How Kerala born Thomas Kurian turned around Google's cloud-computing ambitions

Under supervision of Kerala-born Thomas Kurian, Google Cloud's revenue has more than doubled and is growing at a quicker pace than that of its parent company, Alphabet Inc. According to Bloomberg, Kurian’s appointment in 2018 as CEO of Google Cloud h baffled employees as y were concerned about fact that he came from Silicon Valley mainstay Oracle Corp., which has a “very different culture". y h described his hiring decision as "alarming" and even sought reassurance from n-chief Diane Greene.

However, w, after two years, one is befuddled by Kurian's appointment as under him Google Cloud’s revenue reportedly grew about 45% to $4.35 billion in second quarter. As per reports, during COVID-19 pandemic that caused Google to freeze most hirings, Kurian’s division snapped up new employees. His cloud unit even continued to receive a constant rush of investment, while or company divisions fought for internal resources or been shuttered. 

Bloomberg reported that Kurian’s workforce has around 37,000 people, making him one of most important executives at Google. Before him, Google h approached cloud computing with an engineering mindset and a belief in power of techlogy, however, it didn't get much success. But since Kurian has taken reign, he bought old-school salesmanship to search giant and doubled Google Cloud’s revenue in just two years. 

In an interview, Kurian revealed that his leership style changed at Google and said that he apted to style of place and people he was working with. Kurian turned company’s focus to client service and to attract sales staff, Google also started spending generously. Kurian’s changes reportedly gave momentum to Google Cloud and prompted speculation that he could one day succeed Chief Executive Sundar Pichai as Google's Chief Executive Officer. However, it is worth mentioning that future depends on wher business unit can turn a profit and rise above tech giants - Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

Who is Thomas Kurian? 

Kurian was born in Kerala to a chemical engineer and a teacher who h emigrated from Sri Lanka. His far was first in family to attend college. He studied at Princeton University and after college, Kurian spent four years at consulting firm McKinsey & Co. and n settled in at Oracle. He stayed at Oracle for 22 years and n in September 2018, he resigned from company to “do something new”. 

Ever since joining Google Cloud, Kurian has poured resources into sales organization. He doubled $300,000 salaries salespeople make at enterprise companies like SAP to come to Google. move proved so effective that Hasso Plattner, co-founder of SAP, yelled at executives in a meeting about employee defections. 

Kurian has also brought a mainstream enterprise tactic to Google -- art of software pack. He me it a priority to strengn cloud unit's standing in database and analytics market. He also personally mand creation of new procedures that allow banks to store data in Google's facilities while complying with regulators. His strategy has paid off, but it's unclear wher he'll stick around long eugh to get division in black. 

(Im: Twitter/Unsplash)