Sundar was appointed CEO after a series of failures by megalomaniacal executives Larry had appointed/approved to various departments, including Andy Rubin, Tony Fadell, and Anthony Levandwoski. Sundar was a move in the opposite direction.

Don't forget Vic.

It's somewhat amazing how many failed, some nearly sociopathic, almost-CEOs Google had.

Ironically, Vic was was empowered to counter a similar panic an upstart more formidable than OpenAI. He brought a bold vision alright, but that's not sufficient to be a good leader.

What was Vic's bold vision?

Integrate Google+ into every product made by Google.

That was a bold vision. May Vic's legacy rest in peace w/ G+.

Aren't CEOs supposed to be sociopaths? (Asking for a friend.)

Ugh

Overly opinionated people like that worked under Jobs, who was the biggest opinion setter, which made then fight for the most important things, get a pushback on the most controversial areas and not waste time with minor stuff

Take that and they start going crazy

I think you have this exactly right.

Sundar is like Neville Chamberlain. Maybe ok during peacetime. But now Google is at war, and needs a Churchill.

Meh.

War is sort of the opposite of "business as usual." The normal rules are abandoned. You still have the same high level strategic objectives, but the tactics are radically changed.

I would love to see Google go to war. Wake me up when they figure out how to do that.