Yahoo's CEO: "Real Change Is Coming"

BY: 

Dave Forde
March 19, 2012

Could it be true?  Is Scott Thompson going to be the CEO that can turn around Yahoo, or is he future already sealed?  According to a post on All Things D, Kara Swisher is mentions an email that Scott sent to all Yahoo employees yesterday.  The email was not forward to Kara, instead she was tipped about its contents via a phone call where the Yahoo employee read it to her:

After properly freaking the Yahoo staff out — with everyone trying to grok exactly what that meant in terms of their jobs — Thompson then went into three core things the company was going to focus on under his rule (more bolding!):

“1) Focusing intently on those parts of the business that have a competitive advantage.

2) Liberating all of us to work faster and make better decisions.

3) Thinking really creatively about how to build new businesses that leverage our trusted relationships with users.”

hose will be applied, wrote Thompson, to five key parts of Yahoo: Its core business (such as the homepage and news); platforms (such as its cloud services and Yahoo Publishing Platform); data (which Thompson said was the “single most underrated, underappreciated and underused asset, also calling it a “cornerstone for next generation” of Yahoo); international; and an amorphous thing he called “our future.”

About that, Thompson said Yahoo would “go beyond simply protecting our core assets … we will more than just tweak what we have today … to innovate, acquire and disruptoutside our core.”

Then, without giving any specifics at all, he noted that it’s as “important to know whatwe’ll do as how,” before launching into three “core principles” for the company, which were all in bold caps (this dude loves punctuating, which I can appreciate!).

They are:

LISTEN, UNDERSTAND AND PUT THE CUSTOMER FIRST.

MOVE WITH SPEED IN EVERYTHING WE DO.

GET STUFF DONE.

This all sounds good, and time will tell what happens in the next saga of Yahoo, its lawsuit against Facebook and all other things on Scott Thompson’s plate. Oh and while you are in the mood to fix things, how about hiring a General Manager for Canada that actually works in Canada, all the other kids on the block have figured at least that much.

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Dave Forde


Dave “The Connector” Forde has been involved in the marketing, public relations and technology industry across Canada for over 20 years in various sales and marketing roles, he launched The Connected One network of business sites which connects buyers to the right sellers. Profectio and PR In Canada covers news about the marketing and public relations industry each day helping professionals advance their career and businesses. He also serves as an advisor to a number of businesses across the country. Find Dave on LinkedIn and Twitter.


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