This was published in 2011, and refers to Larry Page and Google+. It turns out that Google would have been better off if they had been less single-minded about pushing their new product. So take it all with a grain of salt.
Beyond that, has anyone else noticed how executive types LOVE to quote movies like the god father, wolf of wall street, and similar types of media, as if they themselves are the protagonist and/or "hero" of the story? Its a "Rah-rah" strongman ideal chalk full of projection and other bullshit mechanisms.
To quote M.A.S.H. " War isn't Hell. War is war, and Hell is Hell. And of the two, war is a lot worse." What is business? Cupcakes.
Yes. And what's worse, they misinterpret movies like the Wolf of Wall Street as something to admire (even if being aware of the excesses), when they are really descriptions of broken, corrupt, hateful individuals and criminals. Quoting the Wolf of Wall Street shouldn't serve as an endorsement of anything.
I also think this article has the wrong take; Eric Schmidt was always training wheels for Larry to learn how to run a multi-billion dollar company. I don't think he trusted himself and he honestly seems like a pretty risk-averse guy. Realistically he hasn't been a "Wartime CEO" at all; Google has made a lot of money by making a lot of safe choices. But there are lots of safe choices to be made when you've built a moat as big as they have.
Agreed, not sure how well this has aged for a variety of reasons. If you really follow these things during "war times" most SaaS companies will attrit their core competent staff and be left with no army. Not a winning move.
