Google has been dealing with a lot of controversies since it acquired smart-home accessory maker Nest. According to Re/code, Nest CEO Tony Fadell utilized a recent Google meeting to address the recent reports and defend the company.
No one is perfect, Fadell tells Google
Fadell used the weekly Google meeting as an opportunity to clarify all the issues surrounding the company, as has been stated in recent reports. The Information reported on the corrosive internal culture following Nest’s acquisition of connected video cameras maker Dropcam.
After this, Dropcam’s former CEO, Greg Duffy, commented on Fadell’s brash management style. A report published in Re/code last week added that the financial performance of the company was not up to the mark and that there were high chances of its future at Google being in jeopardy. Addressing such reports, Fadell told Googlers that he normally does not come to TGIF, but he thought it was an important day to come.
“First and foremost, you know, the articles that you see and read about either me or about Nest — they are incredibly disheartening because we don’t believe — and I don’t believe specifically — that those articles represent our culture, represent our work ethic, represent the respect we have for each other inside the team. And so it’s really — it really hurts us a lot when see those things,” Fadell said at the meeting. “Of course, we’re not perfect. No company is. Nest isn’t perfect. I’m not perfect. No one’s perfect. But we are aware of the problems, and over the past two years, have been looking into those problems, and “frankly, we have more room to go.”
Nest is growing
There have also been reports of troubles among the company’s employees and with Fadell’s management style. The Nest CEO addressed those claims as well.
“I do respect the Nest employees. I do respect the Google employees. I respect the Alphabet employees. We try to work very hard together and partner in many different areas around the different companies. I also respect ex-Nesters, ex-Googlers, those kind of things,”the Nest CEO said.
Some reports even claimed that product innovation at Nest had stalled. Disputing this, Fadell said sales are improving every year, and there has not been any slowdown in the company’s growth. Fadell expects to beat estimates this quarter. Whether or not this is true, we will know once Alphabet reports its earnings results for the first quarter next week.
