Yahoo’s new CEO Carol Bartz is streamlining the company and picking which executives will remain on her team and which ones won’t. Chief Financial officer Blake Jorgensen will be departing, as will the head of Yahoo Mobile, Marco Boerries, among others. Getting a bump up are Ari Balogh, now CTO and head of all products, and Hilary Schneider on the advertising side, now head of North America. David Ko will be taking over mobile, reporting to Schneider interestingly enough rather than to Balogh. In her first blog post, Bartz writes:
So today I’m rolling out a new management structure that I believe will make Yahoo! a lot faster on its feet. For us working at Yahoo!, it means everything gets simpler. We’ll be able to make speedier decisions, the notorious silos are gone, and we have a renewed focus on the customer. For you using Yahoo! every day, it will better enable us to deliver products that make you say, “Wow.”
In addition to getting rid of unnecessary layers of management (and, oh boy, does Yahoo have plenty of that), Bartz also says that she is going to get the company to pay more attention to its customers and to burnishing its brand. To that effect, she is creating a “Customer Advocacy” group to speak for the customer inside Yahoo, and she promises to clarify “what the Yahoo! brand stands for. . . . Look for this company’s brand to kick ass again.”
In a note that just went out, Barclays Capital analyst Doug Anmuth says of the CFO’s departure:
We are not surprised by Jorgensen’s departure given that he was largely brought into the company by Sue Decker who left YHOO upon new CEO Carol Bartz’s recent appointment. However, we are increasingly concerned about Yahoo!’s thinning management ranks & about who internally will help guide new CEO Bartz as she moves deeper into the Internet space & soon makes critical strategic decisions for the company.
In other words, where are the star hires? (Note that Bartz has hired a new Chief marketing officer in Elisa Steele).
cleans up F* house
Good, at this point they have to clean house.
Hey guys, get to the story. What was the reorg.
A few guys left, a Chief Marketing person without much of a marketing profile – pls see http://n.tearn....=Elisa%20Steele
How many layers removed? What are the new groups? Direction? Let’s do some reporting.
This is well-needed for Yahoo. I still have my doubts about Bartz, but who knows, she might just be able to pull it off..
Peter Epstein
http://www.thewebwar.com/yahoo
Having worked with big companies, both inside and outside, getting rid of the silos is a huge task that will involve much more “house cleaning” and a total change is how people are reimbursed.
Yahoo needs to map out their organization to see where the true bottlenecks are, then work to fix them.
This is a great first step. But its culture that needs to change next.
I agree, this is a good starting point.
more of the same, swapping-out and moving in the org chart like y has been doing every four months for years…
products, ads…nothing has changed, as lameo as before…but bartz gets the 5% stock jump (which won’t last long) for kicking a few goofs off the ship, just like jerry and terry did when they wanted a temporary boost.
Well, why would anyone actually _want_ to work for Yahoo right now. They can offer you a golden toilet seat, and most people wouldn’t work there. It sounds like a career killer and a serious waste of time…
Take it from someone who’s been there: you’re right.
ahh the bitterness of some people… Because you didn’t like it or had geat success doesn’t mean the place is c…
jerry? is that you
the wicked witch of kansas is in town
Sounds sensible…less of the Yang madness going around.
The fastest, most comprehensive decision-making ever seen from a Yahoo exec. Finally!
What I really want to see from the new Yahoo Management is a unified style of all Yahoo-Apps. Also the “web 1.0″ design of the older services has to vanish
Ask HP how having a lady CEO worked for them.
And your point is?
Yes, Carly Fiorina, who was driving HP into the ground before she was given the boot. And then… she was involved as a “financial adviser” in the McCain campaign, and then… she was on the board at Steve Case’s “Revolution Health” [which lost over 200M before it was acquired] –Do you see a pattern here? Now Fiorina appears as an “expert” on Sunday’s political shows in Washington DC…
Unfortunately, Yahoo will go through a long agony on its way to the dead pool. Bartz will make the journey longer than it should be. Of course, she will walk away with millions…
One of her goals is to make “Yahoo! a kick ass brand again”
You would think a CEO would use a little bit more professionalism or at least something a bit more creative than talking like a teenager.
I nearly died of boredom watching her 1 hour interview because she was soo boring and narcissistic. http://www.yout...h?v=XinzlwHBBCM
Narcissism’s a pre-requisite for any CEO. Goes with the territory.