From the Editor's Desk

"Innovation = Managed Chaos": Eric Schmidt, Former CEO of Google

ERIC SCHMIDT: My first office at Google was an 8-by-12 office, just enough room for me and my desk and my little chair. And one day I walked in, and I find I have a roommate. I said "Hello." He says, "Hello." I said, "Hi, I'm Eric." And he goes, "Hi, I'm Amit."

REID HOFFMAN: That's Eric Schmidt. This story happened on his first day as Google's CEO in 2001.

SCHMIDT: Now as a new person coming into the company, it's very important to not create a cultural faux pas. Like it would be incorrect to say, "I'm the CEO. Get the heck out of my office." So I looked at my secretary and said, "Did you know anything about this?" And she said "no." And I said, "Well, who said you could move in?" And he said, "The VP of engineering." And I said, "Ah, they are playing a joke on me." And I said, "Well, why did you move here?" "Well, because I was in a six person office, it was very crowded, and your office was empty." So we became colleagues

HOFFMAN: So was Amit playing a joke on Eric? Oddly enough, Eric doesn't say. He drops the investigation. Amit offers no further explanation. They settle into their work, and do a fine job of ignoring one another.

Continued here

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