How an IIT Madras Dropout Steered Revival of Google Cloud's Fortunes

The appointment of Parag Agarwal as Twitter’s CEO was just another validation of Indian talent’s ability to lead the global tech revolution. From Google’s Sundar Pichai to Parag, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) graduates are leading some of the biggest global tech brands. But the story of Google Cloud’s CEO Thomas Kurian’s journey from Kerala’s Kottayam to the USA was a bit different. It too had the IIT angle with just a twist. A Twitter user shared Kurian’s journey in a thread and the story is too fascinating to be missed.

Born in Kottayam district, Kurian got into the prestigious IIT Madras after completing his schooling. However, destiny had other plans. He dropped out of the course in just six months and moved to Princeton University for electrical engineering.

Soon after completing his degree, Kurian joined McKinsey and completed his MBA from Stanford. In 1996, he moved from McKinsey to Oracle where he worked for 22 years rising through the ranks.

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Kurian went on to become the company’s president but the difference with Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison over cloud strategy led to his resignation in September 2018. Two months later Kurian joined as Google Cloud’s CEO. Back then the company was struggling for survival and things weren’t looking pretty good.

Kurian had a mammoth task to not just ensure Google Cloud’s survival but also steer its revivals. His initial attempts to introduce technological advancement weren’t received with much enthusiasm but Kurian did not lose hope.

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He changed his strategy and shifted focus to the customer service of the company. Kurian doubled tripled the salaries of Gcloud salespersons to keep them motivated. He simultaneously launched products for specific industries like healthcare, banking, etc

The third change brought by Kurian addressed companies’ apprehension to put all data in one single cloud. He launched Anthos, a platform for companies to put and manage their data in different clouds.

The changes did wonders and GCloud made a smashing comeback under Kurian’s leadership. The company’s revenue moved up by 45 per cent and market share rose by 10 per cent. Companies including Paypal, Spotify, Target, Lufthansa became customers and it has since been an upward journey for Google cloud.

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