Susan Wojcicki's Impact on Google and YouTube Leadership

Susan's quiet leadership profoundly shaped Google and YouTube, spotlighting creators and establishing strong advertising foundations.

### Susan Wojcicki: The Quiet Force Behind Google and YouTube's Success
* 🏢  Susan Wojcicki played a crucial role in the early days of Google, offering her garage to Larry Page and Sergey Brin to **start the company** in 1998.
* 👩‍💼  Known as the "**mini CEO**" at Google, Wojcicki was responsible for running many operations and building the **core advertising business**.
* 🎥  Wojcicki's impact extended to YouTube when she became CEO in 2014, focusing on **spotlighting creators** and turning the platform into a **dominant advertising force**.
* 🚼  She was a trailblazer for women in tech, being the first to **take maternity leave at Google** and advocating for **work-life balance**.
* 🔍  Wojcicki's low public profile may have helped YouTube avoid some of the **criticism faced by other social media platforms**.
* 💼  Her legacy includes **transforming YouTube into a profitable business** and **solidifying its position as a key pillar of Google and Alphabet's growth**.

She is as core to the history of Google as anyone. It's really hard to get our arms around Whitney. The extent of her impact there. Mark. Yeah, that's absolutely. I mean, you know, it all starts with literally her garage, right? She kind of famously lent that out to Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998, and they formed the company there. She joined shortly thereafter. Sort of this quiet presence. You know, I had sources that told me that kind of one of her nicknames inside the company was like the mini CEO because there was this leadership that had. She was one of these leaders that basically ran a lot of these operations. And management for the founders are sort of famous for neglecting that at time. Right. They were sort of the visionaries and and Eric Schmidt, the kind of came in as the adult and and she was responsible for building out a lot of its core advertising business.

And that was one of the main reasons that she was brought over to YouTube in 2014. Mark, she announced plans to leave YouTube in February of 2023 and talked about other projects focusing on her health. But I don't think at that time she or the company elaborated on why, the main point being that she had a profound impact on YouTube. You've written about it in your book. What are kind of the key actions she took during her time as CEO and a leader that. One of her key priorities was to really spotlight the creators. And I think even though this is eight years ago now or ten years ago now, and this idea just be this nascent idea of influencers of online creators and still wasn't really proven as a business. And I think we can certainly say that that's changed dramatically. Like, one of their initial campaigns was actually going to spotlight a lot of these home run creators. For a long time, YouTube tried to get

celebrities to come onto the platform. The shift when we just took over was, hey, we have our own kind of A-list style celebrities right here, these homegrown YouTube stars. Of course, as we've covered a lot, you know, that has its share of problems like the brand safety issues that she dealt with over the ten years. I think that the focus on advertising, sort of her core strength, has paid off in the extent of that. YouTube has become a just dominant advertising platform. You know, the other areas that it's no longer to drop its plans to compete with Netflix and Amazon Prime, it's still kind of a YouTube. Music is a service, but it's nowhere close to Spotify. You know, I think her legacy is primarily going to be building out that what is still remains Google's core business. And at the time she took over, there were still questions about whether

could YouTube turn a profit. And now it's obviously one of the key pillars of Google and Alphabet's growth. Mark, while making a profound impact at Google, she made a profound impact for many women in technology. And I know that many have spoken about it the way she tried to show up as someone who had some sort of work-life balance, dropping her kids at soccer in a minivan, taking that maternity leave, speaking out about it. Mark. But how else have colleagues, have former people who've worked alongside her, sat on boards with her, thought about her and her loss? Not just taking the maternity leave. I think she's widely credited for actually forming it at Google. The founders didn't really think about that when they created the company. So the first one to actually write that policy and take it, I think this is certainly the women I've talked to there. This is quite clearly a strength of her leadership being out there very publicly.

as a mom. You know, I think it's really interesting to contrast her with Sheryl Sandberg and Marissa Mayer, and certainly her peers that certainly had a much bigger public profile. And I think Susan would just see it from what I understand personally, didn't want that high public profile. And maybe for Google strategically, it's actually been, and quite important, I would argue, like that, that it's not like, you know, Elon Musk, an ex, it's not like Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook. You don't have this one executive well-known for this platform. I think that's maybe one of the reasons why, you know, YouTube has in many ways dodged some of the criticism that other social media sites have dealt with. You know, there are some people that come out and argue that's because Susan is a more sort of astute and mature leadership. And perhaps it's also because she's just had this background role.

Susan Wojcicki, Internet Pioneer at Google and YouTube, Dies at 56

Welcome to the Bloomberg Technology YouTube channel. Subscribe for original series and mini-docs on game-changing technologies, profiles on innovators, live conversations with experts, and breaking technology news & analysis from Bloomberg TV.

Bloomberg Technology

Whitney played a crucial role in Google's history, lending her garage to the founders in 1998 and joining the company shortly after.

She was a key leader in building Google's core advertising business and was later brought over to YouTube in 2014, where she had a profound impact on the platform.

During her time as CEO, she prioritized spotlighting online creators, helping to shape the influencer business model that has since become highly successful.

YouTube's shift to homegrown A-list YouTube stars has had its challenges, including brand safety issues.

The platform's focus on advertising has made it a dominant revenue source for Google and Alphabet.

The leader's impact on women's representation in technology and her role in establishing maternity leave policies at Google have been widely recognized.

Susan Wojcicki's low public profile contrasts with her peers like Sheryl Sandberg and Marissa Mayer.

Her strategic background role at Google has been important in shaping the company's image.

This leadership style may have contributed to YouTube dodging some of the criticism faced by other social media platforms.

The person in question did not have a public profile.

Their life and activities were not widely recognized or known.

This lack of visibility set them apart from more prominent figures.