Nikesh Arora, Google’s top sales executive, tells a revealing story about the restless intelligence and expansive ambition of his chief executive, Larry Page.
Two years ago the two men were leaving the internet search company’s home in Mountain View, California for a business meeting in Spain. As their plane took off over the crowded Highway 101 that cuts through Silicon Valley, Mr Page wondered aloud about the gaps between the cars, and estimated how much of that wasted space might be saved with better use of technology.
Later, as he gazed down at the empty middle of the US, he spent nearly half an hour calculating what altitude their plane would have to fly at to map the country in greater detail than had been done before. But for Google’s co-founder, such thoughts are more than just idle musings. Last year the company revealed it had unleashed an experimental driverless car on to US streets, while Mr Page also championed StreetView, a controversial attempt to photograph all of the world’s public thoroughfares. In short, the 38-year-old computer science major from Michigan is not your average chief executive.