Not a surprising comment coming from Google's Asia-Pacific & Latin America operations vice-president. Such is Google's culture: staff are often hired for their 'googliness' which is indefinable. Leadership skills and propensity for achievement, which the firm believes will port, are more highly prized than any career history.

East Africa-born Sukhinder, who is in her late 30s, fits right in, with her history of leadership. She is now No. 7 from the top, having moved up the ranks from overseeing Google Maps four years ago.

Before joining the computer search firm, she co-founded global financial software and services firm Yodlee.com in Silicon Valley. Prior to that, she was involved in business development for Amazon.com and public interactive TV solutions provider OpenTV.

She had also developed business strategy for British pay TV operator BSkyB, and worked at Merrill Lynch in New York and London.

The Canadian executive shares her thoughts about Google's future strategy, 'googliness' and smart people.

What are the three key areas that will take Google into the future?

Search, ads and apps remain at the centre of our strategy. In Asia Pacific, we are launching some customised search services - iGoogle, Google Maps, YouTube and associated video search.

The relevance of our search service still needs to improve. We continue to tweak and refine our ad systems so that they work for advertisers big and small. We're working on a number of new ad formats for consumers.

Gadget ad, for example, is really recognising that consumers may be on different sites and you can give them an experience within an experience.

That experience may have a branding element with video on it, a map to find local stores linked to the products advertised, or a coupon - that could satisfy different advertising objectives.

Apps is a new focus area for us. We launched last year Google Apps for Your Domain, which comprises everything from Web page tools to Docs and Spreadsheets. It's a new paradigm with no software purchase required, no storage on your PC.

The Google phone is what the press wants to talk about but we're more excited about the Open Handset Alliance. It's a bigger ambition. We see the opportunity for everyone in the value chain - handset manufacturers, software developers, carriers, application or content providers - to create a more compelling user experience on the mobile phone regardless of manufacturer or telco provider.

You need to have the right people to bring you into the future. What qualities does Google look for in new hires?

We place a very high bar on people who are just very smart. We value intellectual rigour and capacity in many fields. You can be an engineer or a business person. We think that smart people can solve problems really well.

We look at history of achievement and leadership. We have world-class athletes and people who run not-for-profit teams.

Many of them may be in roles you never expect, not necessarily doing the jobs they were qualified for. We bet that if that is what people achieve in this sphere, that ability will port.

Lastly, there is this 'googliness' factor or x-factor - people who have the capacity to fit in our environment. It can be measured by having a different set of interests rather than people who are just uni-dimensional. This x-factor is the indefinable part of our culture that we look for in all our candidates and replicate around the world.

Apart from Google's skyrocketing share price, what makes it a more attractive employer than say eBay-Paypal and Yahoo in Asia?

What drew me to Google was the opportunity to work in small teams .... but with the ability to have massive impact.

My original job was to watch over Google Maps. There were two people working on it, but you had access to 200 million users on Google.com.

The second thing is the quality of life. There is workforce flexibility and we provide everything from giving free lunch to allowing family members to travel with employees. I'm a mother and my daughter travels with me all around the world.

Not to mention the stock options.

The point at which you start to think about the money is when everything else fails. People look for the same thing every where: recognition, reward and opportunity as a whole package. Typically, when someone stays only for the stock options, something's wrong. Most of our employees are highly ambitious looking at the whole package. Stock options is not going to keep them. I work because it is challenging and interesting.

Google's informal corporate motto is 'Don't be evil'. How has that translated to customer service, and employee or corporate behaviour?

Google has made decisions that are relatively controversial in recent years. Take expansion into China.

That decision was debated by journalists and governments around the world.

When we think of 'don't be evil' as a motto, we hold ourselves to high standards of transparency with our users, press and employees. 'Don't be evil' is about providing transparency, honesty and integrity. Being present in China, even if what we provide is restricted, is still better than not being present.

What were your first impressions of Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page? How often do you talk business with them?

Nice but quirky. I knew them before I worked at Google.

We started our companies - Yodlee and Google - at similar times.

We had common investors and board members.

When I came to Google four years ago, Larry interviewed me. I expected him to be a tougher interviewer, but he was very laid back ... asked me questions that you would not expect a business person to ask...I would expect someone to ask me how I would meet my revenue targets. Larry was just interested in having a conversation. I walked out of it with no idea what he thought.

Larry and Sergey are definitely very passionate about the business, but they have a low-key demeanour and good business instinct.

How often do I interact with them? As often and as little as I need.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Favourite gadget

Don't have one but my favourite apps are Calendar and weather on Google. My job requires me to travel and I need to have access to these.

Favourite blog
Don't blog. Too busy. Follow financial blogs from time to time.

What book are you reading now?

Your One-Year-Old: The Fun-Loving, Fussy 12-To 24-Month-Old by Louise Bates Ames and Frances L. Ilg. It's topical for me right now. I'm trying to figure out my 16-month old daughter while doing my job here.