Comments on: Memo from Yahoo VP: Shape Up, Now

By: Duane Storey

Duane Storey — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 09:18:59 +0000

I don’t agree with everything in that memo. Yahoo! definitely has some problems, and most of them are fixable, but they definitely have to stop being all things to everyone, and come up with some proper focus. I know lots of people at Yahoo, and internally in the departments I know, the employees are far less passionate than they used to be (probably due to the lackluster impact of their most recent offerings).

I had some additional comments here:
(link)

By: broadstuff

broadstuff — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 01:30:21 +0000

Yahoo - disorganisation by acquisition?…

The problems with Web 1.0 companies acquiring lots of small Web 2.0 assets are outlined in a Yahoo internal memo - but the solution proposed seems to be more dangerous than the problem!

Allegedly by Brad Garlinghouse, a Yahoo senior V.P, reported in…

By: Yer

Yer — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 23:15:16 +0000

Terry isn’t necessarily the problem, its Rosensweig (COO) and Zod (CTO). Yahoo doesn’t lack for vision, assets or great employees. (If you don’t think there is a ton of deadwood at Google, you haven’t had a meeting there. Their time will come.) What Yahoo lacks is a plan and competant management to make sure the organization is focused and performing at a high level. They need less Lloyd Braun types and more serious technologists who are empowered to identify opportunities and attack them ruthlessly.

Video is a great example - fully a year after Youtube and iTunes video store Yahoo still has no idea what its go-forward video strategy is. None. In this sense Garlinghouse is dead on - Yahoo needs to create a structure within by which important strategic decisions can be made.

The roll-out of Panama is going to be interesting - if it doesn’t really turn around search revenues Semel’s reign will have to be called a massive failure on balance.

By: grumpY!

grumpY! — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 16:08:24 +0000

“stop trying to be all things to all people” - parting advice from a departing engineer at yahoo - year 2000. when yaho began, one company couldbehold the entire internet market in its corporate mind…yahoo wanted to be involved in anything in the “internet market”. over time this did not make sense - it is impossible for one company to jump on every viable use of internet technology (remember y b2b exchange?). yahoo has never moved past its original land-grab mindset. garlinghouse’s insights are valid but far too late. the market will ultimately do the pruning that it is unable to do on its own.

By: as

as — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 07:28:33 +0000

*Dead Wood at Yahoo: There are people at yahoo who simply put don't work real hard and they have become dead wood. This is not good for them, it is not good for the employees who are passionate and working hard, and finally it is not good for shareholders. In most cases these people are known within their groups and should be eliminated on monday morning so that they can find something that they are passionate about.

*Lose the celebrities While Google and others bring in folks like Vinod, Game Theory economists, etc. Yahoo brings folks like Tom Cruise and wastes the time of over 2,000 employees to talk about no

*Technology I am certain Y! has some great engineers, but based on the products that they have been pushing as of late they also have some mediocre engineers. for example, the new yahoo mail beta product is still painfully slow.

By: dave mcclure

dave mcclure — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 03:13:15 +0000

memos & peanut butter aside, there are two things Yahoo has going for it: eyeballs & cash.

currently, they're doing the best they can to monetize the eyeballs. they could do better of course, but until panama is out & working, they're still doing >$1B in free cash flow annually. that ain't chump change.

so what do you do with the cash?

1) give it back to shareholders via dividends or stock buybacks 2) invest internally in new products, or 3) buy innovation & acquire new companies / features

of the 3 strategies above, a pessimist might argue for #1, and internal bureaucracy is likely too much to do #2 very well… however, as an optimist and entrepreneur i'd suggest more of #3.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 03:11:21 +0000

Probably Om knew this was coming.
(link)

Yahoo! has to get lean, only then it can run.

By: Allen

Allen — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 02:54:09 +0000

I posted my thoughts earlier here:
(link)

(i even created the first ever Yahoo peanut butter container! lol)

I think it is time for Yahoo to fight like Rocky. Damnit. Yahoo could be great once again. But yes, they have issues. Did it take a memo to say that having more than one photo service is bad? Did it take a memo to say that there are employee motivation issues. Geez.

By: George Chernikov

George Chernikov — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 00:57:03 +0000

I think the main problem with Yahoo’s strategy is its insistence on trying to beat Google at its own game. They’ve spent years effectively beating their heads on a brick wall as they constantly tried to challenge Mountain View in search engines and contextual advertisements. That just doesn’t work, and I don’t think there’s much hope for Yahoo until they figure that out. Whatever else happens, Google won’t let contextual advertising - which accounts for almost all of its revenue - go without a fight.

What can now save Yahoo is innovation and being first-to-market rather than direct competition. Ads on mobile phones in the UK were a step in the right direction (though arguably it’s only a matter of time till Google gets into the mobile game and then Yahoo will find itself back at square one, unless it manages to leverage its first-to-market advantage).

Honestly, I would not be surprised if Yahoo were to pull an IBM and try to reinvent itself almost from scratch, scrapping its search engine and YPN (perhaps by selling them to Microsoft, itself knee-deep in a war on Google?) and simply seeking for new innovative ways of capitalising on new Internet trends (which do emerge quite often).

By: Steve M.

Steve M. — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 22:58:12 +0000

…a 10-15%+ greater share of search…an 85%+ reduction in human-generated PPC click fraud…a stock price of $75-$100/share w/in 24-36 months…would all go a long, long way to meeting Yahoo's most pressing needs…

But what could possibly deliver such results?

This: A new PPC ad platform where advertisers permission select and bid on people's actual traits and characteristics instead of the words we all type into little search boxes…

Target people. And words.

Think Keytraits. And Keywords.

Embrace paid match. And paid search.

By: Johnnie Manzari

Johnnie Manzari — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 22:14:35 +0000

There are a lot of parallels between Terry Semel and Carly Fiorina. It’s time for him to step down on his own, or be asked to step down.

By: Daily Pundit

Daily Pundit — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 20:38:53 +0000

An Important Internet Development?…

Hot Air discusses the Digg link site. Web surfers visiting at other sites select the posts, which then appear in brief, trackback-like form at Digg, with a link to the original. Hat tip: LGF ————————————————————-…

By: Eric Jackson

Eric Jackson — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 19:51:20 +0000

Liz: Nice coverage.

Andrew:

I will say it. It's time for Terry to go. This memo leaking is another sign that there is way too much internal pushing-and-pulling in several different directions.

It's time for Jerry Yang and David Filo to step to the fore. Here are some specific suggestions of next steps in an open letter to Jerry and David:

http://breakoutperformance.blogspot.com/2006/11/open-letter-to-jerry-yang-and-david.html

Thanks,

Eric

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sat, 18 Nov 2006 19:33:51 +0000

I couldn’t agree more with Brad - I’ve been saying similar things for the past year. As a former employee of Yahoo, I can attest to the lack of passion in a lot of groups. I heard a lot of talk about innovation and excellence, but felt the company never executed on it.

I think the biggest challenge Yahoo faces, and one that sits at the core of all their problems, is trying to attract the best talent. Ask anyone in the industry if they would rather work for Yahoo or Google, and you’ll probably find the majority don’t choose Yahoo. They need to figure out a way to change this, get rid of the people/biz units who aren’t contributing the success of the company, and (dare I say it) consider finding a new CEO. Terry has made close to $1bb off of Yahoo, and I can’t say he’s put a whole lot of value back into it.

It’s almost sad now when I chat with people I know who still work there. I get the sense they’re eager to find a job elsewhere, and don’t look forward to going to work every morning. It’s going to take more than some HR attemps at raising morale and short-term patches to fix the problem.

-Andrew