4 ms·

What Mayer has been tasked with is an almost impossible mission, just stopping the free fall is impressive in it's own right. People really love to dig on her,

What Mayer has been tasked with is an almost impossible mission, just stopping the free fall is impressive in it's own right. People really love to dig on her, and I can't help but think it's largely because she is a woman. She's clearly not perfect and can be pretty callous towards employees, but it's not like she is the first CEO in tech to behave that way. I don't know what the future for Yahoo holds, but it's hard for me to say that she has done a bad job so far.

jkot 12y ago
I think people are being very nice to here. There is some parallel with Nokia.
bane 12y ago
>and I can't help but think it's largely because she is a woman. Maybe. When she first came on board, there was lots of gossip about her having a baby and being a CEO and all that. I personally think that was unfair nonsense. However, I do have a problem with how she generally treats people and I have a problem with the relentless self-promotion she seems to spend much of her time on. If it's unfair to talk about her being a CEO with a baby just because she's a woman, why isn't it unfair to talk about the uncountable number of fashion magazine covers and fashion focus she seems to have plenty of time for? (I understand of course that there's a bit of a feedback effect from the media on this, but really, just run the company and ignore the noise). She's obviously very smart, but I worry that some of her personal interface issues may overwhelm all that. All the best business decisions in the world may still turn into a failure if you alienate your people by reading nursery rhymes to them and treating them idiot children.
- gohrt 12y ago
  http://fortune.com/2014/11/13/googles-larry-page-the-most-ambitious-ceo-in-the-universe/ http://fortune.com/2014/11/13/googles-larry-page-the-most-am... Larry Page does fashion magazines too. And don't pretend Fortune isn't a fashion magazine.
  - bane 12y ago
    Yup. I don't know, I'm obviously not the target for that kind of cult-of-personality marketing strategy, but I think it's a huge waste of time and as a stock holder it makes me grit my teeth every time. I don't really mind the occasional interview, I think that's important for a business leader to do, especially a large publicly traded one, but at the same time, prancing around in high-end boutique clothes is not where I want my corporate leaders to be spending their time. (and before you complain that I'm trying to dictate what they do in their free-time, I'm not, these magazine covers and interviews are very much part of their corporate work)
    - larrys 12y ago
      This is actually the type of thing (annoys me as well btw) that is pandering to everyday people and gets good publicity for the company which helps in creating star appeal which does in many ways further the companies agenda. (Which will increase the value of the stock and also helps with hiring as well..) For example even when dealing with Washington, star appeal goes a long way to getting people to take you seriously and to listen to you. As a similar example, take Steve Job's fame and how he was able to use it in order to close deals that an unknown CEO from an equally large company would never be able to do.
- gyc 12y ago
  A CEO who treats people badly and who's a relentless self-promoter? Are we talking about Marissa Mayer or Steve Jobs?
IndianAstronaut 12y ago
>and I can't help but think it's largely because she is a woman I would say the hate stems from her pushing a policy of ending working from home. A lot of companies followed and it really pissed off a lot of devs and ops people.
jonnathanson 12y ago
"People really love to dig on her" True, but that's not really what this article does. It's mostly supportive.
- LandoCalrissian 12y ago
  Sorry, should have made myself more clear. Wasn't trying to directly address the content of the article, which is largely positive as you said.
Someone1234 12y ago
> think it's largely because she is a woman Really? I haven't read anything like that. Seems to me most of her critics are from people who want Yahoo! to sell (or merge) so they make tons of $$$$$$. Before she came in they were set to strike it rich as Yahoo! went down in flames, now their money is tied up until she "fails" (from their perspective). These people have just lost faith in the company after several consecutive failed executives promising similar things to Mayer. If she actually made Yahoo! profitable again they'd likely change their tune pretty quick, but she hasn't just yet, and she's spent a lot of "their" capital buying other companies which has further upset them. Honestly I've seen very little "she's a woman" criticism, and rather a lot of broad criticism about the overall strategy. Although there has been a discussion of her interpersonal skills (however I've also read that about a lot of other, male, CEOs).
- freehunter 12y ago
  Well of course no one is going to say "she will fail because she's a woman". Bigots have learned to be a little more subtle than that. They would just criticize her strategy, while the same strategy from a male wouldn't draw the same criticism. I'm not saying that is what is happening here or that Mayer's strategy shouldn't be questioned, just responding to the "no one said 'because she's a woman' so it can't be sexism"
  - smacktoward 12y ago
    I'm a pretty vocal opponent of sexism (to the point where I've been labeled by GamerGate-types a "SJW"), and I would criticize the same strategy if it was a man putting it forward. Or at least, I hope I would. There's no shortage of sexism out there, but it's dangerous to jump to the conclusion that any criticism of a woman is automatically rooted in sexism. That doesn't do social progress any favors either.
    - freehunter 12y ago
      I'm not saying that is what is happening here or that Mayer's strategy shouldn't be questioned, just responding to the "no one said 'because she's a woman' so it can't be sexism". You can see the same thing happening with President Obama. All of the people who criticized him for his race directly have all but disappeared after his first few years in office. Now you get people who criticize him in more indirect ways. It's like natural selection of bigots, you need to figure out where the line of social acceptance is. Again, not saying anything about Mayer in particular. Just that the parent had said "it can't be sexism because no one mentioned that she's a woman" isn't a rational train of thought. Of course no one would directly mention it.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
jusben1369 12y ago
My sense too is the "first time CEO" problem that's unavoidable. I think some of her public known missteps are just a function of being a rookie and something you see from nearly all first time CEO's of large companies.
discardorama 12y ago
> People really love to dig on her, and I can't help but think it's largely because she is a woman... I agree. This article is very positive, but in the past, when I've read a lot of her criticism, I have often wondered: is this being said because she's a woman? Would they be saying similar things if she was a man? And the answers, often, are "yes" and "no".
phamilton 12y ago
I'd say that she is a prominent person in tech. Prominent people in tech get a lot of attention, good or bad. One reason (among many) she is prominent is the fact she is a successful woman in tech. In other words, I don't feel the criticism is because she is a woman, but I do think she's more in the spotlight than her predecessors because she is a woman.
Nelson69 12y ago
Was it a "free fall?" Yahoo was generating $2billion a year. It wasn't "sexy" but it still has a huge amount of traffic and was bringing in cash. It almost seemed like a trick to me, convince the world that things are really dire at Yahoo! then whoever you bring in is going to be a hero unless they are completely incompetent because things weren't that dire. They had both cash and revenue... and an f-ton of traffic and eyeballs. They definitely weren't growing at internet rates though. I'm not saying they hadn't bought a lot of stuff that they didn't need and they didn't need to kill some products and focus but dire?
dinkumthinkum 12y ago
I think the people that "dig" on her would dig on a male for the same things regarding treatment of employees so I don't think that's right. It's not like any of us on HN have given Zynga a free pass.

jkot 12y ago

I think people are being very nice to here. There is some parallel with Nokia.

bane 12y ago

>and I can't help but think it's largely because she is a woman. Maybe. When she first came on board, there was lots of gossip about her having a baby and being a CEO and all that. I personally think that was unfair nonsense. However, I do have a problem with how she generally treats people and I have a problem with the relentless self-promotion she seems to spend much of her time on. If it's unfair to talk about her being a CEO with a baby just because she's a woman, why isn't it unfair to talk about the uncountable number of fashion magazine covers and fashion focus she seems to have plenty of time for? (I understand of course that there's a bit of a feedback effect from the media on this, but really, just run the company and ignore the noise). She's obviously very smart, but I worry that some of her personal interface issues may overwhelm all that. All the best business decisions in the world may still turn into a failure if you alienate your people by reading nursery rhymes to them and treating them idiot children.

gohrt 12y ago
http://fortune.com/2014/11/13/googles-larry-page-the-most-ambitious-ceo-in-the-universe/ http://fortune.com/2014/11/13/googles-larry-page-the-most-am... Larry Page does fashion magazines too. And don't pretend Fortune isn't a fashion magazine.
- bane 12y ago
  Yup. I don't know, I'm obviously not the target for that kind of cult-of-personality marketing strategy, but I think it's a huge waste of time and as a stock holder it makes me grit my teeth every time. I don't really mind the occasional interview, I think that's important for a business leader to do, especially a large publicly traded one, but at the same time, prancing around in high-end boutique clothes is not where I want my corporate leaders to be spending their time. (and before you complain that I'm trying to dictate what they do in their free-time, I'm not, these magazine covers and interviews are very much part of their corporate work)
  - larrys 12y ago
    This is actually the type of thing (annoys me as well btw) that is pandering to everyday people and gets good publicity for the company which helps in creating star appeal which does in many ways further the companies agenda. (Which will increase the value of the stock and also helps with hiring as well..) For example even when dealing with Washington, star appeal goes a long way to getting people to take you seriously and to listen to you. As a similar example, take Steve Job's fame and how he was able to use it in order to close deals that an unknown CEO from an equally large company would never be able to do.
gyc 12y ago
A CEO who treats people badly and who's a relentless self-promoter? Are we talking about Marissa Mayer or Steve Jobs?

IndianAstronaut 12y ago

>and I can't help but think it's largely because she is a woman I would say the hate stems from her pushing a policy of ending working from home. A lot of companies followed and it really pissed off a lot of devs and ops people.

jonnathanson 12y ago

"People really love to dig on her" True, but that's not really what this article does. It's mostly supportive.

LandoCalrissian 12y ago
Sorry, should have made myself more clear. Wasn't trying to directly address the content of the article, which is largely positive as you said.

Someone1234 12y ago

> think it's largely because she is a woman Really? I haven't read anything like that. Seems to me most of her critics are from people who want Yahoo! to sell (or merge) so they make tons of $$$$$$. Before she came in they were set to strike it rich as Yahoo! went down in flames, now their money is tied up until she "fails" (from their perspective). These people have just lost faith in the company after several consecutive failed executives promising similar things to Mayer. If she actually made Yahoo! profitable again they'd likely change their tune pretty quick, but she hasn't just yet, and she's spent a lot of "their" capital buying other companies which has further upset them. Honestly I've seen very little "she's a woman" criticism, and rather a lot of broad criticism about the overall strategy. Although there has been a discussion of her interpersonal skills (however I've also read that about a lot of other, male, CEOs).

freehunter 12y ago
Well of course no one is going to say "she will fail because she's a woman". Bigots have learned to be a little more subtle than that. They would just criticize her strategy, while the same strategy from a male wouldn't draw the same criticism. I'm not saying that is what is happening here or that Mayer's strategy shouldn't be questioned, just responding to the "no one said 'because she's a woman' so it can't be sexism"
- smacktoward 12y ago
  I'm a pretty vocal opponent of sexism (to the point where I've been labeled by GamerGate-types a "SJW"), and I would criticize the same strategy if it was a man putting it forward. Or at least, I hope I would. There's no shortage of sexism out there, but it's dangerous to jump to the conclusion that any criticism of a woman is automatically rooted in sexism. That doesn't do social progress any favors either.
  - freehunter 12y ago
    I'm not saying that is what is happening here or that Mayer's strategy shouldn't be questioned, just responding to the "no one said 'because she's a woman' so it can't be sexism". You can see the same thing happening with President Obama. All of the people who criticized him for his race directly have all but disappeared after his first few years in office. Now you get people who criticize him in more indirect ways. It's like natural selection of bigots, you need to figure out where the line of social acceptance is. Again, not saying anything about Mayer in particular. Just that the parent had said "it can't be sexism because no one mentioned that she's a woman" isn't a rational train of thought. Of course no one would directly mention it.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

jusben1369 12y ago

My sense too is the "first time CEO" problem that's unavoidable. I think some of her public known missteps are just a function of being a rookie and something you see from nearly all first time CEO's of large companies.

discardorama 12y ago

> People really love to dig on her, and I can't help but think it's largely because she is a woman... I agree. This article is very positive, but in the past, when I've read a lot of her criticism, I have often wondered: is this being said because she's a woman? Would they be saying similar things if she was a man? And the answers, often, are "yes" and "no".

phamilton 12y ago

I'd say that she is a prominent person in tech. Prominent people in tech get a lot of attention, good or bad. One reason (among many) she is prominent is the fact she is a successful woman in tech. In other words, I don't feel the criticism is because she is a woman, but I do think she's more in the spotlight than her predecessors because she is a woman.

Nelson69 12y ago

Was it a "free fall?" Yahoo was generating $2billion a year. It wasn't "sexy" but it still has a huge amount of traffic and was bringing in cash. It almost seemed like a trick to me, convince the world that things are really dire at Yahoo! then whoever you bring in is going to be a hero unless they are completely incompetent because things weren't that dire. They had both cash and revenue... and an f-ton of traffic and eyeballs. They definitely weren't growing at internet rates though. I'm not saying they hadn't bought a lot of stuff that they didn't need and they didn't need to kill some products and focus but dire?

dinkumthinkum 12y ago

I think the people that "dig" on her would dig on a male for the same things regarding treatment of employees so I don't think that's right. It's not like any of us on HN have given Zynga a free pass.