The disgraced former Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson got himself a new job yesterday as CEO for a startup called ShopRunner. Some might consider it a step down, but given the state of Yahoo, who's better off right now: Thompson or new CEO Marissa Mayer?
According to Businessweek, Thompson's new company works with online retailers to offer benefits such as free two-day shipping. It's not exactly the Fortune 500, but he probably doesn't have to fend off vicious, back-biting board members.
You may recall that Yahoo fired Thompson in May for fudging his resume. An activist shareholder got hold of the news about the resume, and before you knew it, Thompson had joined the long list of former Yahoo CEOs before even getting his feet wet.
As you know by now, Yahoo shocked the world last week by hiring Mayer away from Google. She is the sixth chief executive since 2007. That's not exactly a great track record.
When Thompson took over, Yahoo was a company in disarray, and the resume escapade only made a bad situation worse. Mayer may be superstar material in the technology world, but does even someone as smart and capable as she so obviously is have the ability to turn around a company that is so dysfunctional?
Mayer must deal with horrendous cultural and political issues. Her company lacks any kind of coherent vision, and it has deep market perception problems. Many consider it in the same light as AOL -- a 1990s has-been brand whose time came and went long ago. Much like AOL, Yahoo can't even decide what kind of company it wants to be. A media company? A search engine? A social network? What is it?
How can Mayer hope to solve these myriad problems and make Yahoo profitable again?
And, of course, she has to stop the constant talent drain that has hurt the company over the last several years. The smartest, most competent employees continue to take off for more challenging opportunities at more stable companies. Steve Levy at Wired says that Mayer could solve this problem by cherry-picking talent from the Associate Program Manager program she helped nurture at Google. Because of that program, Mayer could have hundreds of brilliant, loyal people at her disposal, Levy says.
But even with the presence of Mayer, who would really want to join Yahoo at this point? Of course, turning around a Silicon Valley giant is not without precedent. Steve Jobs was able to do it in the late 1990s. When he returned to Apple, it was reportedly just weeks away from bankruptcy. But let's face it. Such success stories are few and far between.
Thompson now has a nice little job at a company with a lot of potential. Mayer has to deal with all the problems outlined above, along with a group of people loyal to interim CEO Ross Levinsohn, who were left in the lurch when she got the job over him. Even with some employees glowing from her hiring, it will take a major transformation to make this company relevant again.
Any way you look at it, Yahoo is a huge mess, and we may find in a year that Thompson gets the last laugh, sailing along steady as she goes at his small startup, while Mayer is mired in the internal politics that undid her predecessors.
And did you exchange
A walk on part in a war
For a lead role in a cage
-- Pink Floyd, "Wish You Were Here"
Yes, Yahoo is a bit of a mess. That's why they need Mayer. With her product and Internet savvy, if she can't save Yahoo, nobody can. I"m all for saving old crocks like Yahoo, AOL, and my personal favorite, MySpace, but let's be honest: Mr. Thompson deserves a chance to build something great, and I hope that ShopRunner is that chance. But you shoiuldn't fudge your resume -- that's just wrong. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go make a few changes on Dice.com....
Actually according to CNN Money, Thompson had to pay Yahoo! $7 million when he left, but he received quite an extensive package when he signed on as CEO. He won't ever hurt for money, that's for sure.
As I said, Mayer is extremely capable, but Yahoo! is probably beyond saving, and even if she comes up with good ideas, she is likely to be undermined by the Board (which can't learn to get out of the way) and internal political squabbles from people who were upset their guy didn't get the job. It's a very difficult situation.
As for your resume, don't embellish too much. You can get in trouble, you know. :)
That's a very condensed version. Maybe he could have survived a one-time resume fudge. He went because he had been fudging the resume in various forums for years, he also lied about the actions of recruitment firms, and -- worst of all -- when questioned about it he lied directly to the board.
I didn't go into detail because it wasn't the focus of my piece, but thanks for the additional details.
I'm not so sure I would want Mayer's job. She faces a nearly impossible task, while Thompson has a relatively easy job with far less pressure and much lower expectations. If Mayer succeeds, she will cement her place among the Silicon Valley gods (along wth the likes of Steve Jobs), but if she fails, it will be a horrible public failure and I'm sure the Yahoo! Board and investors will roast her alive publicly.
It's not exactly a no-win situation because there are scenarios where it's possible she could pull it off, but realistically given the state of this company, I seriously doubt it.
That said, I would happily eat my words if we find in two years Yahoo is a healthy, productive, innovative and profitable company. I just don't see that happening no matter who's in charge.
I must admit, I am taking account of Mayer's remuneration package. As long as she doesn't commit some kind of misconduct, she is going to be a very wealthy woman -- whatever the outcome for Yahoo.
The ThinkerNet does not reflect the views of TechWeb. The ThinkerNet is an informal means of communication to members and visitors of the Internet Evolution site. Individual authors are chosen by Internet Evolution to blog. Neither Internet Evolution nor TechWeb assume responsibility for comments, claims, or opinions made by authors and ThinkerNet bloggers. They are no substitute for your own research and should not be relied upon for trading or any other purpose.
The call (or, should I say, the Twitter DM) finally arrived. My Google Glass is ready. All I need to do is travel to Manhattan and fork over $1,500, and this piece of cutting-edge technology will be all mine.
When a new technology comes along, the standard reaction seems to focus on the most negative aspect of the device at the cost of all positive possibilities.
Recently, the Obama administration has been of two minds where privacy rights are concerned. On one hand, you have an administration that vowed to veto CISPA and mandated open data for government websites. On the other hand, you have an increasingly out-of-control Department of Justice on a fishing expedition at AP and demanding legislation to let the FBI wiretap private, encrypted communications and levy fines if a company fails to comply.
These days, even some usually techno-friendly people have their hackles up about the potential of Google Glass to surreptitiously record video or take pictures. I've heard more than one tech savvy friend bring up "the creep factor," the ability of a weird guy to secretly record you.
Yahoo's new CEO can't go back to what Yahoo was; that's how it got to what it is! Instead she has to look at something that Yahoo has always rejected, which is a relationship with the telcos and cablecos. They'd love a partner in creating service applications.
Facebook's Graph Search may face some profound challenges and risks, first, because Facebook users haven't been thinking of their posts as product reviews; and second, because Facebook will now have to contend with the social-network equivalent of SEO "gaming" of results.
Marketers want to sell you stuff, and they need your help. It's crazy, it's crass, it's fun for the whole family! It's the art form of the new millennium!
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
A recent release of the popular TweetDeck app for Twitter power-users gives new life to software that had previously taken a wrong turn. Here's a quick walk-through of the new TweetDeck, to show you why it should be at the top of your Twitter toolkit.
Marissa Mayer at Yahoo has come out with her strategy on turning the company around: culture, company, calibration, and compensation. But Yahoo needs to have a technical approach to the mobile cloud opportunity, not a management theory lesson.
Twitter's changes are clearly aimed at being more Facebook-like, and this is because both companies are vying to serve the mobile social network market. But can that market work for anybody, given how difficult it is to push ads to social-update readers?
Google's Knowledge Graph concept of returning the "right answer" might change the Internet if it becomes a common practice, but it could also contaminate the answers with commericalism or hurt Google's own business. Can they navigate these choices?
Big-data and analytics tools enable marketers to understand customers as individuals, identifying unmet needs and addressing each customer as a "segment of one," says John Kennedy, VP corporate marketing, IBM.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit in Monaco kicked into high gear today, and we've already begun to see news emerging from that lovely city-state by the sea.
Expert Integrated Systems: Changing the Experience & Economics of IT In this e-book, we take an in-depth look at these expert integrated systems -- what they are, how they work, and how they have the potential to help CIOs achieve dramatic savings while restoring IT's role as business innovator. READ THIS eBOOK
your weekly update of news, analysis, and
opinion from Internet Evolution - FREE! REGISTER HERE
Wanted! Site Moderators Internet Evolution is looking for a handful of readers to help moderate the message boards on our site – as well as engaging in high-IQ conversation with the industry mavens on our thinkerNet blogosphere. The job comes with various perks, bags of kudos, and GIANT bragging rights. Interested?
To save this item to your list of favorite Internet Evolution content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
Email This
