Before Google CEO Sundar Pichai became the leader of the now-$4.5 trillion tech giant, he had to prove his worth as a leader—starting with a browser almost no one believed in.
When Chrome launched in 2008, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer was the industry dominator, with roughly 60% of global browser usage thanks to being the default on Windows computers.
Convincing users to switch was a steep climb. So when then-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was asked about the competitive landscape the following year, he barely considered Chrome worth mentioning.
“The most successful by far is Firefox. Chrome is a rounding error to date. Safari is a rounding error to date,” Balmer said in a 2009 TechCrunch interview. “…we’re going to have to compete like heck and you know, see where things go.”
For Pichai, the comment became a test of leadership.
