Google's founder claims the company has lost its mission, is poorly managed, and lacks urgency

It has lost its way, according to a former Google employee, who writes in a recent blog that the company has become inefficient, mismanaged, and risk-paralyzed.

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When Google Cloud acquired Seshadri's co-founded company, AppSheet, in 2020, Praveen Seshadri joined it. Despite being welcomed and well-treated, he left Google in January because, according to his LinkedIn profile, the "once-great company has slowly ceased to function."

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Google is in a "fragile moment," Seshadri argued, particularly because of Microsoft's artificial intelligence initiatives and the recent pressures it faces. Rather than Google's technology, Seshadri pointed out that its culture is to blame for the company's problems.

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Seshadri outlined four cultural problems he views Google as having. It's all that happens when you have a money-printing machine like AdWords that keeps growing relentlessly every year, concealing all other sins. Those who lack a mission, lack urgency, are deluded by exceptionalism, and are mismanaged."

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In response to a request for comment, Google did not respond immediately.

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According to Seshadri, most Google employees end up serving each other rather than customers. Working extra hard isn't necessarily rewarded at the company, which he described as a "closed world." As a result, he said, feedback is based on what peers and managers think of a person's performance.

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The Googlers are hyper-focused on risk mitigation and "risk mitigation trumps everything else", Seshadri said. A line of code, a launch, a decision that is not obvious, or a change in the protocol is all risks that should be approached with caution.

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Moreover, the necessary approvals, legal reviews, performance reviews, and meetings are "trapped" in an endless cycle, leaving little room for creativity or innovation.

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According to Seshadri, "it is a soft peacetime culture where nothing is worth fighting for" When an individual fights for a customer, for new ideas, or for creativity, he soon learns its downside.

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According to Seshadri, Google is also hiring rapidly, making it difficult to develop talent and leading to the hiring of "bad hires." Seshadri said that many of his employees believe that Google is "truly exceptional," which implies that Google continues to operate in antiquated ways because "that's just the way we do things here."

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The Google CEO believes the company can thrive if it avoids risks, but he doesn't think that's enough to sustain its success. A key part of Google's mission should be to "lead by example," reward people who fight for ambitious causes and trim the layers of middle management, according to him.

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“My friends who work at Google and I can win, but intervention will be necessary,” he wrote.