

Ross Levinsohn: Marissa Mayer needed 'clean slate' at Yahoo - ankit042
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57543221-93/ross-levinsohn-marissa-mayer-needed-clean-slate-at-yahoo/

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You can turn a company around in a year. I hate to be that guy who points out
Steve Jobs did it. But conceptually it isn't rocket science.

First thing you need to so is deal with cash flow. Can the company sustain
itself so you have, in fact, a year to improve things? Now is the time to make
hard decisions and cut efforts that make no sense at a strategic level. A weak
CEO will wait 6-12 months before making such a decision. That just gives you
time to bond to people that the company can ill afford to have on payroll. It
takes two weeks to have the top lieutenants justify their existence and for
you as CEO to decide whether the effort aligns with the best business model
for company survival. Make the hard cuts when you have no ties yet. Apologize,
explain it isn't personal and you may even be wrong. Make these the first and
last cuts. Tell the remaining employees there will be no more layoffs for a
year and that you have seen to it that there is cash on hand to recover and
thrive. It is time to move on.

The second thing needed is to assess the talent landscape of those who remain
and honestly provide an opportunity for all capable employees to prove
themselves. The cream will rise to the top. Those that can reinvigorate the
company will volunteer themselves. Now is the time to randomly choose to sit
at a lunch table in the company cafeteria and make small talk with employees
you don't know.

The third thing needed is to create a strategy that has a solid chance of
being successfully executed by a select group of these volunteer go-getters.
Steve identified Ives as one of these people and came up with the iMac
strategy which could best utilize Ives' talent.

Sir Richard Branson is another exec who has had to employ this kind of
strategy except while already running a company. He talks about the pain of
having to give up Virgin Records to keep the rest of Virgin alive and then
doubling down on a few verticals that he felt could reinvigorate the company.
He might yet have another iteration of this with Virgin Atlantic. We will see.

