
Jerry Yang Email To All Yahoos: 10% Of You Are Fired - qhoxie
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/10/21/jerry-yang-email-to-all-yahooers/
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bigthboy
From my personal perspective, I'm half expecting Yahoo to end up just like
AOL. A subsidiary of a media conglomerate that is just used when making bad
jokes and referencing the past. Their current position definitely indicates
this, and I'm talking both on the internal company side of things (in terms of
products, innovation, and market reach) and on the public side of things
(shares).

I can't help but feel that Yahoo! signed its own death certificate when they
so loudly fought off Microsoft's handsome buyout offer. Would Yahoo have taken
this offer, at least Yahoo would have the potential to still exist and be
recognized. It would've been interesting to see how it played out. In a round
about way, we can even look at Yahoo as a modern Netscape... they stood up to
Microsoft and bit the bullet in the end.

AOL is probably most remembered for their annoying "Free Dial-Up Internet
Trial" CDs in the mail that were more cumbersome than spam, what is Yahoo
going to be remembered for?

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mynameishere
At no point has yahoo (sorry, Yahoo!) offended anybody in the manner that AOL
managed to do time and time again.

EDIT: I'm wrong. I used yahoo (sorry, Yahoo!) as a domain provider until they
jacked up the price to 34.95/year. WTF? Couldn't believe it. So I got to spend
two hours transfering them... I guess I'll always remember Yahoo! for that.

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mcargian
JERRY, THE SHIFT KEY IS NEXT TO THE LETTER Z

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dc2k08
i think that the use of capital letters will decline while most of our writing
is done on screen and the world becomes smaller still. most writing systems
make no distinction between capital and lowercase letters. also, eventually
the american spelling system will become dominant. jerry is probably
incorporating the same philosophy that is highly regarded at apple, google and
by many ui designers: "if it aint needed, get rid of it"

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wensing
_jerry is probably incorporating the same philosophy that is highly regarded
at apple, google and by many ui designers_

Still, seems like bad timing for Jerry to demonstrate his highly-regarded
design philosophies. YHOO ain't AAPL or GOOG.

~~~
dc2k08
i think its always a good time to get rid of superfluous mark-up.

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ChaitanyaSai
They hired a consulting company to guide them. How could they possibly help?
Yahoo is clearly not looking to make forays into drastically different
businesses, not looking to acquire companies in different sectors, and is
ultimately dealing with organizational issues possobly unique to a technology
company, that Yahoo should have a better grasp of. Anyone here have any
positive anecdotes to share about a consulting company's value addition to
tech companies ? Or in broader sectors?

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antiismist
In this case Bain was brought in to do the layoffs and other "restructuring",
not for technical help.

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plinkplonk
I interpreted ChaitanyaSai's point as "Why bring in Bain and Co, people who
have no special insight into what needs to be done for Yahoo to tell Yahoo
management what to do?"

Why can't the _top management_ at Yahoo decide what to do and do it? I mean
after all these years at Yahoo don't _they_ know who to fire and who to keep?
All the data Bain and Co could get or process in the few weeks they work for,
Yahoo management has too.

I would have thought that (making decisions and executing) was what the
managers were being paid the big bucks for.

(I've never really understood the value of these consulting firms so if anyone
can help with that I'd appreciate it).

~~~
Retric
I work for a large consulting company and I think a lot of company's have
trouble looking outside their box. They know that things are failing but they
have no idea what they need to do. In most cases large companies fail because
they get stuck at local maxima where small changes make things worse even
though there are much better aproaches they need to shake things up to find a
new area.

PS: A classic example is Monday Night Football which we promoted as a good
option help the NFL prosper. But, you can also point out a lot of dumb things
they do because that's the way they have always done things etc.

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ojbyrne
Given the events of the last few years (the Terry Semel experiment, the
botched MS acquisition - which cost every employee, presumably - and finally
this preannouncement) Jerry should volunteer to be the first one to leave.

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callmeed
Looks like YC Summer '09 just got a little more crowded.

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t0pj
_"with the help of Bain & Co. [Bob and Bob], we initiated a series of steps to
determine how we can become more efficient and productive as an organization"_

So they brought in outside help to figure out that they needed a 10% layoff?

A grab bag of three cards would've been a whole lot cheaper;

1) Keep all yahoos at 20% reduced salary. 2) Cut 50% of middle management
(whatever that means). 3) Announce 10-20% yahoo layoff.

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sown
Christ, you grammar nerd-nazis. This is why people don't like geeks. Did you
ever sort out if Kirk or Picard was better, too? Did you _READ_ the letter?!

Jerry Yang isn't in the business of doing whatever pleases you and as
evidenced by the content of the letter, there are bigger things to worry
about.

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ruslan
I think Yahoo is doomed. Sad to say, but all this hassle with Microsoft just
killed them :-(.

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known
Web based companies like Yahoo, Google, Amazon etc should hire engineers who
can think out of the box.

And with conventional interview process they cannot hire them.

An interviewer may not appreciate these 'disruptive' engineers.

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thewordpainter
Shouldn't the title have read "10% of Yahoos Leave"? If only these guys paid
attention to the outside world they could have seen what's been coming for
months, if not years...

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thomasmallen
Microsoft deal doesn't look so bad now, what with Yang at the helm of this
sinking liner.

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qhoxie
The email is refreshingly sincere, but I found the grammar amusing.

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michaelneale
I found it infuriating. I mean we all make mistakes, but this is clearly some
obtuse point that he makes by totally ignoring English.

The content seemed sincere. However if I was in yahoo I would be tempted to
spend my life hunting and killing people who don't capitalise sentences. It
would scar me for life.

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kirubakaran
_"However if I was in yahoo"_

How ironic, considering you are criticizing his English... You meant "However
if I _were_ in Yahoo" ;-)

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michaelneale
DAMN I knew that would happen. It wasn't his English I was criticising it was
his grammar.

Also, I would think a comment on a thread versus a company wide email is a
rather different kettle of fish. In a different universe.

Actually I will level with you. I wouldn't know good grammar if it hit me in
the head (can it do that??).

But for the love of everything good, I wish he would capitalise his sentences.

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kirubakaran
I didn't mean to criticize you. I just couldn't resist, given the context :-)

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michaelneale
I know, I had a good chuckle. First rule of the internet, never criticise
someones grammar. Gah, never know what version of that spelling to use.

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LPTS
Maybe the 10% can go to microsoft and try and get 10% of that 40 billion
dollars they were tossing around a while ago.

