一位印度裔中层经理如何火箭般晋升为谷歌二号人物

When Google announced that it had built a Web browser on Labor Day in 2008, the event represented something of a coming out party for SundarPichai, a little-known and soft-spoken middle manager at the company. Based on how the launch went, no one would have predicted that six years later, Pichai would be where is today—a clear No. 2 to CEO Larry Page following a management shakeup late last week.

当谷歌(Google)在2008年劳动节那天宣布该公司将推出一款网页浏览器时，很少有人意识到，这场发布会在某种程度上也成了桑德尔o皮查伊的亮相会，将这个籍籍无名、说话轻声软语的中层经理从幕后推到台前。从那场发布会的过程看，恐怕没有人会料到，在6年后的今天，皮查伊会登上今天这个高度——在上周末的一场管理层地震后，皮查伊显然已经成为谷歌公司仅次于CEO拉里o佩奇的二号人物。

Indeed, the launch of the Chrome browser was something of a debacle. Google GOOG 0.18% had worked hard behind the scenes to orchestrate a media splash. It had readied talking points to explain why it was reigniting a browser war with Microsoft MSFT -0.48% , and why its erstwhile ally, Mozilla, maker of the Firefox browser, shouldn’t worry. As part of it, the company had secretly produced an elaborate, 38-page comic book that explained the unique features of Google’s browser. It was expected to land in the mailboxes of journalists and bloggers on that Tuesday just as they returned from the three-day weekend.

实际上，Chrome浏览器的发布会最终演变为一场灾难。谷歌在幕后做了大量准备工作，希望捧出一场媒体盛宴。它还准备了一些发言要点，以解释为什么要重新点燃与微软(Microsoft)的浏览器大战，以及为什么它的昔日盟友——火狐浏览器(Firefox)的制造商Mozilla不必担心。谷歌还秘密准备了一份详尽的、长达38页的插图手册，用来解释Chrome浏览器的独特功能。谷歌安排在那个周二把它发送到与会记者和博主的电子邮箱里。这样一来，参加完三天活动的与会者们刚刚踏进家门，就能收到谷歌发来的图文并茂的Chrome指南。

But the comic books arrived in Germany on Monday, and it was not a holiday there. After a German blogger posted the comic book online, the Chrome team had to scramble to handle the fiasco. Top executives, including Pichai’s boss at the time, Marissa Mayer, were summoned to the Googleplex. After quick but spirited debate, the team decided to move up the announcement by a day. As engineers scrambled to make Chrome available for download from Google’s network of data centers, public relations staff started to alert reporters—most of whom where on holiday—one by one.

但是这本小册子却意外地于星期一率先登陆德国，而那天德国并不放假。当一位德国博主将这本小册子上传到网上之后，Chrome团队只得手忙脚乱地处理这个意外。包括皮查伊的上司玛丽莎o梅耶尔在内的一众谷歌高管，都被召集到谷歌总部开会。经过快速但激烈的讨论，谷歌高层决定提前一天发布声明。为了让用户能够及时地从谷歌数据中心下载Chrome，工程师们开始火急火燎地做各种准备工作，公关部门也开始一个一个地给记者们打电话——其中大多数人那天还在休假。

Embarrassing as it was, the snafu was quickly forgotten. Chrome, which launched amid skepticism that it could make inroads against the dominant browsers of the time, Internet Explorer and Firefox, became a runaway hit. It is now the No. 1 browser in the world, with a market share that’s more than twice that of the once dominant Internet Explorer, according to StatCounter. Its success paved the way for a series of related strategically important products including Chrome OS, Chromebooks, and Chromecast. And it became the engine that powered Pichai through one of the fastest corporate ascents in the technology industry.

虽然这段小插曲有些尴尬，但它很快就被人忘掉了。尽管当时很多人怀疑Chrome能否挑战当时的主流浏览器——IE和火狐，但是Chrome的确很快火了起来。据StatCounter统计，Chrome现在已成为全球第一大浏览器，其市场份额已经超过了IE的两倍。Chrome的成功也为一系列具有重要战略意义的产品铺平了道路，其中包括Chrome OS操作系统、Chromebook笔记本电脑和Chromecast电视棒等。同时它的成功也令皮查伊在谷歌扶摇直上，成为科技行业中晋升最快的新锐人物之一。

Inside Google, however, Pichai had already made his mark as a director of product management for an obscure but important weapon in the company’s arsenal: the Google toolbar. The toolbar was critical because it helped Google make its search engine the default option on IE and Firefox. And Pichai’s role in leading the product as it came under attack from Microsoft, helped cement his standing in the company, as detailed in a Fortune story titled The Dawn of the Chrome Age earlier this year:

实际上，皮查伊此前担任产品管理总监时，就已经凭借一个不起眼但非常重要的工具在谷歌内部扬名立万了，它就是谷歌工具栏。谷歌工具栏之所以重要，是因为它帮助谷歌使其搜索引擎成为IE和火狐浏览器的默认设置。皮查伊负责这款产品时成功抵抗了来自微软的攻击，从而巩固了他在公司的地位。《财富》今年年初的一篇文章《Chrome时代的开始》这样写道：

“Chrome had another, less public mission: to defend the search engine that accounts for most of Google’s $59.8 billion in 2013 revenues and $12.9 billion in profits. Since 2000, Google had distributed a browser toolbar that made its search engine the default on IE and Firefox. (The toolbar also allowed Google to track users’ surfing habits.)”

“Chrome有另一个不太广为人知的任务：保护谷歌的搜索引擎，因为它贡献了谷歌2013年598亿美元营收和129亿美元利润的大部分。从2000年以来，谷歌大范围推广它的浏览器工具栏，从而使其搜索引擎成为IE和火狐浏览器的默认设置。（该工具栏也使谷歌得以追踪用户的‘浏览习惯’。）”

The toolbar — as geeky and benign as it sounds — was a key locus of Google’s combat with Microsoft. Pichai was the group’s leader, and by the mid-aughts he worried that Microsoft would modify IE to make it more difficult, or even impossible, for users to install the toolbar. In a series of sometimes tense conversations with top brass around the time of a major update to IE in October 2006, Pichai argued that Microsoft could threaten a sizable chunk of Google’s business, according to two executives who were there. “It was a doomsday-like scenario,” one of the executives says. Shortly after, Google execs gave Chrome the green light.

这个工具栏（虽然听起来既亲切又讨厌）是谷歌与微软的交锋焦点，而皮查伊正是该部门的领导者。到2000年代中期，皮查伊担心微软可能会对IE做出修改，使用户更难甚至完全无法安装谷歌工具栏。2006年10月，IE做出了一次重大升级。就在这段时间前后，皮查伊与公司高层进行了一系列有时甚至很紧张的会谈，强调微软有可能威胁到谷歌的相当一部分业务。据两位当时参会的谷歌高管回忆：“那简直就是一个‘末日方案’。”不久后，谷歌高层就决定开发自己的浏览器Chrome。

After the launch of Chrome, Pichai was promoted to vice president and later to senior vice president. He was given oversight for Google’s apps, including Gmail, and became a member of the exclusive L-team, the small group of executives who report directly to Page. And when Android creator Andy Rubin left to begin a secret robotics project within Google, Page put Pichai in charge of Android as well.

Chrome发布后，皮查伊被提拔为副总裁，后来又升任高级副总裁，负责管理包括谷歌邮箱(Gmail)在内的一系列谷歌应用。同时他也进入了谷歌高层的核心小圈子，成为少数几个直接向拉里o佩奇报告工作的人之一。后来安卓操作系统(Android)的创建人安迪o鲁宾卸任，转而在谷歌内部领导一个秘密的机器人项目，拉里o佩奇便任命皮查伊一并负责安卓业务。

With his latest promotion, which is meant to allow Page to focus on longer term issues and on pushing products forward without the overhead of having too many direct reports, Pichai will now also oversee products like search, maps, Google+, commerce, ad products and infrastructure. That’s the vast majority of Google’s enterprise, with the exception of YouTube and other semi-independent units like Nest, Google X, and Calico. Just six years ago, he was one of dozens of mid-level Googlers with the title of director of product management.

皮查伊最近一次升职后，拉里o佩奇将把主要精力放在更长期的问题上，而不必每天听太多汇报、处理太多事务。皮查伊现在也将开始负责搜索、地图、Google +、商务、广告产品和基础架构等工作。换句话说，他负责的工作已经涵盖了谷歌绝大多数业务，只有YouTube、Nest、Google X和Calico等半独立的事业部除外。仅仅6年前，他还是几十个名不见经传的谷歌中层干部中的一员，头衔也仅仅是“产品管理总监”而已。

Pichai, 42, is a native of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. He attended university in India before obtaining a graduate degree in engineering and materials science at Stanford. He earned an MBA at the Wharton School and worked at McKinsey and Applied Materials before joining Google in 2004. He is universally well-liked at Google, where he seems to enjoy a “warm, easygoing rapport” with Page, as well as outside the company. When news of his latest promotion to head all of Google’s products came out last week, venture capitalist Om Malik, a former blogger, tweeted what was in the mind of many: “Proof nice guys can win.”

今年42岁的皮查伊出生于印度南部的泰米尔纳德邦。大学毕业后，他赴美留学，先后获得了斯坦福大学(Stanford University)工程与材料科学的研究生学位，沃顿商学院(Wharton School)MBA学位。在2004年加盟谷歌前，他曾在麦肯锡（McKinsey）和应用材料公司（Applied Materials）工作过。他在公司内外是个人见人爱的人物，同时与佩奇也保持着“温和、随意的亲密关系”。皮查伊将领导谷歌所有产品的消息是在上周透露的，当时前博主、风投家欧姆o马利克就曾在Twitter上发表了一句很多人都赞同的感言：“这证明好人有好报。”