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"
Correction: I *think* I wrote the headline. We brainstorm a lot of these headlines. I think I'm the one who came up wth the version that was used. But I'm not sure.
But as editor-in-chief the buck stops here anyway. :)
Of course, Jobs hadn't done something dishonest when he got fired. He was just pissing off the wrong people. :) But in the scheme of things, given Yahoo!'s prognosis, it may be that in looking back, he believes it was for the best. Things happen for a reason department, right?
A) You're not making me feel uncomfortable. Have at it.
B) The idea of Thompson gloating is being overblown. I was having a little fun with the idea that maybe the guy who got fired was better off than the person who got the job. Joke. Get it.
C) I never suggested that Mayer was missing anything in terms of executive material or capability, quite the opposite:
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?
That's not exactly putting her down is it?
D) As for the future, we will have to wait and see what happens, won't we? But I'm sure I'll be contributing some sloppy analysis whatever happens, and I will be able to count on sharp readers like yourself to set me straight. :)
Ron, the person you should be upset with is the one who wrote the headline "Why Ex-Yahoo Chief Scott Thompson May Get The Last Laugh." That's the reason some people are taking issue with you, and I had nothing to do with that.
Thompson won't gloat because he won't need to. The people who cover the tech industry will do that for him. Assuming ShopRunner grows and Yahoo implodes, people will write that maybe Thompson could have saved it-- hey, look at all the gerat things he did everywhere else.
Mayer's failure to save Yahoo, meanwhile, will be juxtaposed with her falliing off the CEO track at Google. People will write "Clearly she was missing some compoenent of the great CEO-- Google realized it but Yahoo didn't." She'll go on the same list as Carol Bartz, Carly Fiorina and maybe (depending on how long it takes HP to implode) Meg Whitman.
It isn't fair and it's sloppy analysis-- but that's what passes for tech journalism nowadays. Since my talking about the warts in the industry so candidly seems to be making you uncomfortable, I'll stop posting on this topic.
RufusJones brought up the pregnancy comment. The way I read it, he was bringing it up to illustrate a bad attitude, not to endorse it himself. --Mitch Wagner
You're correct.
I'll say it more explicitly. When it comes to attitudes towards women, there are no functional differences (as a rule) between a steel worker, a truck driver, a police officer, a comedy writers and senior executives in the technology industry.
They don't think women shouild be working in their industry
They don't think women are any damned good at the work
They think women causes problems, because they're too stupid and too emotional to think clearly and make the right decision.
They think putting a woman on a team is a great way to hold a team back, because she'll waste time talking about nonsense.
That behavior is so pronounced and the mindset so deep that it can be career damaging if you're a man who doesn't make crude jokes and harass women. If you show distaste for people who do it, that's career-limiting. They'll assume there is something wrong with you, and the first assumption will be that you're gay. (Except that won't be the word they use.)
I could go on-- I could explain precisely why that behavior is so prevalent-- but then I'd get accused of other types of bigotry. Anyone who thinks I'm making this stuff up really needs to google the words "Ellen Pao."
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