I don't think she can turn it around in ANY amount of time.
Do you think anyone can?
Marissa Mayer Wants Three More Years to Turn Around Yahoo
61–70 of 138 posts
Re: Marissa Mayer Wants Three More Years to Turn Around Yahoo
#62> Marissa Mayer ... has a “three-year strategic plan” ... that entails building and improving the services people use on their mobile phones every day, such as search.
It's a good thing they killed their own search engine and tossed the majority of their mobile apps, then. And that it all happened under Mayer's leadership. Considering they've lost a lot of experience and market share in search and mobile, I'm sure they'll be well prepared for this.
To be fair, streamlining the app portfolio isn't a bad thing, as they had a bit of cruft. But she's had years to make these changes into a reality without success. It's hard to tell if she's asking for three more years in order to continue the same ineffective moves or to undo them.
Who knows? Maybe if she runs the ship far enough aground it'll grow legs.
Re: Marissa Mayer Wants Three More Years to Turn Around Yahoo
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yahoo reminds me a lot of Apple before Steve Jobs rejoined. They don't need a turnaround artist like Gil Amelio they need an insanely great product person to bring back some innovation, creativity and attention to detail. Based on her experience and from what everyone says about her she should have been perfect. And I'm quite baffled why she's not managing to get any runs on the board.
No Yahoo is way beyond that. Sure Jobs is one way to turn a company around, sadly the supply of Jobs is limited. But there have been many successful turnarounds of - e.g. traditional - companies, which got profitable and growing again in the long run. Not every turnaround needs to end with the most valuable company on the planet. If you aim for a second Steve Jobs experience, this is lottery play and wishful thinking…
Well it's clear that she was hired to be a product driven CEO not just a turnaround artist focused on the financial/operational parts of the business. And from day one she made it clear she was going to get involved in the product aspects e.g. changing Yahoo logo, fast tracking certain mobile products etc.
But then everything's kind of stalled. It's all a bit strange.
Re: Marissa Mayer Wants Three More Years to Turn Around Yahoo
#64That's the funniest shit I've heard all day.
Those women - Mayer, Meg Whitman, Angela Merkel, Christine Lagarde, Mary Barra, and let's not forget, Tim Cook, should all resign immediately.
They're bringing down companies and in some cases entire economies with their destructive policies. And yet they still rake in millions in compensation.
Makes you think there's something bigger going on.
Re: Marissa Mayer Wants Three More Years to Turn Around Yahoo
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had a lot of faith in Mayer's turn around. Do I think she needs more time? Yes. Do I think she can do it in more time? I'm skeptical now. Will the board, that she created, try to keep her accountable like you're saying? I hope so. I'm skeptical. It seems AOL/Armstrong really wanted to merge to become a new Yahoo. I'm curious on how Yahoo will pivot, with the time. FB, SnapChat, Instagram, Twitter, and Google are fi…
I had no faith at all in Mayer. Not because she isn't a good product manager. Mainly because for a turnaround situation I would hire someone who was there before with a successful turnaround under h-- belt. Not someone without any turnaround knowledge (what to cut, high investor pressure, ...)
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Re: Marissa Mayer Wants Three More Years to Turn Around Yahoo
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Nothing to do with yahoo. Mayer failing makes hn happy. Wonder why?
HN likes it when overpaid, over-hyped leaders fail in general, especially after doing massively unpopular and short-sighted things like killing work from home policies. If Mayer had actually done a good job at Yahoo and turned things around, HN would be propping her up as a hero. Instead, she proved her inexperience, inflexibility, and narrow focus make her a poor CEO for a company like Yahoo, and the board and media…
The ending work from home policies was a layoff in disguise. Brilliant in a Dilbert sort of way.
Re: Marissa Mayer Wants Three More Years to Turn Around Yahoo
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yahoo reminds me a lot of Apple before Steve Jobs rejoined. They don't need a turnaround artist like Gil Amelio they need an insanely great product person to bring back some innovation, creativity and attention to detail. Based on her experience and from what everyone says about her she should have been perfect. And I'm quite baffled why she's not managing to get any runs on the board.
But Steve wasn't just a great product person, and it wasn't just a great product that turned Apple around. If you dig into the actual history, Steve significantly restructured Apple when he returned, killing licensing deals and products without a future, and refocusing the remaining product line before he set about creating a single new true innovation. And remember that Apple didn't really pick up steam until it cap…
I think we all agree Mr. jobs was a talented engineer, and knew innately that the average computer user needed simplicity, and someting slick. He succeeded.
I'm not sure what Yahoo even does these days. They do have money, especially if they cut more jobs, and bring in that money sitting in that Chinese company.
If I was in her shoes, I would put a lot of money into a wifi/cellular phone. Something like Rebublic wireless.
I noticed Google is trying to get into that market, but they only offer two phone choices, and are charging $30/month for essentially wifi voip, and $10 per gig for data.
I would love to see Yahoo get into this market. Get cell phone bills to under $10-$20 a month? It just seems like something they could do?
Someone is going to drastically reduce cell phone monthly bills? I would like to see Yahoo play a part in the future. A lot of people think they need a lot of cell phone towers, but I have a weird feeling, most of that is marketing?
In my world, I'm usually have access to wifi. Yes, there are times I need access to a cell phone signal, but it's not as much as I thought.
I really feel in a few years, we will look back on our $80/month cell phone bills, and say, "I can't believe I paid those blood suckers that much money each month."
Whatever happens, I hope Yahoo survives. They never screwed me over. I only wish them, and Marissa the best! I can't recall the spelling of her last name--no disrespect.
Re: Marissa Mayer Wants Three More Years to Turn Around Yahoo
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
No Yahoo is way beyond that. Sure Jobs is one way to turn a company around, sadly the supply of Jobs is limited. But there have been many successful turnarounds of - e.g. traditional - companies, which got profitable and growing again in the long run. Not every turnaround needs to end with the most valuable company on the planet. If you aim for a second Steve Jobs experience, this is lottery play and wishful thinking…
Well it's clear that she was hired to be a product driven CEO not just a turnaround artist focused on the financial/operational parts of the business. And from day one she made it clear she was going to get involved in the product aspects e.g. changing Yahoo logo, fast tracking certain mobile products etc. But then everything's kind of stalled. It's all a bit strange.
It doesn't seem like the logo change fixed the company.
Re: Marissa Mayer Wants Three More Years to Turn Around Yahoo
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had a lot of faith in Mayer's turn around. Do I think she needs more time? Yes. Do I think she can do it in more time? I'm skeptical now. Will the board, that she created, try to keep her accountable like you're saying? I hope so. I'm skeptical. It seems AOL/Armstrong really wanted to merge to become a new Yahoo. I'm curious on how Yahoo will pivot, with the time. FB, SnapChat, Instagram, Twitter, and Google are fi…
I had no faith at all in Mayer. Not because she isn't a good product manager. Mainly because for a turnaround situation I would hire someone who was there before with a successful turnaround under h-- belt. Not someone without any turnaround knowledge (what to cut, high investor pressure, ...)
My problem with her all along is that before Yahoo she literally has only ever had one job. And that job was part of the management structure with a successful company. While there she developed a reputation as a data-driven iterator, not a visionary leader who can create direction and focus. She inherited what others had already started, and figured out things to measure, then analyzed the measures very competently.
If you look at her tenure at Yahoo so far, this has all essentially played out and her lack of qualitative acumen has been the source of most of the news about yahoo since she's taken over. This is an incredibly expensive experiment and learning ground for her. At best she's gone through the ceremony of "bold and decisive leader", made some big acquisitions and started some big changes on key properties. But that's like adding ships to a fleet and telling others to change out their sails. She still hasn't pointed Yahoo to a distinct vector and it's just kept adrift since then.
I agree with many others that she would be much more effective as a COO type but lacks pretty much all the kinds of skills needed as the captain of a corporate ship.