4 ms·

Except apparently Yahoo has grown since she joined, so it would seem this has not been implemented in order to reduce staff size.

camus2 13y ago
Dont worry, Yahoo will fire a lot of people soon. Yahoo "bought a lot of buzz" to drive its stock up so big investors can cash in, they will trim their workforce soon,
- yapcguy 13y ago
  Yep. I know this sounds harsh, and this is pure conjecture on my part, but the way I see it is that Marissa Mayer is on a 5 year contract and after that she is out of there, regardless of what state Yahoo is in. If the company is a mess in 5 years time she can blame it on the culture which was resistant to change. She will simply jump onto the next gravy train via her big investor and board-room friends. The WSJ and NYT say her total compensation over this period will be at least $100m+. All she has to do is sit tight, look as though she's busy, and hopefully keep the share price up to maximize her share options.
  - tesseractive 13y ago
    Considering that the company has burned through multiple CEOs already anyway, I think the case that the company was doomed if she didn't try some major moves is both obvious and compelling. The thing I like is that she's trying both the carrot and the stick at the same time: trying to make Yahoo a better place to work with Google-style amenities, while also making staff more accountable and slashing poor performers. She's also focusing the company much more heavily on mobile which is both obvious and necessary, but which wasn't taken nearly as seriously by previous execs. I don't know whether it will work or not, but this doesn't seem like a "marking time" strategy at all.
e12e 13y ago
I don't know about Yahoo, but what I normally associate with such drives as this, isn't actually keeping the most productive team members, but cutting pay costs. Hire new people that do the same job that people you let go are doing now, but start them out at the bottom of the pay range. If you can cut salaries 20% and take less than a 20% cut in revenue (note, revenue not productivity), you're up in profits, and managers gets bonuses. I don't think it makes sense if the goal is maximum productivity or highest quality of development -- but it'll boost quarterly results. I have no idea what the pay structure looks like in yahoo (or comparable companies) -- what does a talented recent graduate get vs a 20 year veteran developer?

camus2 13y ago

Dont worry, Yahoo will fire a lot of people soon. Yahoo "bought a lot of buzz" to drive its stock up so big investors can cash in, they will trim their workforce soon,

yapcguy 13y ago
Yep. I know this sounds harsh, and this is pure conjecture on my part, but the way I see it is that Marissa Mayer is on a 5 year contract and after that she is out of there, regardless of what state Yahoo is in. If the company is a mess in 5 years time she can blame it on the culture which was resistant to change. She will simply jump onto the next gravy train via her big investor and board-room friends. The WSJ and NYT say her total compensation over this period will be at least $100m+. All she has to do is sit tight, look as though she's busy, and hopefully keep the share price up to maximize her share options.
- tesseractive 13y ago
  Considering that the company has burned through multiple CEOs already anyway, I think the case that the company was doomed if she didn't try some major moves is both obvious and compelling. The thing I like is that she's trying both the carrot and the stick at the same time: trying to make Yahoo a better place to work with Google-style amenities, while also making staff more accountable and slashing poor performers. She's also focusing the company much more heavily on mobile which is both obvious and necessary, but which wasn't taken nearly as seriously by previous execs. I don't know whether it will work or not, but this doesn't seem like a "marking time" strategy at all.

e12e 13y ago

I don't know about Yahoo, but what I normally associate with such drives as this, isn't actually keeping the most productive team members, but cutting pay costs. Hire new people that do the same job that people you let go are doing now, but start them out at the bottom of the pay range. If you can cut salaries 20% and take less than a 20% cut in revenue (note, revenue not productivity), you're up in profits, and managers gets bonuses. I don't think it makes sense if the goal is maximum productivity or highest quality of development -- but it'll boost quarterly results. I have no idea what the pay structure looks like in yahoo (or comparable companies) -- what does a talented recent graduate get vs a 20 year veteran developer?