Every time a Google executive leaves, the company says that it is not facing a brain drain and that it has deep bench of talent. That’s true. Far more people still want to work at Google than want to leave.
But it is also true that the number of departures in the top ranks appears to be accelerating. And every time a prominent executive, engineer or marketer leaves, it raises anew questions about Google’s ability to keep its best and brightest.
(Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated Press)The latest departure is Elliot Schrage, the company’s vice president of global communications and public affairs. He’s headed to Facebook, where he will be in charge of communications, government relations and corporate marketing. Mr. Schrage follows in the footsteps of Sheryl Sandberg, who left Google in March to become the No. 2 executive at Facebook.
Until last year, you could count the number of senior executives who had left Google on one hand. They included Cindy McCaffrey, a vice president of marketing, in 2004, and Wayne Rosing, a senior vice president of engineering, in 2005. The chief financial officer, George Reyes announced last August that he planned to leave but agreed to stay until Google found a replacement. (Google has yet to name a new C.F.O.)
This year is different. In addition to Ms. Sandberg and Mr. Schrage, the chief information officer, Douglas Merrill, left to join EMI in April.
Google’s official response to Mr. Schrage’s departure on Tuesday had a familiar ring. “Elliot was a valued member of the Google team and we wish him well in his new endeavors,” a company spokesman said in a statement. “We have a deep management bench at Google.”
Google said Mr. Schrage will be replaced by Rachel Whetstone, who ran the company’s communications team in Europe.
In addition to the inevitable questions about brain drain at Google, of course, there is the Facebook question.
Many people believe that the “hottest company in Silicon Valley” buzz is slowly shifting away from Google, with Facebook being the obvious heir apparent. That remains to be seen.
But the growing Google-to-Facebook pipeline suggests there’s something to that idea. Before Ms. Sandberg and Mr. Schrage, Facebook hired YouTube’s chief financial officer, Gideon Yu, in 2007. More recently, it poached two other senior Googlers: Ethan Beard, to run business development, and Benjamin Ling, to be director of product platform marketing. Lower-level employees have also made the move from Mountain View to Palo Alto.
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The stock options are always greener on the other side of Silicon Valley…
— Rob L; N Myrtle Beach SCI don’t thing there is much high technology at Facebook, but there certainly is a high valuation (maybe too high) and the stock options will be rich in an IPO. Social networks are very fashionable right now and vastly overrated. But there’s the opportunity to cash in and get out while the getting’s good.
— DennisEngineers are the top of the food chain at Google. So a public affairs employee leaving is hardly a brain drain, and indicates that Facebook is more interested in doing an IPO and cashing out rather than focusing on technology.
— engineerNone of the people leaving Google in 2007 or 2008 have been critical to Google’s success with the exception of Sheryl Sandberg, and her most important work was done in the first couple years that she was working at Google (2001-2002). None of these departures has any significant effect on the future business success of Google, which is exactly why they are leaving - they want to work somewhere where they can make a difference. That isn’t to say that there aren’t exciting things happening at Google and people there who are making a difference, it’s just not the people who are leaving.
— ex-google personThe brain power at Facebook is far far deeper than most outsiders realize. The talent pool is growing weekly and collectively they will build something far beyond what most people consider “social networking.”
If you compare the talent over at MySpace vs. Facebook it’s night and day so it isn’t fair to simply say that because social networking is over rated that Facebook is overrated.
Why would you leave a juggernaut like Google purely on IPO speculation? These ex-Googlers obviously see something the rest of us and that is a belief in the product. I’m a skeptic I’ll admit, but I think this trend is something that shouldn’t be ignored.
Will Facebook overtake Google, not in this decade. But it will be interesting to see what the landscape looks like in 5 years.
— ValleywaggerThis is all about MONEY!
money money money mon-ey mon-ey
I’m so jealous.
— PaulI saw Rachel Whetstone speak last July in London at a StartingBloc conference. She was bloody brilliant. If the simple majority of Google execs can match the talent she radiates, I would agree that they indeed have a “deep management bench.”
— PaulTSocial networking sites seem to be overrated and overhyped.
As of March 2008, MySpace accounted for 41.5%, Facebook 8.29%, and YouTube 7.39%, among others, acording to eMarketer.
Advertising money Facebook got in 2007 was $145 million, while expecting to get $305 million in 2008. On the other hand, MySpace earned $510 million and expectst to earn $850 million.
The total social network advertising spending for the whole of 2007 was $920 million and will grow to $1,560 million.
Even UGC(User Generted Content) won’t be a lucrative advertising media for a while, according to analysts.
If the current indications are any guide, the next big wave won’t come in social networking advertising for sure.
Whatever the reason, if they want to leave Google for better opportunities, let them get their ways.
— QuemannLinkedIn shows at least a trickle:
We found 21 users in your network matching your criteria.
* Keywords: google engineer
* Users currently at: facebook
http://www.linkedin.com/search?search=&company=facebook¤tCompany=currentCompany&keywords=google+engineer
— DanTTo valleywagger,
Anything is possible, but to date FaceBook has ballooned into a giant global user-base which REFUSES to be monetized.
Moreover, FaceBook has time and again showed itself unwilling to listen to user input, insisting on rolling out product innovations with essentially no prior market research.
Finally, remember the “Beacon” fiasco.
Maybe the brain power at FaceBook has something up its sleeve, but any IPO in today’s climate will scrutinize realistic earnings projections; it’s hard to see it netting more than 3 billion (not bad money, mind you, but the $15 billion quote was so mid-2007…)
— matt