Where does Google go next?

Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have stepped back from management – but they still hold the majority of voting rights, writes James Moore

The new front man: Google boss Sundar Pichai is taking over at holding company Alphabet from Sergey Brin and Larry Page (Getty)

Is the decision by Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin to step back from their day-to-day management roles at the search giant’s holding company a significant step or just part of a game of management musical chairs?

The pair, perhaps the most successful business tag team the world has seen, are surrendering their roles as CEO (Page) and President (Brin) of Alphabet and handing over the reins to Sundar Pichai.

He’s already the CEO of Google proper, in other words, the internet search giant, which still generates the vast majority of the company’s revenues through the sale of advertising. And by vast I mean in the mid-80s in percentage terms.

Alphabet was created to provide some separation between it and the “moonshot” factory Page and Brin are fond of. Its “other bets” range from driverless cars to attempts to cure life-threatening diseases to alternative energy. There may well be a team in there that’s literally trying to catch lightning in a bottle.

The record of these projects has been decidedly mixed but that’s partly the point. The hope is that by giving clever people the space to try things, one or another of them will hit pay dirt. If Google 2.0 emerges from one of their wild ideas then no one will worry about the wildly unsuccessful ones.

Will the starship’s new captain Pichai be as willing to indulge them as Page and Brin, who say this is a natural step as the company matures, were? That will be interesting to watch.

Mature companies, even in techland where the best businesses give smart people the space to be creative, tend to be a little tougher in their assessments of projects than perhaps Alphabet has been up until now.

But the people at the helm of the projects Page and Brin are particularly fond of probably don’t need to worry too much. In an open letter, they’ve make clear they will be actively involved as “board members, shareholders and co-founders”.

“In addition, we plan to continue talking with Sundar regularly, especially on topics we’re passionate about!” Read the end of that quote and you’ll see that the team on the algae-powered thingumy it has fooling around with for the last ten years is probably safe enough if either Page or Brin is still excited by it.

There is, anyway, a lot more than (officially) overseeing moonshots now riding on Pichai. In fact, they probably shouldn’t be at the top of his list of concerns.

What should be is the need for him to become a much more public face of the company than he has perhaps been up until now.

It’s something Google/Alphabet rather badly needs given the controversies and debates surrounding big tech.

An example of the unforced errors it has made in this sphere came when it left an empty chair before a US Senate intelligence committee panel, which had convened for a hearing on state-sponsored election meddling.

This happened last year and represented a very bad look for the company, made all the more glaring given that Twitter, and especially Facebook, turned up.

It isn’t just elections and privacy that the business is having to grapple with. Tax, or lack of it, is another issue that weighs heavily on Silicon Valley, with much of Europe keen on digital services levies of varying degrees of severity.

These are just a a couple of the issues facing Pichai in addition to, you know, keeping the revenues flowing. His inbox is indeed a full one and much will depend on how he handles it as this gargantuan company’s premier leader. At least in theory.

Page and Brin say they will act as “proud parents – offering advice and love, but not daily nagging” likening Google/Alphabet to a 21-year-old preparing to leave the nest.

The difference is a 21-year-old is free to say thanks, but I’ll make my own way and my own mistakes.

By contrast Page and Brin, through Google’s dual class shares, retain control of the company with 51 per cent of the voting rights, a feature common to Silicon Valley and one that can lead to problems where founders behave with less maturity than these two have.

If Google/Alphabet were truly becoming a grown up its founders would address that issue. They’ve always said they don’t want Google to become a conventional company. But being democratic doesn’t prevent it from being different.