Larry Page Talks Alphabet, Warren Buffett and Project Loon at Fortune Global Forum 2015 | Fortune

you've got to explain this what what's with alphabet ad how did you get to that why explain what your thinking was yeah you you guys got a kind of free thing because we announced that after we agreed to do this yes no that's and you haven't talked about it much since you announced it so you're here and everyone wants wants to know what the goal was well we're really just trying to move up in letters you know the closer and now is rip-away has that covered yeah hey enough professional marketing people knows we decided we might as well come on did you do did you did you market test that I know okay I didn't want to tell who whose idea was it well actually we had a bunch of suggestions we gone through but actually um Sergey I credit for really picking it out of the list and and which is only fair because I chose Google so he chose alpha but did you have alternatives yes we didn't won't blow you with those arcs we just one or two of them we might use them for something else so I could just give us one of them just as a teaser no sorry no it is worth saying you know I was actually a little bit worried um I wanted to have a name that people would be proud to work for the company called dad's actually I didn't want it to be too catchy cuz the idea really wasn't to have a consumer round in the way that Google is about really a brand for companies not to be part of so really it's more for employees as we think about it and for investors well so I that's really what I want to talk about tonight because I've I've interviewed a lot of CEOs over the last couple of decades and watched a lot and I think the way you run Google is different than anything I've ever seen before and I'd like to know where I never really had another jobs well yeah so where did it come from I mean we're an internship here and there yeah you and you said from the beginning that Google was not going to be a conventional company but but how how did you learn to be a CEO yeah I mean I hopefully I've learned that's um and I think it's always good to stay stay humble in these jobs two very difficult jobs um I think for me you know it's always come back to like you know I think back to when I was like a college student I was an engineer you know I was pretty sure I wanted to be a professor I wanted to maybe start a company but do something impactful and you know I you know had some experience I work for a consulting company you know it wasn't I mean it wasn't that exciting and you know over the summer which consulting company I'm not gonna not gonna not can't tell your life answer any of my questions he was in Washington DC it was a great place to be as a costume but I was like it's not really from a technology point of view it wasn't really that exciting you know it's like we're like making software for other companies and you know it wasn't that exciting so I think for me I was always very very aware of what computing and what engineering and science could could do for the world you know I was very lucky to get a computer at age six in 1978 so it's pretty early um you know I turned in a more processed assignment and the teachers were very confused as like sixth grade like one of these little dots that it's made out of it no because the dot matrix printer like no one had seen one before but did you ever did you ever have a mentor to talk about how to run a business or did you read management books or did you do any of those yeah I mean I read a lot of books like and I read so I was joking as we were doing alphabet I read like three books on naming which was more than anyone elses read so I decided I was the expert um actually that was useful I have I recommend reading things huh it was there is there a management what's your favorite management book um you know I'm trying to read a lot of different things I mean it's kind of whatever I've gotten interested I'm trying to think of something I've read recently but um you know I mean it really depends on your interests I think I think um yeah I remember I read a book a while ago in the Chevy Volts which was very interesting so I've been interesting cars we're interested in self-driving things and you know that but I mean I'm not sure well he'll be interesting to most people well so look here's one of the fundamental things that seems to me is different about the way you run alphabet and the way many of the CEOs here run their company I mean many of them have been to business school they studied strategy they read Michel Porter's book and it's and it's a there's a an emphasis on focus and making decisions about what you don't do as well as what you do decide to do you're doing everything I mean you're going to remake you want to remake the energy business you want to remake the telecommunications office do you want to remake the transportation business you want to what so can you talk about how I mean you heard this from Steve Jobs I understand he said you're doing too many things yeah I mean he was right I mean he did fine as well um but you haven't slowed down I mean you're you that's why we called you the most ambitious CEO in the universe and the truth is we didn't have data on the whole universe but we you know it's a it's a lot you're biting off yeah no I worry about that's in facts and um I think for me you know I mentioned how I wanted to make company kind of for engineers like thinking about it that way um I think also as an entrepreneur it started Google trying to make a company for entrepreneurs also is something I think we're striving for it and you know I think in the same way maybe when I was working for the consulting company in DC it wasn't really my inner calling yeah I think for most entrepreneurs working for companies is also not so great why um you know I think it's a combination of companies generally trying to do the things they do well plus the things that are adjacent um and not thinking creatively about you know what they might have learned from doing one of the things I've already done how they might translate into a new business they're not ambitious enough um I mean I think it's maybe not that as much as seeing learning from your business like a I really like going and talking to the people who run our data centers you know but I ask them like how does the transformer or how does that you know how does the power come in how does the what do we pay for that it has lots and lots and lots of questions and I'm thinking about it kind of both as a entrepreneur and as a business person and I'm thinking what are those opportunities so think in any big business you know any other people here there's so many little things you know that seem like a little annoyance like I remember we're having a problem getting transformers you know take them a year for a transformer to show on yeah that's a problem but it's also an opportunity why does it take a year you know why does it get shipped on a train car let a special truck and then it you know takes a long time to arrive is that really the resolution you know makes you wonder so how do you decide which of these problems slash opportunities to take on I mean we we were having dinner with Craig Venters he's focused on extending people's lives you're doing the same thing yeah I love talking to Craig about it son yeah so you're and you're gonna be in the car business well I'm making self-driving cars you're putting balloons up over a big part of the world to provide Internet business how do you how do you make decisions how do you decide which of these areas you're going to go into yeah I think I mean I think that's one of the most difficult things I think I'm something that comes from experience some of it comes from just judgment the right people to judge and some of that comes from having the right teams in place a lot of times many of these ideas you know you have this observation like oh you know it sucks it took it out you know a year to get the transformer and then ten years later that might turn into a business because the right team showed up and the right piece of technology you know somebody might have invented something new the right person who understands that might show up he may as an entrepreneur you might say you're that kind of all make sense and then I think the other thing we're trying to do is say is that thing really really important you know is it going to affect everyone in the world as it can affect a lot of people everyday let me look at smartphones I mean there's millions of smartphones and so what's amazing to see but what's the threshold so you're looking for things that may you're looking for individual bets that will change the world you know what what if something looks like it's going to cause a 50% improvement is that good enough for you or do you have to have a hundred percent or two hundred percent I mean I think it's you know some you know from business standpoint you're looking at the business benefit you might get but I think also in terms of motivating um ourselves and our you know employees potential employees entrepreneurs one of you doing things that are exciting you know that are gonna really make a difference and I guess the other you know what kind of caused um alphabet for me was uh you know I think also companies have pretty bad reputations in general it's not like you know most people in the world get up and they're like you know I wish I could go over for a company you know I mean they do it cuz they have to I mean companies are I don't know ninety percent of the GDP or something so it's basically everyone all the time so if they're that much of the GNP why do you think they have such a bad reputation I don't know it seems silly well you obviously thought about this a lot yeah and I think that's something we should work to change how do you avoid it I think we got to be a more ambitious we got to do things that matter more to people we've got to do thing less things that are kind of zero-sum games and more things that really cause a lot of benefit so to many businesses are either making marginal changes or or inviting for market share as opposed to or they're just doing things that are great you know I'm not whatever way um do you look at is there any company out there that you look at and say yeah that's kind of what we want to be no no nor any there you're doing any any CEOs out there that you here's parts of things obviously we really respect and look but I think I think in terms of doing you know at scale doing the investment at scale um they're worth trying to do you know I wish I could just look at someone else say if only we did what they're doing some people said when you announce alphabet they said oh that's Bircher Hathaway this is his Warren Buffett strategy do you by that I mean you know we're trying to talk a lot to Warren and to Charlie and and to learn from them and there's definitely aspects of that we've tried trying to borrow um you know not reinvent the wheel um I think there's things that they do really really well you know in any anything you don't have to reinvent you shouldn't you shouldn't borrow how those techniques and and I think well but when he invests in coca-cola or he invested in Union Pacific he's not saying we're gonna change the world well I mean I think he is in his own way I think they're doing a lot of interesting things on energy infrastructure and which i think is really great you know I think there's a probably a lack of leadership in a lot of those industries and I think they're working to raise the level of now which i think is really really important so um look I don't and how much time studying it but you think do you we have a we have a bent where we want to maybe use some of that independence um that they've done a great job of but also do with the technology events and I science and engineering Benson do you look at this portfolio like a kind of a venture capital portfolio that you know what one of these is gonna be really big and the other six are gonna go under yeah me know I I think we're too early to really know um you know I think I think a lot of the things we're doing we have a lot of conviction about them working overtime but I think a lot of them have the characteristic that they take longer than an average your capital then now there are venture capitalists who do kind of crazier things like if it'll coleslaw or someone like that um and those things are difficult because I do take longer there's more risk I think you know one benefit we've had as we've been able to you know as we've done these things would cause a lot of attention to get paid but which is both good and bad for us but if you look at self-driving cars you know I guess I had conviction about that I don't remember exactly eight years ago or something like that and only recently have other people now everybody's competing out with you yeah which is is good and bad right I mean from a change the world standpoint that's a good thing but from a corporate standpoint it may not be yeah I mean I think we were good to make that call early and then we also kind of caused it by making that call we caused a lot of attention to be page was that good or bad oh I think it's kind of that would you do the same thing again sure yeah what's the what's the what's the piece of the portfolio that you're most excited about right now but I mean it's hard to pick it's like who's asking which children you like like yes what's which of your children is your favorite at the moment um boy I mean we've we talk like us very much and cars are much communications I think um you have to spend a lot of time reviewing some of our things like communications um I think you know Communications is a really exciting thing I think you know there's very many places you go in the world you still don't have a cell signal and I think loon actually could change that that's the blends and a way I think most people don't appreciate it's pretty powerful you're doing that in Indonesia yeah we just announced kind of deal with Indonesia but I think there's excitement many many places and thinking about Luna I think people don't understand is and actually you can use the cell phone you already have in your pocket and it talks to the balloon and that balloon is um sixty thousand feet up so it's kind of above airplanes and so it can cover a huge area you know and 100 square miles home and say actually don't need that many of them specifically just a cell tower in the sky do you think about how cell phones have changed everybody's life I mean just think about how having your cell phone work anywhere in the world could change your life or lives for people in those areas or billions of billions of people you're talking about differently it's millions of people and I think that's why you need Z interests from Indonesia because they haven't built out all the infrastructure we have in the US we spent a lot of money you know putting a cell tower in a rural area that not that many people use how about health care how significant is that to you yeah I think you know we've seen I've also gotten more to spend more time with us things I'm very very excited about that as well you know I think for us we see some of the opportunity just using data in healthcare so I mean it's it's um it's all variety of things you know we had bouts little company it does these spoons you can eat you know if you're if you have a tremor you can still eat you know it stabilizes your tremor uses basically that you know jars go from a cell phone so made super cheap because everything in a cell phone super cheap no um but a lot of people have this problem you knows and you know it sounds that you don't think of that as data but it's really data processing applied to devices for healthcare so I mean all these things used for healthcare everything there's opportunities there to use that information better um nothing we're almost kind of I mean it's almost like we don't even understand that I just had a sequence I had my sequence done at Stanford as part of a research study Craig's gonna get mad at me cuz he's been trying to get me to do it there and you didn't do it with Craig I'll come and visit Craig soon and had it done there too he does be good to compare results you know he'll sequence your biome and all these other things but just your body's sequence um is actually as far as I can tell it illegal for them to contact you if there's a research study that applies to you so you know we've gotten so hung up on privacy we've actually I think made it illegal for our you know University researcher to anonymously contact you as part of your being an engine Olmec study did you learn anything about yourself from the so yeah I mean it's mostly pretty obscure things and and I think you know I think they've gotten to this to the extent where they can sort of if you didn't know your family history they can accurately tell your family history so 23 me also yep you know of course it's quite good it does I think you know that's great if you are adopted or other things or you don't know your family history you can see the technology is gonna get better and I guess by doing my full sequence you know I got a bunch of more obscure things that nobody quite knows what they mean um but well no you know five years from now we'll know what those things mean there's a there's a joke that's told about you at Google we printed this in the story we did last year the joke is that an engineer walks into your office and says I've invented this joke yeah do you you know you can tell me why the joke is an engineer walks into your office and says I've invented a time travel machine and he sets it up in front of you and he takes the bug and starts to put it in the wall and your first words are why do you have to plug it in sorry I guarantee you if you invented that that's not what I would ask but that says something about your management style yeah I mean I think I am known for pushing um I think it's somewhat unusual and then I try to go really deep so um you know I kind of don't push just for the sake of pushing I'm gonna like well why can't you do in half the time although I guess maybe I'd you ask that question um but I do try to understand enough about what's really going on with the sort of physics or the technology or the software to really understand why you know maybe we could push harder or maybe we couldn't push harder so that's why I know about the transformer story or whatever it is cuz I'm asking well why does it take so long to make a datacenter what would you have said rather than uh why do you have to plug it in like let's run it Saturn Ion hey absolutely delicious since this is the Fortune Global Forum and we have an international audience here let's talk a little bit about Google and China because I think it's it's pretty important China's now by some measures the largest economy in the world and if it isn't now it will be eventually and and Google sort of opted out and now you're rethinking that yeah I mean we still you know we've always had operations in China still we have a big officer and stuff um Android is by far the most used operating system in China so we are there's a lot of business that we do with China and obviously we'd like to do more I mean I think you know there's been a number of comments about that recently yeah so how do you think about that well you know Assam katha now I've also delegated this question to sundar so you don't think about it um I mean I do I to help him to think about it but I don't have to answer this question well well yeah so so okay good that that how do you tell us how you particularly with this new alphabet structure how do you spend your time how do you spend your day how do you delegate your time across all these different projects yeah I mean it's been interesting it we know we announced off about and like everyone's like oh my gosh um but we didn't really tell anybody until we announced it so um you know we spent a fair amount of time implementing it so I think probably that that's probably gonna take you know we're gonna do segment reporting and things like that starting with q4 results so there's a lot of stuff we're doing um so what I call this things work but part of your goal here if I understand I read the founders letter part of your goal seems to be to create a company where you can get CEO quality people running your divisions which means giving them a fair amount of latitude yeah and we've actually been doing that for a while we just kind of hadn't explained it to people clearly so we had a lot of confusion you know we'd have things like why is nest running not running ads on thermostats and we're like well that's actually run pretty independently that really is not our running in we didn't have a way to explain that to people so I think partly this was just Haas representing reality was amazing a lot of people's racks from the company was like oh my god that was so obvious well and so if you give if you give the people writing those divisions great latitude what do you do what's what's the describe the Larry Page job at alphabet mouthing my job is to create that scale that we haven't quite seen from other companies you know how we actually invest all the capital we have in and so on I think so I think you know what kind of Z I guess Sergey and I would see part of our job is like Oh kind of Warren Buffett part managing these desperate disparate things well I've been doing that in a pretty independent way and then I think part of our job we see is creating new things creating new things are buying them at very early stages like we did with Android I think we bought it where as ten people and that was something a really exciting ball so you'll keep going you'll keep expanding the portfolio yeah and I think um you know just looking at how we really invests the resources we have and continue to grow that one last question uh what do you want your legacy to be what should your epitaph read yeah I mean I'm hopeful I still pretty young and healthy but for me I think it's really um you know can we push the envelope of what's possible for an innovative own company with large resource that's really do things that matter and to really innovate and for that you know to be a significant thing um yeah I guess that's what I'm excited about doing no that's fascinating Larry Page thank you so much for the conversation ranking Barclay thanks very much you

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Length: 23min 52sec (1432 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 02 2015