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It might hurt his reputation to have left at a time like this, but I imagine not necessarily any worse than his reputation would wind up being if he stuck aroun
by 0xfffafaCrash 6y ago
It might hurt his reputation to have left at a time like this, but I imagine not necessarily any worse than his reputation would wind up being if he stuck around at the helm for a pawn in a game between the US and Chinese governments. If an acquisition does actually materialize, which still seems to be a very big if, it would be under existential duress, which is not a favorable negotiating position. Despite its popularity and success, TikTok has been pulled into a completely different arena now, and its unclear that there are winning moves for it to make which aren’t contingent on a sudden shift in politics.
- ridaj 6y agoI think he's toast. Who would want to work for a guy who has a track record of jumping ship in the face of trouble?
- londons_explore 6y agoI'm not sure you can blame him personally for the troubles... I mean it was pretty difficult to forsee, and almost impossible to mitigate a geopolitical war over your company...
- ridaj 6y agoI'm definitely not blaming him. I'm observing that he's calling it quits instead of helping his team weather the storm, and that as an employee, I would look disfavorably upon a manager who has previously left their team in the lurch when they most needed a leader.
- aditij 6y agoWhile this definitely is valid, TikTok has other strong leaders including Vanessa Pappas the GM for TikTok US who will be taking over. This seems like a rationale decision on Kevin's part, with a strong leader in succession who is more than capable of seeing through what comes next if TikTok US splits off from the global entity. If there wasn't a strong leader already to take his place then it would be a very negative decision on Kevin's part.
- rorykoehler 6y agoKnowing when to persevere and when it's time to quit is an underrated skill.