ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
From NPR News, this is All Things Considered. I'm Robert Siegel. President-elect Barack Obama's first priority is the ailing economy, and one of his economic advisers is someone better known for his prominent position in the tech world: Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google. NPR's Laura Sydell reports that Mr. Schmidt and Mr. Obama share a vision of how technology can revitalize the economy.
LAURA SYDELL: Eric Schmidt came to Google at a time when the company's financiers were a little nervous. Its two 20-something founders - Sergey Brin and Larry Page - were too young for the job.
Mr. DAVID A. VISE (Author, "The Google Story"): He gave Sergey and Larry a degree of credibility they didn't have on Wall Street before they took the company public. He was the grown-up.
SYDELL: That's David Vise, author of "The Google Story." When Schmidt arrived at Google in 2001, he had just been CEO of software maker Novell, a company that wasn't nearly as successful. Schmidt's background hadn't been so much in business; he started as a computer scientist at Sun Microsystems. Schmidt says it was that, and not his stint as a CEO, that made him attractive to Google - and what attracted him to the company.
Dr. ERIC E. SCHMIDT (Chief Executive Officer, Google): When I first came to Google, I was walking along, and all of a sudden I realized that I was hanging out with exactly the same kinds of people, with the same odd behavior patterns, as I did 20 years earlier when I was in the first or second year at Sun.
SYDELL: Odd behavior patterns particular to the offices of Silicon Valley: sleeping on futons under the desk, working for weeks and months on end without a day off. Schmidt set out to professionalize Google, and he did. Today, he looks every bit the Silicon Valley CEO: casually yet professionally dressed in a carefully pressed shirt, a blue sweater tossed neatly over his shoulders. But in humble surroundings: His own office is tiny, cramped, and kind of disorganized. Schmidt says he also connected to the politics of Google. He says he is committed to the unofficial motto: Don't be evil. They also believe that technology can solve the environmental crisis. Google has one of the largest solar installations in Silicon Valley.
Dr. SCHMIDT: The green energy is an example of Google caring about something that touches an awful lot of people, but maybe Google can make a small contribution, but an important one,and we're happy to do that. And as more of these kinds of things up - you know, we expect to speak up.
SYDELL: In his position as CEO, Schmidt already is speaking out. This past year, he publicly made a $3 trillion policy proposal to wean the U.S. off oil. In fact, it was discussions about green technology that first brought him into contact with then-presidential candidate Barack Obama. The two men discovered they shared a vision of how technology could transform the country; both believe that more information is a force for good. Schmidt has been advising Mr. Obama on how to make government more open using the Internet.
Dr. SCHMIDT: Much more use of social networking, much more use of involvement, much more than just Web sites for government programs, which was achieved a decade ago.
SYDELL: Recently, Mr. Obama announced that documents from all official meetings with outside organizations would be available online, and Schmidt has been giving technological advice for this. The idea is to allow Americans to discuss government decision-making, and it's a reflection of Mr. Obama's grassroots organizing background. It's also a reflection of how Schmidt runs Google, says author David Vise.
Mr. VISE: Google, on the technology side, runs a very flat organization, which is quite similar in philosophy. Rather than being very hierarchical and having a lot of layers of management, Google, to this day, has tried to keep the size of project teams very small so that the best ideas could still bubble up.
SYDELL: Both Mr. Obama and Eric Schmidt believe that technology will drive the rescue of the American economy by creating new jobs and new industries. That's a view that people in Silicon Valley think has been dangerously neglected by the Bush administration. Venture capitalist Jon Feiber worked with Eric Schmidt at Sun.
Mr. JON FEIBER (Partner, Mohr Davidow Ventures): We need people with Eric's skills and other people engaged in fundamental discussio ns with the government. So, I was thrilled, both because I have a lot of respect for Eric personally, as well as it's a general statement that people like Eric are going to be a part of the thinking going forward.
SYDELL: Of course, as the CEO of one of the largest tech companies in the world, Schmidt's vision may be more tied up to what's good for the corporate giant he runs rather than what is good for the country. Barack Obama has also announced that he will be the first president to have a chief technology officer, and Eric Schmidt has been mentioned as a candidate for the job. Schmidt has said he would not take it but would like to continue to offer informal advice. Laura Sydell, NPR News, San Francisco.