the CEO position, so may not be very useful in understanding his tenure as the CEO.
The book does a good job on describing the tech domain at a high level and Sundar's qualities which helped him ascend to the pinnacle of Google however, the book could have been more granular in describing some of the events at Google which cemented his position and more importantly why were those events so crucial. The why could have been described in more detail. Overall a good quick read.
The book does a good job on describing the tech domain at a high level and Sundar's qualities which helped him ascend to the pinnacle of Google however, the book could have been more granular in describing some of the events at Google which cemented his position and more importantly why were those events so crucial. The why could have been described in more detail. Overall a good quick read.
November 29, 2017
The book is more about google then about Pichai. It lacks detailing and only gives u a broad over of Pichai at google and his rise to the coveted corner office. It also brushes upon the rise of google, challenges faced, various business units, income sources etc
Overall an ok read for starters but lacks granularity.
Overall an ok read for starters but lacks granularity.
January 16, 2018
More of a Tabloid read than the Biographical nuances that i was looking for. More about Google and tech space than the life and times of the man.
May be it was published in haste to introduce people to Pichai and counter the popular theories against him.
My only take away from the book - "Don't be Evil"
May be it was published in haste to introduce people to Pichai and counter the popular theories against him.
My only take away from the book - "Don't be Evil"
May 26, 2018
It is very hard to comprehend as to why this book is called pichai when it had barely anything about him. It looked like the author wanted to show the readers that he has a lot of information about technology. It was unwanted at most places and hard to relate to pichai.
100 pages felt like an eternity. Wouldn't recommend this book.
100 pages felt like an eternity. Wouldn't recommend this book.
September 5, 2017
Good book describing Pichai, the current CEO of Google. The narration style of the author is little weird, too many adjectives used which feel like endorsements. The book speaks about the current situation amongst IT giants as well as current shifts in trends amongst young developers.
June 8, 2019
Not a book that's solid with narration or insights, but one should see it as an information dump. Projects that sundar pichai worked on his way to become a ceo and how he handled them is what i was interested initially, and this book has some answers to that.
May 17, 2020
I had picked this book by some co-incidence, however while reading i enjoyed a lot, you will get lot from this book about the future of the Google and their culture, also you can get the holistic view of the Pichai's leadership and his qualities.
January 25, 2022
An insightful read, not only about Pichai but also about everything Google is and everything it will become. Written in a way that that is like a collection of incredible stories, it also gives a feel of Silicon Valley's work culture.
June 21, 2017
This book gives a glimpse of everything a growing company needs and how pichai is best fit for CEO of google.
July 25, 2017
The book feels more like a commentary on Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Facebook. Doesn't feel like it's about Pichai
August 19, 2017
Unnecessary dragging. Same stuff listed in 164 pages.
September 7, 2018
Very little insight into pichai. Most of the book discusses about Google and author's personal opinions.
July 10, 2019
People who are fanatic about working at Google, should read this book to know a brief over view of how Google started and how it became what it is today. And what a great leader Sundar Pichai is.
September 6, 2019
There is a lot of repetitive content explained in the book and moreover the author deviates from the Idea of telling the real Pichai story
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 28, 2020
The book explains the rise of Google and Sundar Pichai in a lucid manner.The book provides an overview of the challenges that lie ahead with Pichai and Google.
August 16, 2020
Nothing about projects google's working upon....just pichai background... And some of his works in google mentioned briefly....
May 19, 2021
The book is very detailed oriented. It presenta the vast history of the company. It's mostly a non fiction but, it's also a fiction based on Pichai's biography. Worth reading.
Read
July 8, 2022Pichai is all about how a boy from India saved the tech giant.
April 3, 2023
Good one
September 16, 2023
Definitely a boring read. Just a collection of random articles opinionated by the author.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews