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Even from Google\u2019s inception, co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin considered the company\u2019s potential for astronomical growth. Named after \u201cgoogol<\/a>,\u201d the term for the numeral 1 with 100 zeros behind it, Google, then just a search engine founded in 1998, would become as large as the internet would allow.\u00a0<\/p>\n The company has far exceeded the parameters of just the internet. Valued at about $1.9 trillion, Alphabet Inc., Google\u2019s parent company, ranks No. 1 on Fortune<\/em>\u2019s 2024 Most Innovative Companies<\/a> list. Broken into three segments<\/a>\u2014Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets\u2014Alphabet\u2019s reach spans from Android, Chrome, YouTube<\/a>, and its Bard AI chatbot under its Services umbrella, to cloud computing under its Cloud umbrella, to private equity fund CapitalGDeepMind AI research, and Waymo under its Other Bets umbrella. Google Services makes up 90% of the company\u2019s revenue, Fortune calculated from Alphabet\u2019s 2023 fourth-quarter earnings report.<\/p>\n Page, the eighth-richest person in the world with a net worth of about $136 billion, according to Bloomberg\u2019s Billionaires Index<\/a>, has certainly reaped the rewards of Alphabet\u2019s success. With stints as CEO of Google from 1997 to 2001 and 2011 to 2015, and of Alphabet until 2019, Page remains a board member and shareholder<\/a> of his company, effectively controlling it alongside co-founder Brin.<\/p>\n Tuesday is Page\u2019s 51st birthday, and while he\u2019s another year older and wiser, it was Apple<\/a> co-founder Steve Jobs who imparted some prescient wisdom about the company\u2019s future, which now boasts the sixth-largest<\/a> market capitalization in the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n Page visited Jobs towards the end of Jobs\u2019 life in 2011 to receive some frank advice from his mentor: \u201cThe main thing I stressed was focus,\u201d Jobs said, according to Walter Isaacson<\/a>, author of Jobs\u2019 biography. \u201cIt\u2019s now all over the map. What are the five products you want to focus on? Get rid of the rest, because they\u2019re dragging you down. They\u2019re turning you into Microsoft<\/a>. They\u2019re causing you to turn out products that are adequate but not great.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe was right,\u201d Page told Fortune<\/em> CEO Alan Murray<\/a> at Fortune<\/em>\u2018s Global Forum in 2015, just days after Alphabet\u2019s October founding. \u201cI mean, he did fine as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Page did listen to his advice at first, telling employees to focus on Android products and the now-defunct Google+. But the growth of Alphabet suggested the company was poised for bigger things, and more of them.<\/p>\n Alphabet was designed as a container for Google\u2019s future ventures, even its more esoteric ideas such as glucose-monitoring contact lenses<\/a>. While Page conceded that Jobs was correct on some level, he also believed that Alphabet\u2019s ventures were interconnected and that energy, telecommunications, and transportation all fit under its umbrella.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI always thought it was kind of stupid if you have this big company, and you can only do, like, five things,\u201d Page said in a 2014 fireside chat<\/a> with Khosla Ventures, taking a jab at Jobs.<\/p>\n Page and Brin were so certain of Alphabet\u2019s name and purpose that they didn\u2019t even market test it.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to have a name that people would be proud to work for,\u201d Page said. \u201cBut [I] actually didn\u2019t want it to be too catchy because the idea really wasn\u2019t to have a consumer brand in the way that Google is, but really a brand for companies to be part of.\u201d<\/p>\n Alphabet was a brand for its employees and investors, Page said. But he doesn\u2019t take credit for the name.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI chose Google, so [Sergey] chose Alphabet.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\nSubscribe to CHRO Daily, our newsletter focusing on helping HR executive navigate the changing needs of the workplace. Sign up<\/a> for free.<\/div>\n