71–80 of 268 posts
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.
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…
Were you able to post to d-r anonymously?
"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…
It really sucks when your manager thinks this kind of work ethic is healthy.
[One of them admitted doing so and added that it helps.]
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think that was the only way at that point to bring in fresh creative talent. No creative person probably wanted to quit their existing job and leave for Yahoo at that point. And why would they? If you're really talented, you could either go work for Google/Facebook/etc. (if you want a stable life), or start your own company (if you're adventurous). Yahoo was stuck in the purgatory somewhere in between.
I don't really buy this argument. There are reasons for acqui-hires, but it's usually to bring on board a strong existing team, a world-class domain expert, or a tech base with employee support. Summly was none of those. They got one 17 year old dev, and a fairly-decent product they made basically no use of. I don't know how good D'Aloisio is, but he's not that good. Especially without the kind of status and support…
What does that even mean?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, Marissa Mayer is how I was first introduced to the concept of the glass cliff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_cliff . I don't think she ever had a chance.
This explains the seemingly easy path Theresa May had to becoming Prime Minister following the Brexit vote.
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.
Yeah, Marissa Mayer is how I was first introduced to the concept of the glass cliff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass_cliff . I don't think she ever had a chance.
Meanwhile it specifically wasn't found for turnaround CEOs: "A 2007 study of corporate performance preceding CEO appointments showed that women executives are no more likely to be selected for precarious leadership positions than males."
Mayer was publicly linked to this phenomenon, but the studies and proposed explanations don't seem consistent with hiring a CEO for an obvious turnaround role and massively compensating them for it.
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…
And ed as the editor? Or was it pico?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
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).
Oh yeah, I get that if I were a CEO paid hundreds of millions I wouldn't have much time to feed the fish in my backyard. I just find the glorifying of answering emails at 1am on a a Sunday a little crazy, that's all.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I may get downvoted for saying this since it's not fashionable to say things like this but I will anyway: When a company is going down, the type of people you need is people who are enthusiastic and team players. The last type of people you need are competent yet not so much of a team player. It's because: 1. Pampering these people will only result in lowering rest of the team's morale. 2. When a company is going dow…
IMO the problem wasn't the employees. The CEOs one job is to set the direction of the company. To create a vision of what a successful Yahoo looks like. In this article, it talks about Mayer being responsive to email, turnstiles, food, etc. These are things a mid-level manager takes care of, not the CEO. And these things definitely are not a strategy. All the way up until recently Yahoo wasn't even sure what type of…
And realistically, what options did Yahoo have? They didn't have the cash flows to aggressively invest in content to become a media company and they didn't have the cash reserves or engineering talent to aggressively invest in R&D to become a tech company. What vision should Yahoo have invested in? I'm not really sure they had any good options; so she rolled the dice with her best ones and lost. Can't fault her for that IMO.
"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…