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Why Carol Bartz was fired

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Re: Why Carol Bartz was fired

#11

Post by brudgers »

As the article points out, Yahoo's problems began long before her tenure and Bartz's primary experience was running a company which was a market leader and was committed to making hard choices in a timely manner [Autodesk]. Nothing could be further from Yahoo's status at the time she took over - Yahoo has not been the leader in their segment for at least the better part of a decade. They are essentially the AOL of the internet - a service targeted at the less sophisticated intern users or those willing to go with their ISP's default in the case of ATT.

There's no fixing it because there is no love for the brand. People have Yahoo email addresses for the same reason they have Hotmail - they got their free email account before Gmail was available and it is too much trouble to change it.

Bartz's hiring was a classic case of drafting a CEO based on who is available rather than fit - there was virtually no overlap between Autodesk's business model and operations and Yahoo's. Hopefully, she will find a much better circumstance in her next role.

Re: Why Carol Bartz was fired

#12

Post by [deleted] »

phuff wrote: post #7

It's so interesting to me how you can get these large companies that stay around even though they don't innovate. I mean, I don't explicitly use yahoo services for nearly anything. I occasionally look at flickr photos these days (other people's not mine). I occasionally go to a yahoo group I joined 4-5 years ago. Once a year I do a march madness bracket there. But that's it. There's nothing compelling there for me. (…

[deleted]

Re: Why Carol Bartz was fired

#13

Post by chollida1 »

phuff wrote: post #7

It's so interesting to me how you can get these large companies that stay around even though they don't innovate. I mean, I don't explicitly use yahoo services for nearly anything. I occasionally look at flickr photos these days (other people's not mine). I occasionally go to a yahoo group I joined 4-5 years ago. Once a year I do a march madness bracket there. But that's it. There's nothing compelling there for me. (…

Well I think you answered the question about how they hang around when you said, and I'm paraphrasing....

"I don't use any of their products, except for this one, this one, this one occasionally and oh these other two."

If most of the internet population is like you then yahoo will end up being one of the most trafficked sites on the internet, which it is.

The unfortunate thing for them is that little of this traffic monitizes, which is what advertisers have mostly figured out.

Re: Why Carol Bartz was fired

#15

Post by Steko »

Yahoo Japan has always provided a nice comparison to Yahoo itself.

While Yang and co. stood by while Google became everyone's homepage in the US, Yahoo Japan remained the #1 portal in Japan by moving aggressively and continually making the site more useful to their members -- auctions, banking, broadband, personals, etc. All that while at the same time strengthening the brand with the naming rights, universal billboards and of course the sign up girls.

Re: Why Carol Bartz was fired

#16

Post by teyc »

Yahoo was always a technology company trying to be a media company, when being a media company is no longer respectable. At a time when there is so much opportunity, why isn't Yahoo even wading into mobile or social?

A CEO's job isn't only to focus on core competencies if the core business is losing lustre. A CEO's job is to look for new markets, and build up the competencies.

Re: Why Carol Bartz was fired

#18

Post by eropple »

maratd wrote: post #9
phuff wrote: post #7

It's so interesting to me how you can get these large companies that stay around even though they don't innovate. I mean, I don't explicitly use yahoo services for nearly anything. I occasionally look at flickr photos these days (other people's not mine). I occasionally go to a yahoo group I joined 4-5 years ago. Once a year I do a march madness bracket there. But that's it. There's nothing compelling there for me. (…

You do not have to innovate to be successful. The overwhelming majority of profitable businesses out there have never innovated and never will. All you have to do is provide value. In fact, the majority of innovative businesses fail and fail miserably. You still have to translate innovation to value. That's really hard.

Exactly. You know what business will (almost) never go broke?

A mortician.

How much innovation's necessary there?

Re: Why Carol Bartz was fired

#19

Post by true_religion »

eropple wrote: post #18
maratd wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do not have to innovate to be successful. The overwhelming majority of profitable businesses out there have never innovated and never will. All you have to do is provide value. In fact, the majority of innovative businesses fail and fail miserably. You still have to translate innovation to value. That's really hard.

Exactly. You know what business will (almost) never go broke? A mortician. How much innovation's necessary there?

Innovation is actually banned by law for mortuaries in many jurisdictions.

So you have to use chemical X from select manufacturers Y, and place dead body in box T with procedure Q.

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