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What Marissa Mayer Brought to Yahoo That Can’t Be Bought or Sold

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Re: What Marissa Mayer Brought to Yahoo That Can’t Be Bought or Sold

#101

Post by mkagenius »

tlogan wrote: post #50

> Yahoo is a Failure, but Marissa is a Success I have to be living in some alternate universe. Because in my universe, if you do not accomplish the goal (revenue grow) you failed. It could that the goal was too hard to achieve, maybe the goal was impossible to achieve, etc. But, at end of the day, she failed. And as result of her failure people will lose their jobs :(

> And as result of her failure people will lose their jobs

They will most probably get jobs again like they did earlier. Life is full of ups and down, you can blame one person for that..but try not to.

Re: What Marissa Mayer Brought to Yahoo That Can’t Be Bought or Sold

#102

Post by smacktoward »

1024core wrote: post #86
Lagged2Death wrote: post #38

I'm no biz-geek, I probably can't name a dozen CEOs. But for years, MM's name was called put in every critical mainstream headline about Yahoo, of which there were many. I do not believe that's an accident. I do not believe a man would have been treated the same way.

> I do not believe a man would have been treated the same way. This. Larry Ellison fucks around on a sailboat. Larry is busy with "X" for years. And no one bats an eye.

Oracle and Google both make astonishing amounts of money. Nobody (least of all shareholders) is marching on their headquarters with torches and pitchforks. So nobody cares what the leaders of those companies do with their time -- so long as their companies continue to make astonishing amounts of money.

If the money dries up, rest assured that the line of people demanding that the leaders start paying attention to the business would rapidly become quite long.

Re: What Marissa Mayer Brought to Yahoo That Can’t Be Bought or Sold

#103

Post by k__ »

pavlov wrote: post #53
GuiA wrote: post #43

"if I’m ever in a position like Marissa’s, I want to be the kind of CEO who answers emails from strangers six or seven levels down from herself at 1 AM on a Sunday morning, even when she has a new baby in the house." I'm grateful for this article reminding me why I never really will fit in with the techie fanatics. Yesterday I went home at 5p, after a very productive day, and trimmed plants in my garden, not checking…

The difference is that she was getting paid tens of millions each year to do that job. (Sorry if I'm making a wrong assumption about your salary!) The original post makes Mayer sound like one of the most people-centric CEOs in the business. The contrast to someone like Léo Apotheker at HP is stark (just to pick a random tech CEO who seemed like the exact opposite).

Seems to me like she was the "I say hello to you by first name in the morning but lay you off anyway" kind of CEO

Worked with a bunch of such people. Always nice in the front.

Re: What Marissa Mayer Brought to Yahoo That Can’t Be Bought or Sold

#104

Post by Spooky23 »

0xmohit wrote: post #73
deelowe wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really sucks when your manager thinks this kind of work ethic is healthy.

I've seen several folks who would save email drafts only to send those later after midnight. [One of them admitted doing so and added that it helps .]

I've seen folks have emails stream out starting at 4am so they could leave at 1 as well.

Re: What Marissa Mayer Brought to Yahoo That Can’t Be Bought or Sold

#105

Post by matwood »

boterock wrote: post #7

I have to admit that when she started in Yahoo, they tried to do their best to not suck that much, but I think it was too late. In a time where internet and word of mouth can punish very hard bad PR/bad UX, they tried with Tumblr showing they weren't going to screw up anymore, but still they couldn't go back to what they were before.

I agree it was too late. Yahoo missed search 15ish years ago, and then missed social 10ish years ago. The writing was the on the wall without a cash cow to fall back on, a la Microsoft.

Re: What Marissa Mayer Brought to Yahoo That Can’t Be Bought or Sold

#106

Post by jessaustin »

0xmohit wrote: post #97
1024core wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only hardcore masochists use ed(1) ! I think she used pico, but not sure.

pico being the default editor for pine would make a natural choice. I wonder how can someone who prefers console-based email clients ignore mutt.

If I went back to the console for email, I'd probably use pine, just because that's what we used in college.

Re: What Marissa Mayer Brought to Yahoo That Can’t Be Bought or Sold

#107

Post by Spooky23 »

1024core wrote: post #91

It makes me angry and sad to see all the sniping about her $200M (or thereabouts) earnings over 4 years. The spotlight has always been on her, and her failings are magnified beyond reason. Is it because she's young woman and pretty? I was at Yahoo from 2004 through 2015. I saw some seriously stupid CEOs. One of them being Terry Semel. He made more than $200M in just one year (and even more, according to rumors). Here…

He also didn't invest a lot of time and energy on self-promoting PR. You knew who he was, but nobody else did.

Meyer did and has for years. She wants this attention as part of a broader personal branding effort. Everyone knows that Yahoo was a dead man walking, and the details of her tenure will be forgotten quickly -- but lots of people know who she is. Anyone who watches CNBC knows who she is, and many other people do as well with the corporate nursery stories, stories about her being a woman, etc.

Good for her.

Re: What Marissa Mayer Brought to Yahoo That Can’t Be Bought or Sold

#108

Post by outworlder »

1024core wrote: post #37

Heh, I remember Jelena from discussion on devel-random. I would like to correct (mildly) a couple of anecdotes in her article, because I was there and closer. > A friend relayed this story: The Sunnyvale campus had a building with redundant turnstiles, which required a badge scan seconds after employees had scanned their badges to open the main doors. People complained about it when the building was remodeled years b…

> Also: she used to use pine(1) to read her emails. That increased her stature in my eyes, and those of quite a few other engineers.

Ok, now that is amazing. That speaks more about her culture and background than a hundred random actions.

Re: What Marissa Mayer Brought to Yahoo That Can’t Be Bought or Sold

#109

Post by frozenport »

zekevermillion wrote: post #24

From a non-insider perspective, it certainly looks as if MM accomplished the mission. Stock price went up, and she locked it in with a well-timed sale. Her compensation package appears to have been designed to produce exactly this outcome. It's not Steve Jobs' return to Apple. But she did help the investors salvage a respectable outcome.

Had they sold earlier during her tenure the company could have easily gone for twice as much.

Re: What Marissa Mayer Brought to Yahoo That Can’t Be Bought or Sold

#110

Post by jazzyk »

GuiA wrote: post #43

"if I’m ever in a position like Marissa’s, I want to be the kind of CEO who answers emails from strangers six or seven levels down from herself at 1 AM on a Sunday morning, even when she has a new baby in the house." I'm grateful for this article reminding me why I never really will fit in with the techie fanatics. Yesterday I went home at 5p, after a very productive day, and trimmed plants in my garden, not checking…

>I want to be the kind of CEO who answers emails from strangers six or seven levels down from herself at 1 AM on a Sunday morning

Perhaps she should have gotten a good night sleep and be refreshed to come up with a viable strategy for the company, rather than worry about emails at 1am?

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