Not only did Google make a clever business decision when hiring investor and Google board member Diane Green to lead its cloud-computing business, the major corporation also made a smart marketing move.
Diane Green has a very impressive resume. Her list of accolades is includes co-founding VMware with her husband and others, becoming its first CEO and leading it through a spectacular rise before it sold for $635 million. Green is also an active investor and advisor for many companies including Cloud Physics, Cumulus Networks, Cloudera and Nicira and has been a Google board member since 2012.
Even more impressive than Green’s resume is her reputation within the Valley’s startup community as well as the world of corporate enterprise. Given her experience in the business world and her seat on the Google board it is clear that Diane Green has what it takes to run a huge new unit for Google that includes the Google Apps business. Her business acumen is best represented by the fact that she was able to sell her startup, Bebop Technologies as part of a business deal with Google as part of her hiring conditions.
Not only is Diane Green going to lead Google’s new unit into the future with her knowledge of the business world, but her likeability in the Valley’s startup community will give Google a leg up in attracting these new businesses to its cloud. Additionally, in the corporate enterprise world where Green has made her reputation, such as users of VMware’s products, will pass her hard won credibility onto the venture she is overseeing for Google. VMware is Google’s most coveted market when it comes to attracting businesses to their cloud. It can be assumed that Green’s former leadership role in that company certainly won’t hurt Google’s chances of acquiring them.
Whether Google’s reason for hiring Diane Green is a business decision or a marketing decision there seems to be a positive correlation between the two. A company who focuses all of their decisions around their consumers and spends their time creating a smart business strategy is smart to take advantage of the synergy represented by Green’s ability as a leader and credibility within the industry. Green was certainly a hiring decision that companies looking to cloud are going to take notice of. Every company Green has been involved with has been successful. Not only was the decision to hire her one consumers will appreciate, but her business skills will be significant in carrying Google’s cloud-computing business into the future.