Elon Musk takes over as CEO of Twitter after Parag Agrawal's 11-month tenure as CEO

The 38-year-old executive's brief time as CEO of the social media behemoth was difficult and chaotic, but Parag Agrawal joined a rapidly expanding club of Indian executives ascending to the top of multinational firms when he was chosen CEO of Twitter in November 2021. India-born Agrawal was fired from the firm less than a year after taking over as CEO by its new owner, billionaire Elon Musk, who on Thursday finalised the 44 billion dollar agreement to buy the social media powerhouse.

Agrawal joined Twitter in 2011 when there were less than 1,000 people. He is a graduate of Stanford University and IIT Bombay. He progressed inside the organisation and was appointed Twitter's CTO in 2017. Agrawal, who was seen as a protégé of Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, took over as CEO of the company when Dorsey resigned. "My trust in him as our CEO is bone deep," Dorsey had declared at the time in announcing his plan to resign and nominate Agrawal as CEO.

Agrawal had been Agrawal's top candidate for CEO, according to Dorsey "Given how well he comprehends the business and its requirements, occasionally. Every crucial choice that helped this company turn around was made with Parag's support. He is observant, inquisitive, analytical, inventive, demanding, self-aware, and modest. He is a man of heart and soul who inspires me every day." Agrawal, who was born in Ajmer, joined a group of corporate leaders from India, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, and Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen, by rising to the top position at Twitter. Before leaving her position as CEO of PepsiCo in 2018, Indra Nooyi had been there for 12 years.

The New York Times reported in May 2022 that Agrawal might earn USD 60 million as per securities filings if Musk fired him as CEO. As Twitter's CEO, Agrawal faced difficulties and experienced turbulence. Musk entered the picture only a few months after taking the CEO position. According to a corporate filing, Musk and Dorsey met in March of this year to "explore the future path of social media," according to a CNN Business story.

The CNN article stated that in the days that followed, Musk visited with Twitter's board and several of its leadership team, including Agrawal; made it known that he had become the company's largest shareholder; and accepted a position on the board. A few days later, Musk asked on Twitter, "Is Twitter dying?" According to a court document submitted in late September, Agrawal texted Musk in response to his tweet, the CNN report further stated. In the text to Musk, Agrawal had said, "You are allowed to tweet 'is Twitter dying?' or anything else about Twitter, but it's my obligation to warn you that it's not helping me make Twitter better in the current environment. The next time we chat, I'd like you to provide your perspective on the current state of internal distraction and how it affects our capacity to complete job. We aren't there yet, but I'd like the company to get to a point where we are more resilient and don't get sidetracked. Agrawal had received a response from Musk asking, "What did you accomplish this week?" He revoked his commitment to join the board in two subsequent texts, writing, "I'm not joining the board. Time is being wasted on this. According to the CNN report, he added: "Will make an offer to take Twitter private."

The New York Times quoted Bob Sutton, an organisational psychologist and professor at Stanford University, as saying that "there's no one in the world who would want to be in those shoes" regarding Agrawal's struggles to manage a "restive work force and deal with Twitter's mounting economic" issues before likely being "booted" from the company. According to the NYT piece, Agrawal "worked on some of Twitter's complicated technological challenges and cultivated ties with his engineering peers" in his role as chief technology officer. He adopted Dorsey's "vision that Twitter's future depended on upgrading its infrastructure so it could rely more on machine learning and decentralise its services to offer users more control over their experiences on the network," which was that the company's future depended on machine learning.

Agrawal "said he was fatigued" at "a virtual conference for Twitter executives" as the Musk scandal developed, according to the NYT's May 2022 report. "According to two people with knowledge of the discussion, Mr. Agrawal was "raw" about Twitter's problems and the media frenzy around Mr. Musk's offer. But they added that he also seemed to accept his predicament and stated he would continue with his goals for the business "As stated in the NYT article. Agrawal thanked Dorsey for his "continuing guidance and your friendship" in a statement he posted on Twitter after being chosen as CEO in 2021. He described himself as "honoured and humbled" by the nomination.

"Even though it's been ten years, those times seem like yesterday to me.
I've been in your position and have experienced the highs and lows, barriers and problems, triumphs and failures.
But more than anything else, both then and now, I see the enormous impact Twitter has had, our continuous growth, and the great prospects that lie ahead of us," he remarked.
"The importance of our mission has never been higher. Our culture and people are unique in the entire world.
What we can accomplish as a team has no bounds. 

"We have updated our plan to achieve ambitious targets, and I think that plan is courageous and sound. But how we work to implement it and achieve results is our key task; that's how we'll make Twitter the best it can be for our clients, our shareholders, and for everyone of you." "The world is keeping a closer eye on us right now than ever before. There will be a wide range of viewpoints and ideas about the news of today. It is due to their concern for Twitter and our future, and it shows that the work we do here is important "In his note from last year, Agrawal stated.

(source : PTI)