For the past few days, TechCrunch has been creating a working manifest of all the Yahoo! execs who have left the company in the past year and a half. They started on Thursday with a list of 50, which, thanks to user submissions of names that were overlooked or omitted, has ballooned to 114.
Yahoo! has had more than its share of vocal critics in the past few years (for that matter, for most of its brief history), myself included. And despite what I’m about to say, I’m not prepared to back them with any sort of investment in YHOO stock anytime soon. So take this for what it’s worth…just thought it was worth noting:
A good friend of mine (who recently joined Yahoo!) brought up an excellent point in response to the TechCrunch stories on executive departures: everyone has criticized Yahoo for missteps and flat-out gross negligence over the past few years, but yet, now the departure of the very people who made those calls is made to sound like a bad thing. My friend and I both agreed that lots of those people inevitably contributed plenty of positive at Yahoo, even as the company’s market cap hemorrhaged due to a variety of factors, some self-inflicted, but plenty of others that were just unlucky rolls of the dice. But if the people who had a lot to do with some of the worst decisions in recent YHOO history are exiting stage left en masse — potentially making way for a significant culture shift — is that really so terrible?
Photo Credit: Jim Wilson/The New York Times
I guess at the end of the day it all depends on who they find to replace these folks.
But I’m sure none of you need to be reminded of another big Valley company who was considered DOA when a certain turtlenecked leader came (back) into the picture. Is it inconceivable to think that some new leadership might just come in and revolutionize things at Yahoo?
Considering the many lucrative (or potentially lucrative) assets that Yahoo still controls, the possibility of good leadership decisions, the kind that consistently outshine bad ones, seems like it could still have a significant positive impact.
Sure, they’ve lost a slew of recent battles to the likes of Google, Microsoft, MySpace, Facebook, et al in bloody and decisive routs. But what remains is still enough to get people excited on an individual basis…it just needs some cohesive and visionary leadership from the top to bring it all together into something brilliant. Something different.
I, for one, am hoping they figure it out.
This post is tagged executives, Google, leadership, Microsoft, Silicon Valley, Yahoo
