6 ms·
"The Yahoo way is, ‘We’ll throw 10 rocks against the wall, and maybe one of them will hit the bull’s-eye. But you need a sniper rifle in this business." That's
by erez 10y ago
"The Yahoo way is, ‘We’ll throw 10 rocks against the wall, and maybe one of them will hit the bull’s-eye. But you need a sniper rifle in this business."
That's a load of crap. If anything, 'this business' showed us what you need to do is grow to a level where you can throw not 10, but 100 rocks against the wall, and once one of them hits, get another 4 dozens and hurl them at the same spot immediately.
- HemanHeartYou 10y agotruth, thats how google does it
- 2close4comfort 10y agoJust goes to show that even if you did work/worked at Google you are really no better than anyone else...and planning on that to bring your business around may not actually be a plan.
- colmvp 10y agoReminds me a little bit of Ron Johnson of Apple with JC Penney.
- pinewurst 10y agoBut Ron Johnson brought and executed a coherent change plan. It wasn't at all successful, but it still existed. Mayer spent a lot of money on acquihires and self-aggrandizement but all that was externally visible was entropy. The changes that I've seen all involve the pollution of their various news aggregators with the lowest grade clickbait.
- whamlastxmas 10y agoThat's sort of a non sequitur. Maybe Meyer did better at holding Yahoo together than any of her non-Google competitors for the same role would have done. And a sample size of 1 isn't really anything to draw conclusions from in terms of the capabilities of ex Google employees.
- ZanyProgrammer 10y agoI'm not sure what Meyer brought to the table that non ex Googlers don't have, other than a general reputation for being successful uber geniuses. Which in this case did jack and shit for Yahoo, though they coasted along on her celebrity for a while.
- amelius 10y agoI think we should introduce a law that says that if a company does no better than random rock throwing, its net result should be at most zero.
- lintiness 10y agoshe parlayed not being any better into quite a payday. give the girl some props!
- Phlarp 10y agoGot a big payday, advanced the resume significantly and had two children. I think she should be applauded for those things personally, even if Yahoo was a sinking ship she couldn't save.
- jshevek 10y agoThis is just my impression, and I'm not trying to censor your speech nor make any assumptions about your thoughts nor intentions. In this context, the use word 'girl' seems needlessly sexist and patronizing, to me.
- Jtsummers 10y ago> If anything, 'this business' showed us what you need to do is grow to a level where you can throw not 10, but 100 rocks against the wall, and once one of them hits, get another 4 dozens and hurl them at the same spot immediately. Isn't this pretty much what Google does? Outside their core areas of search and advertisement, they try numerous projects until something gains friction. When something does, they work on variations on the theme (to their detriment perhaps, see their numerous chat offerings now). If it doesn't, or it isn't profitable, they scrap it.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- bryanlarsen 10y agoThe interesting question: is that what Apple does too? Where "hitting" is defined as "Tim Cook thinks it would be good enough for Steve Jobs".
- danieldk 10y agoYour sibling comment mentions that Google depends for 90% on search (and webpage) advertisement. For Apple, the iPhone was 65% of their revenue in the last quarter, but the remaining 35% is divided among other products (with some dependency of 'services' on iPhone). It's still not healthy, but their bets are spread quite a bit better than Google's. (I think there is quite a bit of monetization potential for Google in Google Apps and Chromebooks. They could move to a position/market that Microsoft was in. But it takes time to grow that business.)
- ZanyProgrammer 10y agoDoesn't Android bring in $$ for Google?
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- 10y ago
- samfisher83 10y agoLook at google and all their various endeavors. How many of them are all that profitable. Their primary revenue generator is search/advertising. Android which is super successful is to ensure people use google search. How much money does youtube really make compared to search. The profit margin is not anywhere close to their search ad business.
- imaginenore 10y ago"Android which is super successful is to ensure people use google search" - WAT? I use Android all the time, and at no point Google pushes me to use their search. It's an app platform, and it primarily makes money through paid apps and ads/paid features inside the apps.