When Parag Agrawal was appointed CEO of Twitter in November 2021, the IIT graduate joined a steadily rising club of executives from India growing to the top of world wide organizations, but the 38-calendar year-previous executive’s transient tenure at the helm of the social media large was demanding and chaotic. Significantly less than a yr into his job as CEO, India-born Agrawal was ousted from the firm by its new operator billionaire Elon Musk who on Thursday shut the $44 billion (approximately Rs. 3,37,465 crore) offer to obtain the social media behemoth.
An IIT Bombay and Stanford alumnus, Agrawal joined Twitter in 2011 when there were being fewer than 1,000 employees. Climbing in the company, he grew to become Twitter’s main technology officer in 2017. Regarded a protege of Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, Agrawal was appointed CEO of Twitter immediately after Dorsey stepped down.
In saying his final decision to phase down and identify Agrawal as CEO, Dorsey experienced claimed at the time “my believe in in him as our CEO is bone deep.” Dorsey experienced said that Agrawal had been his option for CEO for “some time” supplied how deeply he understands the firm and its needs. “Parag has been driving every crucial conclusion that assisted turn this company all around. He’s curious, probing, rational, artistic, demanding, self-mindful, and humble. He potential customers with coronary heart and soul, and is a person I learn from day-to-day.” Ajmer-born Agrawal’s ascent to the top work at Twitter put him in a steadily developing club of executives hailing from India helming world-wide businesses, like Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen. Indra Nooyi experienced served as PepsiCo’s CEO for 12 many years prior to stepping down in 2018.
In accordance to a May perhaps 2022 report in The New York Times, if Musk eradicated him as main executive, Agrawal could make $60 million (approximately Rs. 495 crore), as for each securities filings.
Agrawal’s time as Twitter CEO was difficult and turbulent.
Just a number of months into the career as CEO, Musk came into the picture. As per a CNN Business report citing a regulatory submitting in March this yr, Musk had met with Dorsey to “discuss the upcoming route of social media.”
“In the times that adopted, Musk satisfied with Twitter’s board and some of its management workforce, together with Agrawal publicly declared that he’d come to be Twitter’s largest shareholder and acknowledged a seat on the firm’s board,” the CNN report explained.
Musk tweeted a couple days later on that “Is Twitter dying?”.
The CNN report extra that according to a court filing in late September, Agrawal had texted Musk responding to his tweet.
“You are no cost to tweet ‘is Twitter dying?’ or just about anything else about Twitter,” Agrawal experienced mentioned in the text to Musk “but it really is my duty to explain to you that it truly is not supporting me make Twitter superior in the existing context. Future time we talk, I would like you to present (your) perspective on the amount of inner distraction right now and how [it’s] hurting our ability to do work … I’d like the corporation to get to a put the place we are much more resilient and will not get distracted, but we usually are not there right now.” Musk experienced responded to Agrawal saying: “What did you get completed this week?” In two abide by-up texts, he rescinded his agreement to sign up for the board, indicating, “I’m not becoming a member of the board. This is a waste of time.” He additional: “Will make an offer you to take Twitter personal,” according to the CNN post.
On Agrawal’s troubles to deal with a “restive perform power and offer with Twitter’s mounting economic” woes in advance of probable becoming “booted” from the business, The New York Periods experienced quoted Bob Sutton, an organisational psychologist and professor at Stanford College, as indicating that “there’s no 1 in the environment who would want to be in people sneakers.” The NYT posting mentioned that as Twitter’s main technologies officer, Agrawal “worked on some of Twitter’s challenging complex challenges and developed associations with his engineering peers” and Dorsey.
He shared Dorsey’s “vision that Twitter’s long run hinged on overhauling its technologies so it could depend far more on equipment finding out and decentralize its products and services to give buyers more management more than their activities on the system.” As the Musk saga unfolded, the NYT reported in the Could 2022 posting that at “a digital assembly for Twitter executives”, Agrawal “admitted he was exhausted.” “At the assembly, Mr Agrawal was “raw” about Twitter’s concerns and the hurricane of consideration about Mr Musk’s deal, two individuals with awareness of the event mentioned. But he also conveyed a feeling of acceptance of his situation and mentioned he would transfer ahead with his programs for the firm, they reported,” the NYT report said.
When he was appointed CEO in 2021, Agrawal explained in a take note posted on Twitter that he was “honoured and humbled” on his appointment and expressed gratitude to Dorsey’s “continued mentorship and your friendship.” “While it was a decade back, individuals times feel like yesterday to me. I’ve walked in your shoes, I’ve observed the ups and downs, the difficulties and hurdles, the wins and the faults. But then and now, earlier mentioned all else, I see Twitter’s unbelievable affect, our continued progress, and the interesting prospects ahead of us,” he mentioned.
“Our purpose has never been more significant. Our people today and our culture are as opposed to just about anything in the earth. There is no limit to what we can do collectively.” “We not long ago up-to-date our system to hit ambitious objectives, and I feel that technique to be bold and right. But our important problem is how we work to execute towards it and provide success – that is how we’ll make Twitter the very best it can be for our consumers, shareholders, and for each of you.” “The globe is viewing us ideal now, even extra than they have just before. Loads of people are likely to have loads of unique sights and thoughts about present-day news. It is since they treatment about Twitter and our foreseeable future, and it is really a signal that the get the job done we do below matters,” Agrawal claimed in his note past year.
