0:00

Okay, so you built this, so this is all this

0:02

is new since the pandemic, we've assumed

0:04

Google Googlers would want more indoor outdoor

0:06

options. I mean, it's so exciting, it's such a fun

0:09

it is it is, But I would say the thing

0:11

we're really excited about are these new buildings, because

0:13

we were building sustainability and to everything

0:16

we do so really forward looking for

0:19

good. Okay, Hi

0:22

everyone, I'm Emily Chang, and you're listening to Bloomberg

0:24

Studio one point out. Today we are

0:26

taking you to the Googleplex in Mountain View,

0:29

California, where I'm sitting down with Alphabet

0:31

CFO Ruth poor At. We're

0:35

in one of Google's new outdoor pandemic

0:37

workspaces, and we're not far from her childhood

0:39

home. Her father was a physicist

0:42

at Stanford, her mother a psychologist.

0:44

After graduating from Stanford herself and then

0:47

earning a couple more advanced degrees, poor

0:49

At landed her first job on Wall Street in

0:51

nineteen seven, where she would

0:53

spend almost three decades until

0:56

Google's co founders lured her to

0:58

Silicon Valley. It's

1:02

wonderful to be here with you. It's great

1:04

to have you here at the Google plot. Thank you for

1:06

having us. So we are at Google

1:09

headquarters in Mountain View, and at this very same

1:11

time, you are making massive investments

1:13

in New York office real estate. You're expanding

1:15

head count in Atlanta and Chicago

1:18

and Washington, d C. What's the strategy

1:20

behind all of this. Well, at

1:22

the core, we believe in hybrid work, so

1:25

we do want to bring people back on

1:27

campuses, but not full time.

1:29

We're thinking would probably be a three to work

1:32

week. But we think coming together is just

1:34

such a core part of innovation, serendipity,

1:36

culture, every element of it. And

1:39

we're growing in a really rapid clip. So

1:41

we are excited to be expanding our real

1:44

estate footprint. And then we also wanted

1:46

to make sure that we're meeting people where

1:48

they want to be and so enlarging

1:50

the number of sites that we have available

1:52

for people in particular sites where you have great

1:55

diverse populations. Soon, Dar just told

1:57

me that Googlers will have this option to work in a hybrid

1:59

mode forever, like literally forever.

2:02

Obviously you're embracing this massive cultural

2:05

shift. But what are the risks? You know, what do

2:07

you worry about? So the positive

2:09

we've seen is there's a productivity uplift.

2:12

We believe in giving people the opportunity

2:14

to be at home some of the time, not do the

2:16

commute, be able to deal with everything else in

2:18

their life and coming

2:20

into the office. So the risk

2:23

is I think about my career, and so

2:25

much of the benefit in my career

2:27

was the informal coaching,

2:30

being pot brought into meetings, all

2:32

of the touch points that you have. And

2:34

so I think that one of the most important things

2:36

for all of us as leaders is we need

2:38

to evolve the way we lead. We need to

2:40

make sure that we're thinking about this

2:42

hybrid work life and

2:44

why that's the way to be the best magnet for

2:47

talent, and make sure that we're continuing

2:49

to reinforce all of those great practices

2:51

while opening up new great practices. Speaking

2:53

of your career before your CFO of Alphabet,

2:56

you are CFO of Morgan Stanley and you started

2:58

your career on Wall Street in nineteen eighties seven.

3:00

Talk to us about the journey of going from big

3:02

banks to big tech. Why

3:05

did you make that leap and what impact

3:07

did you want to have? Well,

3:09

I love being at Morgan Stanley and

3:12

I became CFO the day James

3:14

Gorman became CEO, ysked me to join

3:16

him in that in that journey, and that was

3:19

January, and

3:21

we were still recovering coming out of the financial

3:23

crisis. There were still some pretty rocky days

3:25

and a lot of decisions that needed to be made. And

3:27

then I got to a point where I felt like we were in a

3:29

great spot at Morgan Stanley, and obviously

3:32

it's continued to do really well, and I

3:34

just wanted that next chapter. My view,

3:36

in my career, I've always been focused

3:38

on kind of continually learning, and

3:40

I feel like when you hit a plateau, the

3:43

right questions what's my highest and best

3:45

use? And uh, it's been it's been

3:47

an extraordinary time. You also

3:49

survived Wall Street in the eighties and nine daies,

3:51

which is you know, notorious boys

3:53

club, and Silicon Valley has sort

3:56

of come to be known as a boys club of its

3:58

own. How would you compare those two cultures.

4:01

Well, when I was in you know, starting my career

4:04

um many decades ago, it

4:06

was much it was tough and much

4:08

worse than it is now. And it evolved, no

4:11

question about it, not where it needs to be,

4:13

but certainly evolved. And I saw

4:15

it through my career. UM, I would

4:17

say the biggest difference out here is

4:20

the level of impatience, and

4:22

I love it. It's the view is, if you can do

4:24

some of the extraordinary breakthroughs that

4:27

we have out here, if you can do

4:29

natural language translation, everything we do

4:31

with AI, with VR, with self

4:34

driving cars, why can't you fix

4:36

this now? And that level of impatience

4:38

I think is fantastic. Legend has it

4:40

that when you got to Google, you were going to rain

4:43

in the spending, tighten up on

4:45

the moonshots. Your nickname,

4:47

I believe, was Ruth Vader. Was

4:50

that a tough job to take on? So

4:52

I think that the narrative was written

4:54

before I got here. And what

4:57

I find most interesting about

4:59

that is I firmly believe

5:01

the single most important thing in capital allocation

5:04

is investing for long term growth. I

5:06

think if you don't, you're sowing the seeds

5:09

of your long term decline. And I learned that

5:11

really early on in my career.

5:14

Now, if you're investing in

5:16

an industry like this and trying to

5:18

do truly transformative things, by

5:21

definition everything can't succeed,

5:24

and so by definition you should

5:26

have the metrics and data and milestones

5:28

to assess is it working or is it not? Because

5:31

if everything's working, or if you think everything

5:33

is working, I would say one or two things are

5:35

wrong. Either you're not reaching high enough

5:38

or you're not being honest enough with yourself

5:40

about the pace of breakthrough

5:43

whether you're going to get there. So, to me,

5:46

a really natural part,

5:48

you know, kind of a sister organization

5:50

to investing for long term growth is

5:53

actually thinking about how are you doing

5:55

with the risk that you're taking. Stack rack them

5:57

and figure out what's at the bottom so you can redeploy

6:00

those resources to the top. They go together,

6:03

actually, and so I find the narrative it's a

6:05

false choice to think that

6:07

it's either about growth or it's about

6:10

pruning, stack ranking. They go together,

6:12

and you have to think of them as actually

6:14

empowering one another. You advised

6:17

the Treasury Department during the Great Recession.

6:20

What lessons did you take away from that? What

6:22

struck me is a lot of the lessons

6:24

from the financial crisis are relevant in good

6:26

times and bad times. So the most

6:28

important is it's easier to prevent than to

6:30

fix. And and so you know, there

6:33

was that was really clear during the financial crisis.

6:35

The financial crisis was about liquidity,

6:38

and it dried up quickly, and it would have been really

6:40

easy six to twelve months prior to

6:42

build in durable liquidity. You couldn't do

6:44

it in the moment. And so this notion

6:47

about really building a solid foundation

6:49

on which you operate, you need to do that ahead

6:51

of time. It needs to be all of the work we do

6:53

on trust and safety and content moderation,

6:56

security, That is the foundation

6:58

on which you can build everything else. Hand Calls

7:01

at one point said to me, you have to have the will and the

7:03

means, and too often by the time you have the will,

7:05

you no longer have the means. His comment

7:08

was, be decisive, act early,

7:10

even in the absence of information. I

7:12

think that's true in this whole notion of

7:15

investing for long term growth, because

7:18

if you're not actually assessing

7:21

progress along the way and you just assume you

7:23

know what, we can keep investing in everything, at

7:26

some point down the road you'll say, I

7:28

wish I had made those tough calls to double

7:30

down on the things that really matters. What

7:32

times are we in now. What's your

7:34

read on the economy today, especially

7:37

with rising inflation. Well, I

7:39

look, I think back to March

7:41

of and where we were, and

7:44

I think of all of the intervention and steps

7:46

that have been taken since then, and you've certainly

7:48

seen the recovery coming out the back end,

7:51

and it's been really gratifying from

7:53

those those painful days to see

7:56

the breakthroughs that we've had, not just on the medical front,

7:58

but we've also seen the improvement across business.

8:00

Is I think one of the biggest concerns

8:02

in particulars you're seeing us go

8:04

through a digital transformation and the acceleration

8:07

of it is ensuring that everyone has the skills,

8:09

the digital training and skills to thrive

8:11

in this new economy.

8:19

You're listening to Bloomberg Studio one Point Oh with Alphabet

8:21

CFO Ruth poor At coming

8:24

up. Google now reaches more than half the

8:26

people on the planet and is battling regulators

8:28

around the world. Is Google

8:30

a monopoly? We'll put that question

8:32

to pour At. I'm Emily Chang. Stay

8:35

with us. I

8:43

want to talk a little bit about regulation. You

8:46

were drawn to M and A in your early days at Morgan

8:48

Stanley. Microsoft is making

8:50

some big acquisitions deals that some think

8:52

Google maybe would have wanted to win in

8:54

a former life. Is antitrust

8:56

scrutiny constraining any

8:58

of your business plans and your ability

9:01

to compete. So

9:03

the main thing that we've done throughout

9:06

the life of Google is really invest

9:09

in innovation, is organic growth,

9:11

and we're continuing to do that at a really

9:13

rapid clip. We have then layered onto

9:15

it tuck in acquisitions and larger

9:18

acquisitions, and we're continuing to be active

9:21

more in the smaller ones in the add ons

9:23

to be fair, um, but we think there's

9:25

a lot of opportunity still ahead of us,

9:27

and so we're continuing to invest

9:30

in partnerships in in some

9:32

acquisitions. UM. And do think that there's

9:35

there's still upside in a lot of different areas. So

9:37

would you say this regulatory scrutiny isn't slowing

9:39

you down. It's really important for those

9:41

of us in certain leadership positions

9:44

to be very focused on constructively

9:46

engaging and working with regulators on what

9:48

are the issues, what is it they're trying to solve, and

9:50

how can we constructively engage with them.

9:52

At the same time, our engineers should

9:55

focus on innovation and continuing to kind

9:57

of up the bar and everything we're doing

9:59

a rest what is most helpful for our

10:01

users? Google is facing more

10:04

serious legal threats at this time in

10:06

the United States than the other big tech companies.

10:09

How are those conversations with regulators going.

10:11

Are they frustrating at

10:14

this point? Well, there's certain elements that

10:16

that are frustrating because

10:18

I listened to the

10:20

outline of some of the proposed

10:23

legislation and I think it's inconsistent

10:25

with some of the priorities for public

10:28

policy. So as an example, UM,

10:31

there are there's a

10:33

lot of focus on what

10:35

what is called self preferencing. Are you putting too

10:37

many of your own products together? But

10:40

during the pandemic, one and three small businesses

10:42

said they would have failed without digital skills.

10:45

Why because what they were able to do is connect

10:47

with their users in different ways. So if you go

10:49

search for a small business, you can then go to a map

10:51

and you can get directed to the small business. That's

10:54

a good thing. We have six thousand small

10:56

businesses who wrote in and said, you know what, we

10:58

need these digital tools and els

11:00

same with a number of things on racial equity,

11:03

real surge in searches about

11:05

where can I wears a black owned business near

11:07

me? And the ability to direct people through

11:10

search and maps. So I think that what's

11:12

really important, And that's why I said it's

11:14

about constructive engagement. Let's make

11:16

sure we understand what they're trying to solve

11:19

and work with them on what is it that

11:21

we're trying to address through products,

11:23

so that the products are helpful in the ways that

11:25

they want. Facebook has taken a serious

11:27

reputational hit. Has that

11:30

had ripple effects or created collateral

11:32

damage for Google? Well,

11:35

I think that whenever there's

11:37

a backdrop that's that's

11:40

UM challenging, it

11:42

has ripple effects. But what we're really

11:44

underscoring is all

11:46

of the steps and investments that we are

11:49

making to really protect the

11:51

ecosystem the way we our

11:53

commitment to our users, so we know

11:56

how sacrosanct that trust

11:58

is. And it's all about privacy, and what are

12:00

the steps that we're taking to make privacy

12:03

UM could protect it for our users. What is

12:05

it that we're looking at to protect content

12:07

and content moderations? Google now reaches

12:09

more than half the people on the planet. Why

12:12

shouldn't we view Google as a

12:14

monopoly? So

12:16

you know, I go back to the earliest

12:19

days when Google. I first

12:21

learned about Google back in and

12:24

in those earliest days when

12:26

I heard about this like eighth search engine.

12:28

The question is why do you actually need it? And

12:30

back at Morgan Stanley's working with our research

12:33

Anne Listinary Meeker, she actually had her team

12:35

put up white pages all around the

12:37

conference room and was

12:39

doing this comparison what provided

12:42

the most um responsive

12:44

results, most rapidly, and

12:46

all of a sudden you could see a way of this Google

12:48

thing. Actually, maybe we do need something

12:51

new. And that's been the ethos

12:53

at Google since inception is just continued

12:55

to innovate to make this eight and ever better experience

12:57

for users. And so if we can,

13:00

if we can deliver on that, which is what

13:02

drives people here, it's

13:04

really opening the world for for so many

13:06

people. So that's that's the intent. Facebook

13:08

and Twitter are exploring digital currency.

13:11

What is your thought on the crypto market

13:14

and is there a play for Google? So

13:16

we look at it, Um, there's nothing to

13:19

to comment on now. UM, I

13:21

think we're much more interested in blockchain

13:23

and the underlying technology and the implications

13:25

for the business and also for the

13:28

way we can support our cloud customers.

13:30

So certainly a lot of effort there.

13:32

There's considerable chatter in the crypto universe

13:34

that Web three and the blockchain could circumvent

13:37

the power of Facebook and Google

13:39

and more. What do you

13:41

think about the next frontier of the Internet

13:43

at this point, I think there are a lot of different

13:46

things ahead of us that are actually studyingly

13:48

exciting that enable us to actually

13:51

continue to address different

13:53

needs and requirements like I look at, for

13:55

example, in something like

13:57

health, where I think blockchain will be very

14:00

valuable when you think about health and health records.

14:02

They're also a whole host of other areas where

14:04

the data analytics that we provide are absolutely

14:07

critical. This

14:13

is Bloomberg Studio at one point, Oh with Alphabet CFO

14:15

Ruth Poor at up next for all

14:17

the parents out there, Poor tells us

14:20

her philosophy to managing work, family

14:22

and mom guilt. She talks

14:24

about surviving breast cancer not once,

14:27

but twice, and also her

14:29

favorite vacation getaway stay

14:31

with us. You

14:39

survived breast cancer twice.

14:42

What was your biggest fear at that time

14:45

and how did you overcome it? Well,

14:48

the biggest fear was I wouldn't make it, and

14:51

um, I remember when some someone

14:53

had some interview while I was going through chemo, said

14:56

where do you want to be in five years? And I

14:58

froze because it was want to be alive

15:01

UM, and I

15:03

learned a couple of really important things.

15:06

UM. One, given breakthroughs

15:08

in medical technology, I

15:10

learned to love the word manageable.

15:13

These this journey does become

15:15

manageable, not for all cancers,

15:17

but for many more cancers. And

15:20

that gave me a lot of confidence talking

15:22

with other survivors about it is

15:24

manageable, get the best care, and

15:28

just plow through it. I was just very grateful

15:30

and grateful for all of the investments people have made

15:33

over the years. But for anybody out there,

15:35

and I think everybody sadly will be

15:37

touched by cancer, either themselves or someone they

15:39

know and love, many of these cancers

15:41

are manageable and just go at

15:44

it with gusto. So that's what I did.

15:46

You're a mom of three sons, and I find

15:48

that especially remarkable because I also have

15:51

three sons. How have you

15:53

managed that over the course of this,

15:55

you know, incredible career. How do you find

15:58

that right mix of focus and free time

16:00

to spend time with your family and doing the things

16:03

that you love? So my kids,

16:05

UM, My kids give me energy. They're

16:08

remarkable and I

16:10

think one of the important things for me

16:12

is this notion that you do have

16:15

to have a mix. It's not about trying

16:17

to find balance, the physics of which is really

16:19

challenging. I think when people try for balance,

16:22

they always feel they're failing on something

16:24

because something's out of whack. So

16:26

this metaphor that life is like a

16:28

kaleidoscope and you need to

16:30

have different shaped pieces of glass

16:32

and different color and sometimes one

16:34

is larger than the other. And what's beautiful

16:37

about life is when it's constantly moving

16:39

around. And so to me, that

16:41

metaphor has actually been sort of an

16:43

anchoring principle. The

16:46

other is you have to put the kids first, so

16:48

like they know that I'm

16:50

I'm there, you know when they need always

16:53

and um And

16:55

I think that just making sure that you're

16:58

setting the boundaries the way you need

17:00

to. I would say it's much easier today

17:03

than when I was growing up in banking, you

17:05

know, and we had a cubicle, there was a

17:07

there was a computer room. You were anchored to the

17:09

computer room. One of the many beautiful

17:11

things about going through this

17:14

evolution in work is understanding

17:17

that hybrid works. So how do we get rid of

17:19

mom guilt? Especially in this

17:21

new work world. I

17:23

want to shake my mom guilt. How do I

17:25

do that? Okay, So even when

17:27

you feel it, to say, you know what, it's an investment

17:30

in my career because I can stay

17:32

in this longer and be operating at

17:34

a higher level if I'm really getting

17:36

the stimulus from all parts of my life. So

17:39

you've got to drop the mom guilt.

17:42

And when on the other side mom guilt with

17:44

kids, I think they get it. I

17:46

think they understand what we're doing,

17:48

and you know, I'll never forget. During the financial

17:51

crisis, at one point I was working on a

17:53

I G. We went around the clock. I came home

17:55

to shower that one like right as we were landing

17:57

a i G, and my three kids had

18:00

each written me a yellow sticky note

18:02

with a message on it, and

18:04

one of them was based you know. They the

18:07

essence of which was I

18:09

get why you're doing this and it and they

18:11

saw it as

18:14

the right thing for the country. I don't need to overdramatize

18:16

what it was, but that's what it felt like at the time

18:19

and that level of pride. I still have those

18:21

three stickies right by my bedside

18:23

because I get it. I get

18:25

the mom guilt. I wish there were certain elements

18:27

like it could have done differently, But I

18:30

also see the relationship we have and they understand

18:32

what it means to actually be engaged

18:35

in society and doing something you care about. No

18:37

mom gilt, mom gil, thank you, It's not allowed.

18:40

Should we make excuses to our employers?

18:42

Should we tell her, like if I have to head to a parent

18:44

teacher conference or take a kid to the doctor,

18:47

do I tell my boss? You don't tell your boss.

18:49

You don't tell your boss. Guys don't tell their boss,

18:51

so I don't think

18:54

you say anything. I actually made

18:56

this point at an event at Morgan Stanley. I'm

18:58

like, do not tell your boss. Got

19:00

to get over the guilt. The only way to move on from

19:02

it is realized. I'm a professional.

19:05

I do things when I when I can, and

19:07

it makes sense and I get it all done. I just do it on

19:09

my own timeline. And I actually had a woman

19:11

who emailed me afterwards and said, I know

19:14

you said I'm not supposed to tell my boss, so

19:16

I won't, but I can't not tell somebody,

19:18

so I'm going to email you. And I'm like,

19:20

okay, that's step one of a five step

19:22

attorney. Do not tell

19:25

your boss, your tell your boss, you

19:27

know what, I need to do certain things for myself and

19:29

I it's I'm getting I feel

19:31

guilty doing it, but I get everything done. There's

19:34

no question you are so beyond having

19:36

to check in with people. Well, so

19:38

do not. We're in the middle of this

19:40

so called Great Resignation and people

19:43

are reflecting and changing and

19:45

making big decisions. What's

19:48

your advice two people

19:50

in this you know, big evolution, you

19:53

know, huge choices ahead. Well, I think

19:55

you framed it really well. I don't think it's the

19:57

Great resignation. I think it's the great reshuffle.

19:59

And people are reflecting on what do they want and

20:02

how do they want to work and how do they want to live their life.

20:04

So I think for all of us thinking about what does that

20:06

mean for our institutions. It is

20:08

about evolving the way we

20:12

we we work, the way we interact, the

20:14

expectations that we have to say.

20:16

But I grew up in a cubicle on the twenty floor

20:18

of a sky rise. Doesn't work anymore,

20:21

and so what should we do as leaders? And

20:23

I think that our this

20:25

generation, appropriately and it's very

20:27

exciting, expects more from all

20:29

of us. And so it's not just in how

20:32

we work. But it is in what we do, and

20:34

I think all elements of what's

20:36

the mission? Are you delivering on the mission? Is

20:38

really important? Okay, So if you rapid fire

20:40

questions someone you'd love to have dinner with, Well,

20:45

I'd love to say my parents because

20:47

they passed away in over of years ago. Favorite

20:49

family ritual. We do

20:51

this crazy thing that we've done for years, which

20:54

is everybody gets to pick where we travel.

20:57

We come up with the five the five different

20:59

low patients, and then we all vote, and then we get

21:01

the grid and that's where we go. What's

21:03

your favorite getaway? Um?

21:06

Probably I would say maybe

21:08

Iceland was the best. That's an amazing

21:10

one. New York or California

21:14

so unfair. Well,

21:16

sitting here outdoors right now

21:18

and knowing I can do that for the rest of the years, pretty nice

21:21

with the energy from New York. So I'm not gonna It's

21:23

like I don't pick amongst children.

21:25

So in closing, Google is a massive company,

21:27

multiple divisions, many bets. Where are

21:29

you spending most of your time now? I'm

21:32

spending most of my time on your very

21:35

more in question about capital allocation because

21:37

if it really goes to this core

21:39

point, you've got to invest

21:42

for long term growth and making

21:44

sure that you're investing with

21:46

the right intensity. I often

21:48

say I don't want to get to the two yard line, but not score.

21:51

So you need to make sure you're investing with the right

21:53

intensity to support long term growth.

21:55

That's the most important area where

21:58

I would say I spend the ball my

22:00

time, and then of course you have to prioritize

22:03

in order to recycle to support

22:05

those apploms. What kind of discussions are

22:07

you having with Larry and Sergey now

22:09

about this next phase of Google?

22:12

So when they made the announcement about the

22:14

role change, they really

22:17

they were very serious about moving

22:19

to this board role and they've

22:21

been there amazing board members. UM Sandars

22:24

of course relies on them

22:26

for counsel wherever, whenever, But

22:28

most of the interaction is really around what

22:31

are we doing at the board level. It's been

22:33

great and you have your freedom to allocate

22:35

capital as you like. UM. I work

22:37

closely with Sandar and Philip

22:40

and Taz. Yes, we work as a great team.

22:43

So where what's the vision for Google? Then

22:45

ten years from now? You

22:48

know it's fascinating too. Was I

22:50

think I had the same reaction you do when I heard Cinders

22:52

say searches the biggest moon shot, and I

22:54

think that continuing to find

22:56

ways to be helpful to users

22:58

to solve what they need. Where so many people

23:00

are coming online and it you know, is video

23:03

going to be the first the way they

23:05

understand It's going to be about

23:07

you know, search is going to be a different type of experience.

23:09

So much of it's going to be about voice first

23:12

and language translation. So there's gonna it's

23:14

going to continue to evolve. And what about

23:16

for you personally? Like where will you

23:18

know? It's been so amazing

23:21

to hear about your journey, and I'm just

23:23

curious about your personal growth, like what

23:26

you feel you've accomplished in the last you know,

23:28

since you've been here, and what you hope to accomplish.

23:31

I find that that the

23:33

opportunity to try new things

23:36

and to invest in new things, and as we

23:38

think about, well what does that mean for

23:40

each one of our areas, there's I

23:42

think that intellectual curiosity keeps

23:45

you young. And I think that continuing

23:47

to learn is like your brain is

23:50

like silly putty getting pulled in a lot of directions,

23:52

So to me, it's continuous learning.

23:54

Report. Thank you so much, for its

23:57

great to have you on camp. Come back

23:59

any time. Bloomberg

24:02

Studio One point Oh was produced by Lauren Ellis,

24:05

edited by Brian Carton Gayner. Our managing

24:07

editor is Danielle Culbertson, with special

24:09

thanks to Alex Soto and Tiffany Perez.

24:12

If you like Bloomberg Studio one point oh, please

24:14

subscribe and leave us a review. We

24:17

love hearing from you. I'm Emily Changing, your

24:19

host and executive producer.