Many chief information officers find themselves in the role of technology evangelist, raising awareness of the value of information technology among skeptical leaders at the executive and board level. But what if you work at Google Inc. and your CEO is Google co-founder Larry Page? It’s no surprise that Google CIO Ben Fried’s experience is probably a lot different than that of most of his peers.

Mr. Fried, who joined Google six years ago after 13 years at Morgan Stanley, leads IT at a company where no one needs to be convinced...