What do Parag Agrawal, Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai have in common? They were Enterprise Architects before they became CEOs

The announcement about Indian born tech executive Parag Agrawal taking charge as the CEO of Twitter generated a considerable buzz, with the media and digerati examining various aspects of his background. Agrawal’s Indian heritage got considerable media attention, and so did his stellar academic pedigree.

Agrawal joins the list of Indian-born CEOs at global tech giants like Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai whose ascent to the top is in large part attributable to their experience gained in architecting their enterprise’s transformation. In a sense they were Enterprise Architects with a strong business acumen who took on larger business leadership roles.

I’ve been practicing the art and craft of Enterprise Architecture (EA) for over a decade and see a distinct pattern at these tech companies that have nurtured tech talent into executive roles. EA is a conceptual blueprint that defines the structure and operation of an organization. A well-defined EA blueprint should determine how an organization can effectively achieve its current and future objectives aligned with its corporate strategy.

Case in point: Architecting the enterprise strategy
Sundar Pichai joined Google in 2004, where he led the product management and innovation efforts for a suite of Google’s client software products, including Google Chrome and Chrome OS and Google Drive. As Google’s Product Chief, he went on to oversee the development of other applications such as Gmail and Google Maps. After leading a series of highly visible transformations, Pichai was selected to become the CEO of Google, and its parent company Alphabet.

Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella rose to the top after he successfully pivoted the company to the cloud era. Nadella is credited with bringing Microsoft’s database, Windows Server and developer tools to its Azure cloud, which has become the mainstay for public cloud adoption at global companies. Under Nadella, the revenue from Cloud Services grew from $16.6 billion when he took over in 2011 to over $20.3 billion before he was elevated to be the CEO of the Redmond tech giant. The transformation and the business insights Nadella gained help Microsoft stay relevant as the world was moving toward the cloud.

A similar pattern can be observed at Twitter where Parag Agrawal is credited with leveraging is his strengths in data and analytics to influence engineers. During the 10-year stint at the social media giant, Agrawal built strong relationships across the organization and lead the re-architecture of the technical infrastructure that had been cobbled together to keep pace with Twitter’s stratospheric growth. His background in transforming the core architecture, coupled with relationships built across business positioned Agrawal to take on the top-job after the founder-CEO Jack Dorsey called it quits.

Distinct pattern
The pattern here seems distinct at tech companies where product-engineering and fast paced solution development drives the business. The business is closely interwoven with software development, and those with an ability to comprehend the complexity while also scanning the external landscape seem to excel.

In the online forums and Q&A sites where I am active, technologists muse about the career path towards Enterprise Architecture and beyond. While many techies and EAs spend their careers shaping strategies for business units, a few in technology companies are taking on broader roles shaping the course of their enterprise.

About the Author
Mohan Krishnamoorthy is a Technology Executive and Enterprise Architect with a multinational company. His viewpoints and papers have been published in several international technical and nontechnical journals.
He can be reached at mohan@garamchai.com or https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohanbabuk/