Alphabet is still figuring out how to be a conglomerate
<i>&quot;...operating at a level of stealth unusual even for the normally secretive firm.&quot;</i><p>I chuckled at that. When I worked there I participated in no less than a dozen &quot;super secret&quot; projects. Stealth was the standard operating mode. In engineering I attributed it to the somewhat interesting way in which recognition and promotions were handed out, which was to say if someone else got word of your idea&#x2F;project and executed on it more quickly they could declare victory and take the glory. So keeping things secret until success was assured was the &quot;smart&quot; play. And it didn&#x27;t hurt than when things went south you didn&#x27;t have to take the blame since nobody knew you were working on it. A win-win situation as they say.<p>Levy makes it sound like a big deal they were being super secret but really? I suspect it was keeping things that might, or might not, happen in the future from becoming part of the questions at a TGIF meeting.<p>What the re-organization has done has put a spotlight on how much Alphabet is a one trick pony. It&#x27;s a good trick, and a strong pony, but it doesn&#x27;t translate into other markets. And several other organizations have been training their ponies hard and are taking away that specialness.<p>The current road Alphabet is on doesn&#x27;t seem to me to end in a happy place, so I continue to watch them to see if they will find a way to turn off it.