Yahoo! VP Calls For a Shakeup 174
prostoalex writes, "Yahoo!'s Senior VP Brad Garlinghouse sent out a company-wide memo calling for layoffs of 15-20% of Yahoo! staff and reversal of priorities to concentrate on major issues facing the company. (The Wall Street Journal posted a copy of the memo.) MarketWatch quotes Garlinghouse: 'I've heard our strategy described as spreading peanut butter across the myriad opportunities that continue to evolve in the online world. The result: a thin layer of investment spread across everything we do and thus we focus on nothing in particular. I hate peanut butter. We all should.'"
Do not support (Score:4, Funny)
May I be the first (Score:3, Funny)
The thing that really convinces me is the peanut butter metaphor. It's unforgiveable. What has this guy got against peanut butter? It's delicious. I think these guys come up with these ideas as they grunt on the toilet. It makes the blood pressure fall in your cerebral arteries and so you should be suspicious of any epiphany you have there especially if you are in management.
He also bleeds purple and yellow and he brags of having shaved a Y in the back of his head.
Re:May I be the first (Score:5, Funny)
WARNING: THIS MEMO MAY CONTAIN NUTS.
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WARNING: This memo may have been written by nuts.
--Rob
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Anyone else thinkin' (Score:2)
I've never seen a memo that confusing.. (Score:5, Funny)
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"thinking outside the box."
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Actually with jam I think that would make him a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
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Google could be accused of the same thing (Score:5, Interesting)
The difference between the two is that Google has at least devoted the resources to improving upon their key product (search), while Yahoo has a difficult time defining what their key product is. I'm sure Brad Garlinghouse (being the VP of Mail) of the memo would say it's Yahoo! Mail, but if you were to interview every VP you'd likely get a different answer.
As an example of their lack of focus, look at the homepage. One week it focuses on news stories, the next it focuses on some random $50,000 video contest. This may keep people entertained, but it also reflects the lack of consistency inherent in the organization (or shows the bread through the peanut butter as Brad might say).
Re:Google could be accused of the same thing (Score:4, Informative)
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But it's free.
So as a business, it sucks.
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Oh, and just 'cause it's bugging me: s/then/than/
Free services can be quite profitable, and if you think you can't make money selling ads for an audience that is interested in financial news, you're an idiot.
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I'd add Yahoo Messenger to thst list. I have tried almost every IM client out there, and Y!M is miles ahead of anything else. GAIM is nice when you have friends with other IM clients (namely AIM) but pretty much everyone I know uses a Y!M account, whether it's with Y!M or GAIM...
I'm not sure I'd call it "best in class", but Yahoo Music Engine/Yahoo Unlimited/Launchcast are pretty solid as far as streaming music g
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In fact, I use Y! far less since its redesign. Whereas it used to be my default for many things except for search and email, now I only go there for specific information.
What's wrong with google finance? (Score:2)
I did prefer Yahoo pefore in that regard, but there again they built a nice site and haven't really enhanced it for a while.
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I've stopped using Yahoo Finance (Score:2)
One thing Yahoo has never gotten right is the usability/annoyance equation in web design.
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With all personal data you're giving them when using their products, they could probably come up with a better horoscope than any astrologer... and even without knowing your astrological sign...
There are some sites that already do this! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: www.likebetter.com (Score:1)
After 25ish pictures, it decided I'm 30-something (easy enough), then erroneously guessed I'm a woman. "The brain has no more thoughts about you."
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I started from scratch 20 times - not once was what it "knew" (the fi
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You must be a Virgo, with that attitude.
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So... Yahoo is smooth and Google is crunchy?
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I guess you do not use orkut. It has a "today's fortune" line in your user home page.
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Actually, the Google UK default personalised home page [google.co.uk] (the link may end up taking you somewhere different if you're not in the UK, I'm not sure) features a horoscope from tarot.com.
They've already been cutting staff (Score:4, Informative)
These things unfortunately happen in any big company eventually if they have got involved in too many different areas.
Scary (Score:1, Insightful)
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what a poorly managed metaphor; dude is a clown (Score:5, Insightful)
By the analogy he adopts, peanut butter is investment. What bothers him is the nature of the layer of peanut butter : it's too thin. So the problem is with the peanut butter allocation, not the peanut butter. And in fact, his favored projects should get more peanut butter given his chosen metaphor, since peanut butter == investment.
Which makes this, I hate peanut butter. We all should, a mind-blowingly asinine comment. This guy doesn't even understand his own analogy and maybe Yahoo! would be wise to re-allocate the investment it made in him. Sounds like he wouldn't mind that at all.
This is what happens when people make comments they think are snappy and incisive without actually thinking about what the hell they're saying.
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And rather than fire staff, why not reallocate them to positions where there
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I don't think it was a metaphor (Score:2)
I agree it was out-of-place in the email, that's why I don't think this was a metaphor.
I think he actually hates peanut butter. My guess is the company cafeteria is now getting rid of peanut butter and they'll lay off a few hundred people over there at Yahoo.
Having worked at Yahoo... (Score:5, Interesting)
On top of all that, there's very little communication between properties so you see lots of duplication of effort, or something that'd be useful to one section of the company which nobody except the designers of that cool thing know about.
I enjoyed working at the company, but I agree it needs a major shakeup. Can the CEO for starters.
Re:Having worked at Yahoo... eBay too (Score:1, Insightful)
Get rid of the top execs, gut 80% of middle management. Too many people doing nothing and being safe in their jobs. A good project comes around and everyone trys to get their hands on it to be able to later claim that they were a part of it. The end result is extremely long project timelines and watered-down projects (destroyed by too many cooks, then crippled by people who are threatened by the project's potential success).
Pro-Peanut (Score:2, Funny)
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Shakeup? (Score:5, Insightful)
This sounds more like an exec trying to get a nice fat Christmas bonus for himeself by putting 15%+ of the workers out of work for the holiday season. I have worked for 3 fortune 500's and this is how they all do it. They layoff a nice chunk of workers and then give themselves a big fat bonus for doing it. Pretty sickening if you ask me.
Yup, I don't see anything new here. Yahoo! has always invested broadly and shallowly. This dude won't change anything. He just wants to get a fat Christmas bonus so he figured the only way to do that was to put a bunch of people out of work. Don't worry, he and his family will have a nice holiday season. As for the 15% - 20% that he fires? Well, that is where we come in by giving money to the Salvation Army to help out families like that.
Long live uncontrolled capitalism! Hey, it is only to "maximize profits" or to "increase share holder value" right? Those few hundred or thousand families, well, they don't count.
I will eat my shorts if this bum doesn't get some type of bonus for successfully executing this round of layoffs.
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What do tambourines have to do with this?
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I don't think the people that get let go will have big problems finding other jobs. Tons of companies would love to be in Yahoo's position and would l
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How is the parent post Insightful?
"I have worked for 3 fortune 500's and this is how they all do it. They layoff a nice chunk of workers and then give themselves a big fat bonus for doing it."
How do you know they got a bonus? What companies were these ? You sound like someone who is bitter and has no proof of what you alledge happened to you no less what someone in another company is planning to do. Trust me this guy is not scheming for a bonus by putting his butt on the line writing this memo. That ma
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Happy holidays, Mother Theresa. On another note...I guess those laid-off workers should never have had kids to feed, either.
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Perhaps because it happens a lot? The exec would have been more credibility when he said "we should eliminate 15-20% of people and eliminate bonuses for VP and above this year". That part was conspicuously absent
Years ago I worked for a company where end of year bonuses were a big part of a programmer's salary. You kind of lived and died for those bonuses. One
You know language has gone down the tubes when... (Score:1)
- RG>
("tubes" pun unintended)
Re:You know language has gone down the tubes when. (Score:1)
Faster than poker chips could, at least.
Peanut Butter must be the new name (Score:2)
Hedgehogs..... (Score:4, Insightful)
While Semel's challenge is painfully radical and hints at cutbacks as something of a panacea, his memo has some important points.
Yahoo needs to follow Jim Collins's advice - find the intersection of their passion, the thing they could do better than anyone in the world, and their profit engine. Focus all of their energies on that spot. Dismiss "good things" to gain "great things."
It's not too late for Yahoo....yet.
Notice (Score:2)
Right. (Score:2)
He should lay himself off.
Same old same old ... Bye Bye Yahoo. (Score:3, Interesting)
P.S.
This is not ANTI YAHOO FUD, but my personal conclusions from what I know. Take it with a grain of salt and an eye for how you can find out for yourself.
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Little do you realize, but being a contractor instead of a "permanent" person in the IT industry has many, many benefits, such as much higher pay (Even without benefits), either not working mind-boggling hours, or at least being compensated for it, an ability to ignore beauracracy, an ability to go from project to project with no "job-hopper" penalty, the ability to take long vacations whenever we felt like it (between jobs), etc., etc.
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I don't like working contract because I like having a long-term effect on the evolution of a product. But given my recent history, maybe I should just give up on that notion. :-( I've only worked one place where I felt I had a significant impact on their business. I worked there twice in fact.
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Sorry but as much as it sucked to work there, they had great benefits.
Danger: PHB at work (Score:5, Insightful)
This is so utterly bankrupt. HE IS THE MANAGEMENT, HE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE STRATEGY. Laying off 15-20% and not going after the problem - bad strategy, incompetance at the top. This sort of turmoil will only cause the talented people in Yahoo to bail out and find more rewarding opportunities.
The stock market is going to pummel Yahoo. It is one thing to drive costs down through keeping the number of employees down, it is another thing altogether to show signs that senior management has no fucking idea about what they are doing.
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Re:: Yahoo Mail (Score:1)
It's not stellar - their ads are far too aggressive. But one's email grows into an identity, and I have no serious excuse to change. I only change providers of services when serious problems arise. I used to use AOL until 4 years ago - various forces led me to quit. The recent Search Catastrophe cinched the derision.
As for other services, Yahoo
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I thought it was a cool idea, anyway.
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Well, sort of. He is a VP. In the real world, however, corporate VPs are not demigods or dictators. They can't fire off an email and make "strategy" happen without the support of their peers and the concurrence of their subordinates. That's true even at small organizations. In a company that has autonomous divisions and decentralized control like Yahoo the problem is much worse. In fact his main complaint seems to be that
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The stock market is not stupid. If the layoffs are because management is being stupid and the company is getting beat in the market they will pummel the stock. If the layoffs are due o say a general recession and a drop in demand throughout the economy then it is a move that makes sense.
Look at Intel this year. THey went through a round of layoffs, and their stock got a nice haircut.
http://www.tgdaily [tgdaily.com]
Too much focus causes fixation burn (Score:2, Insightful)
What does this VP think Yahoo should fixate on? Does he really think Yahoo can be leaps and bounds beyond competition in one space? Does he have creative ideas for how this would happen? How long does he think one revenue stream can be milked for, staying focused in one market sector results in revenue stagnation and suddenly when a paradigm shifting competitor arrives you're screwed
Business idiots (Score:2)
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I see what's going on here. (Score:1, Funny)
When I saw the title of this memo.... (Score:3, Funny)
So sad. (Score:1)
All Hail! (Score:1)
"A much needed wake up call" (Score:1)
Who's fucking fault is that? What's he been doing for the last three years? Why has he allowed Yahoo!!! to get into its current state?
The implicit admission being that he is one of the people
Let's hear it for peanut butter! (Score:1)
Also: "At the risk of being redundant..": I'd guess you aren't the one risking redundancy here, Brad.
Layoffs are bad (Score:2)
Obviously wants HIMSELF to be on top (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.ptc.org/events/ptc06/program/speakers/g arlinghouse.html [ptc.org]
He became president of dialpad.com from working at the venture capital company that funded dialpad, when dialpad was bought by yahoo.com they inherited this master of the obvious.
Notice he has virtually ZERO technology education, he is a diametrically opposite of Google.com management, yahoo's competitor (actually yahoo is google's bitch). Yet they continue to
I hate peanut butter.. (Score:2)
Happen to disagree (Score:2)
Classic "Leadership" by Blaming Others (Score:4, Insightful)
I think it's reasonable to assume this guy's department has as many problems as the next department except he's doing the classic pre-emptive management tactic of shifting blame by calling out someone else.
They are your worst kind of manager. They stink up the whole organization as soon as they drop their first pre-emptive strike. Get out quick because they tend to drag everything down and stay around launching strike after strike on others and collect hefty bonuses at the end of the fiscal year.
What makes it so insidious is they get all of the people that want a better organization (change advocates) behind them because jackasses like this blindly fire salvo after salvo around the organization. The change advocates typically don't like the person in question but see any kind of change as "Better than it was." It turns the departments in the work environment into a fortress.
I can't imagine a job that would be worth staying in with nut jobs like this.
People are valuable (Score:2)
If the current stru
Brad Garlinghouse will defect to Myspace (Score:2)
Read http://www.valleywag.com/tech/top/yahoos-brad-garl inghouse-will-defect-to-myspace-157314.php [valleywag.com] or Google on this guy.
Nothing more than a suit (Score:2)
What would Batman Do? (Score:2)
Actually, try this experiment:
Take two pieces of toast
Spread peanut butter on one of them
Leave the other one plain
Drop a couple of nice new crisp dollar bills on both slices
pick them both up and turn them upside down
which one has money on it?
Google definitely offers a peanut-butter style (whatever that even means) technology strategy, and it seems to work. Actually, for a technology company, diversity is probably the best thing you
Wrong way Brad (Score:2)
After 3 years tenure Brad Garlinghouse is calling for 15-20% layoffs for what reason? I read the memo and from what I can tell his goal is to have a streamlined company with clear vision that stands out in the market as #1. This is a fine goal to have, provided that it's realistic. (Anyone work in corporate America - hello?) Unfortunately, from what I can tell what he wants i
Well, it's about time... (Score:2)
The rewrite of the yahoo message boards is a fiasco. Never has something that was working so well been turned into something that is all but unusable. For example, the pages are slow to load and navigation is abysmal, a combination of problems that causes frustration - when the poor navigation causes you to land on the wrong page, it takes a long time to back out and find your wa
Bilbo to Gandalf (Score:2)
Whither Flickr? (Score:2)
One minor casualty of Yahoo!'s ownership of Flickr has been geocoding usability.
Maybe he's upset about budget allocations? (Score:2)
I recently logged into Yahoo... (Score:2)
Yahoo is no different then the old multi-line monolithic BBSs that did everything for everybody. Look where those ended up...
I recently logged into Yahoo for the first time in years. All I wanted to do was get added to an email list! Instead of being able to submit my email address and walk away, I had to jump through hoops to figure out my old yahoo ID and password. What a pain in the ass!
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