Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat Comments on the Future of the Workplace

Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat says the company is excited about their investments and opportunity in Google cloud business. Speaking to BTV’s Erik Schatzker, she also talks about how the pandemic has massively accelerated the digitization of the workplace and the digital trends formed throughout pandemic “will continue to endure.” The pair spoke virtually from the Qatar Economic Forum, powered by Bloomberg. Watch below for more of Porat’s thoughts.

Schatzker: What strikes you as the biggest, most significant changes in the way that companies do business and rely on technology that will end up being permanent, permanent and not temporary?

Porat: I think there are two parts to your question. One is, how do we even think about what the work environment is? And at Google, what we’ve said is we do believe in the value of space, bringing people together for collaboration, for training, for coaching. And there’s a productivity element, but there’s also a productivity benefit for people working from home. So we’re looking at a hybrid work environment. And very much to your question, technology will play a critical part of that. One of the reasons it was relatively seamless for us to pivot to work from home is because we benefit from Google workspace, which are collaborative tools. Collaborative docs were all in the dock together, presentations, our ability to communicate with one another. And technology is going to continue to be one of the cornerstones of what is a hybrid work environment. How does it work? If we want to be a magnet for talent and have a work environment that has this hybrid mix, we need to be able to have technology solutions and tools that allow what we’re calling technology equity. So that if somebody in the room or not in the room, you can still have the kind of discussions that are needed. So, yes, absolutely, technology will be a key part of those solutions moving forward.