4 ms·

I wonder if people blindly defending Marisa and painting her as a female hero will finally ope their eyes and see clearly that she is - at most - a very average

by funkyy 10y ago

I wonder if people blindly defending Marisa and painting her as a female hero will finally ope their eyes and see clearly that she is - at most - a very average CEO... Yahoo needed someone amazing and it failed to find one.

mc32 10y ago
Well, it's not like they didn't have a longish list of other CEOs who tried to turn the ship around and failed to even slow its demise --at least she gave them breathing room and hope. It was probably just too late to be consequnetial.
exelius 10y ago
The problem was that someone who was skilled enough to have taken on the job of turning Yahoo around would have just started their own company -- without the baggage of Yahoo's culture. VC is easy enough to get that any tech executive capable of a Yahoo turnaround would have had no trouble raising $50-200 million. Anyone capable of the job also probably wouldn't be interested -- Yahoo does not play in any big growth markets right now.
- Bartweiss 10y ago
  Even for a CEO who wasn't looking to found a company, Yahoo can't have been an attractive bet. Jack Dorsey was (apparently) in the market for a job change around 2011, was a two-time winner already, and has since shown that he's willing to take on turnarounds. Sounds great, but I can't imagine what offer would have gotten him to take over a bloated, directionless horror like Yahoo. The entire job offer was an ugly one only suited to people without the independence and focus needed to succeed at it. Someone market-savvy enough to claw out a profitable place for Yahoo was bound to have options that didn't require mass layoffs and managing a dozen nearly-worthless side products.
geodel 10y ago
Moreover besides leadership skills 'silicon valley chops/cred' and 'good taste in design' did not get proper scrutiny in most of the articles about her post Google work. IMO her Google career itself was vastly exaggerated portrayal of her actual talent

by funkyy 10y ago

mc32 10y ago

Well, it's not like they didn't have a longish list of other CEOs who tried to turn the ship around and failed to even slow its demise --at least she gave them breathing room and hope. It was probably just too late to be consequnetial.

exelius 10y ago

The problem was that someone who was skilled enough to have taken on the job of turning Yahoo around would have just started their own company -- without the baggage of Yahoo's culture. VC is easy enough to get that any tech executive capable of a Yahoo turnaround would have had no trouble raising $50-200 million. Anyone capable of the job also probably wouldn't be interested -- Yahoo does not play in any big growth markets right now.

Bartweiss 10y ago
Even for a CEO who wasn't looking to found a company, Yahoo can't have been an attractive bet. Jack Dorsey was (apparently) in the market for a job change around 2011, was a two-time winner already, and has since shown that he's willing to take on turnarounds. Sounds great, but I can't imagine what offer would have gotten him to take over a bloated, directionless horror like Yahoo. The entire job offer was an ugly one only suited to people without the independence and focus needed to succeed at it. Someone market-savvy enough to claw out a profitable place for Yahoo was bound to have options that didn't require mass layoffs and managing a dozen nearly-worthless side products.

geodel 10y ago

Moreover besides leadership skills 'silicon valley chops/cred' and 'good taste in design' did not get proper scrutiny in most of the articles about her post Google work. IMO her Google career itself was vastly exaggerated portrayal of her actual talent