#101 CEO Google Cloud, Thomas Kurian: Competitor-Aware and Customer-Obsessed
Grit29 Aug 2022

#101 CEO Google Cloud, Thomas Kurian: Competitor-Aware and Customer-Obsessed

“When I grew up in Bangalore, I’d never seen a computer,” says Thomas Kurian. The former president of Oracle, now the CEO of Google Cloud, remembers learning how to write while sitting outside his childhood home, and doing homework by candlelight during power blackouts. He credits his “trailblazer” mother, who instilled curiosity and discipline in all her children, with helping them understand the value of education beyond doing well on the next test. Something must have stuck, because Thomas is not the only Kurian in a major leadership position in Silicon Valley; his twin brother, George, is the CEO of NetApp.

In this episode, Thomas and Joubin discuss how he accidentally got into computer programming, giving children the freedom to be curious, how to order a sandwich, leading 60 software acquisitions, knowing your own value-add, innovation through experimentation, investing in the future, and being competitor-aware and customer-obsessed.

In this episode, we cover:

  • Thomas’ childhood in India (03:45)
  • His twin brother George — the CEO of NetApp — and their trailblazing mother (07:40)
  • Nostalgia for simpler times without responsibilities (14:03)
  • Working up the ranks at Oracle, from product manager to president (21:40)
  • The Google Cloud opportunity (30:12)
  • How to succeed inside a huge organization (32:38)
  • The big difference between Oracle and Google Cloud in 2019 (39:35)
  • The “mother of God” opportunity of the cloud (42:35)
  • The advice Thomas gives to other CEOs (48:25)

Links:

Avsnitt(283)

Co-founder and CEO G2, Godard Abel: Finding Opportunity in Challenging Times

Co-founder and CEO G2, Godard Abel: Finding Opportunity in Challenging Times

After rescuing his first startup BigMachines from the brink of bankruptcy and building it to positive cash flow, Godard Abel thought the express lane of life was opening up to him. But after the board...

8 Aug 20221h

Founding CRO @HubSpot / Prof @HBS / CoFounder @Stage 2 Capital Mark Roberge: The Science and Psychology of Scaling

Founding CRO @HubSpot / Prof @HBS / CoFounder @Stage 2 Capital Mark Roberge: The Science and Psychology of Scaling

Mark Roberge’s first anxiety attack hit him six months after 9/11, and his second hit him in the middle of a big speech while he was an executive at HubSpot. And Roberge, who now lectures at Harvard B...

1 Aug 20221h 9min

CMO Canva, Zach Kitschke: From Employee Number 5 To $40 Billion Valuation

CMO Canva, Zach Kitschke: From Employee Number 5 To $40 Billion Valuation

Canva CMO Zach Kitschke was the company’s fifth employee, joining right before the product launched to the public — or, that was the plan anyway. Emerging technologies like HTML5 and negative feedback...

25 Juli 20221h 5min

Founder & CEO Freshworks, Girish Mathrubootham: Success Is In the Big Things, Happiness Is In the Small Things

Founder & CEO Freshworks, Girish Mathrubootham: Success Is In the Big Things, Happiness Is In the Small Things

Girish Mathrubootham is the founder and CEO of Freshworks, the first Indian SaaS company to be listed in NASDAQ — and when he’s in his home country, he gets the celebrity treatment. Freshworks’ 2021 I...

18 Juli 20221h 13min

CMO Riot Games, Jason Bunge: Change Is Inevitable, Get Used To It

CMO Riot Games, Jason Bunge: Change Is Inevitable, Get Used To It

Riot Games CMO Jason Bunge knows you might roll your eyes when he says this, but he doesn’t care, because it’s the truth: Marketing doesn’t get enough respect. Although many companies have convinced t...

11 Juli 20221h 2min

Co-Founder & CEO Charm Industrial, Peter Reinhardt: “All That Matters Is What the Customers Are Telling You”

Co-Founder & CEO Charm Industrial, Peter Reinhardt: “All That Matters Is What the Customers Are Telling You”

Before Peter Reinhardt started his current company, Charm Industrial, he was the CEO and co-founder of the customer data platform Segment, which almost died in its first year. Why? He was afraid to as...

4 Juli 20221h 10min

Co-Founder & CEO Clari, Andy Byrne: Machine Learning and Human Feeling

Co-Founder & CEO Clari, Andy Byrne: Machine Learning and Human Feeling

Clari CEO Andy Byrne says he never wants to look back and see that he put more into his work than his family. But that doesn’t mean he can’t learn a thing or two from running a 600-person multi-billio...

27 Juni 20221h 2min

Co-Founder & COO Okta, Frederic Kerrest: Zero to IPO

Co-Founder & COO Okta, Frederic Kerrest: Zero to IPO

In the early days of Okta, co-founder Frederic Kerrest was courting a 3,000-person company in Louisiana, which was considering Okta and one other vendor. When he learned who he was up against, he said...

20 Juni 20221h 19min

Populärt inom Business & ekonomi

framgangspodden
badfluence
varvet
rss-jossan-nina
svd-tech-brief
rss-svart-marknad
rss-borsens-finest
uppgang-och-fall
avanzapodden
bathina-en-podcast
lastbilspodden
rss-dagen-med-di
fill-or-kill
rss-inga-dumma-fragor-om-pengar
rss-kort-lang-analyspodden-fran-di
24fragor
borsmorgon
tabberaset
rikatillsammans-om-privatekonomi-rikedom-i-livet
montrosepodden