
Twitter’s Chief Operating Officer to Step Down - coloneltcb
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/10/technology/adam-bain-twitter-chief-operating-officer-step-down.html
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baccheion
They need to do more than get rid of the higher up executives. If they aren't
that good, then everyone from middle management up needs to be cleared out.
What they do instead is regularly clear out others and it results in nothing
but a weaker environment and more fear-based maneuvering (which is probably
what's desired given how weak Twitter's management is).

Twitter gets fairly good ratings on Glassdoor overall, but settles on a 3.2/5
for senior management (ie, even Google's 3.9/5 rating is reflective of poorly
regarded senior management). In order to think of management as good
(according to Glassdoor), they need a 4.0/5\. If they get a 4.2/5 or higher,
then they can be considered elite or special.

That is, they need to get rid of their crap middle management that's likely
getting in the way of everything and driving it all (slowly) into the ground,
then use the space that creates to get people in who know what they are doing
and that are about progressing forward.

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nikcub
> They need to do more than get rid of the higher up executives.

Adam Bain built Twitter's ad business from scratch to a respectable ARPU on a
product that many thought was not conducive to it. It's arguably one of the
only achievements at Twitter since the original concept was born.

He is the fall guy for flattening revenue while user growth and product remain
stagnant, while other execs increase their own spending by $1.5B a year and
make zero improvement to either of these metrics.

 _They_ are the ones who need to go - that they're not being held accountable
is bad.

~~~
perseusprime11
With excessive focus on ads, he was also responsible for a weaker product and
also a weaker platform for developers. Can someone who worked at Twitter chime
in?

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aioprisan
Twitter was always a weak platform for developers and I don't think ads had
anything to do with the many developer-unfriendly decisions that Twitter has
taken over the years.

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perseusprime11
Well, your engineering team can either focus on optimizing the platform for
ads and doing integrations with third parties or focus on building a great
product.

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dharmon
When is Dorsey going to step down? Running two successful, public businesses
is damn near impossible. Running two public companies that are both in dire
straits? Get outta here.

It was incredibly irresponsible of the board to allow him to come back in the
CEO role, and they need to put an end to it.

~~~
twblalock
I blame the board for Dorsey and for most of the other problems. (Yes, I know
he's a member of the board...)

It's inevitable that a lot of executive positions get filled by personal
connections, and it's inevitable that board members reward their friends, etc.
Despite that, many businesses end up being run pretty well. However, the
Twitter board has extremely irresponsible and negligent -- far more so than is
normally the case.

I don't think any executive reshuffles or new CEOs will help, because the
board contributes as much to the problem as anyone else.

~~~
heymijo
Did you read Hatching Twitter?

I was appalled at the board's mismanagement and ineptitude throughout the
company's life.

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BinaryIdiot
Will December 1 see Twitter posting an executive position under HN's "who's
hiring?" post?

~~~
yuhong
I really wish the restrictions can be reduced or removed so board of directors
(like @pmarca) and CEOs can tweet more on public companies, which is part of
what I mean by "Yishan-style CEOs".

~~~
zitterbewegung
Seems like tweeting would be more of a liability than positive for the
company.

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yuhong
That is the problem that should be fixed, for all public companies.

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gregshap
Not much accountability from the CEO for stagnant product vision and
direction. I guess if I founded Twitter I wouldnt fire myself either, but if I
was their board I would think about it.

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isopod
Seeing the rise of Noto as other executives and leaders fall away, are
removed, or otherwise leave Twitter makes me wonder how much longer Dorsey can
hold on to his job, especially after the embarrassment of the failed
acquisition talks. It's like watching Game of Thrones, but in real life.

~~~
gkoberger
I don't understand why you'd want to rise in Twitter. It seems to never work
out for anyone; they clear house constantly.

~~~
asdfasdfa11112
I can think of a few reasons.

1 - they might give you big bags of cash

2 - they think they can be the ones to turn it around (what, execs, big egos?
unrealistic expectations? complete faith in their self as savior of mankind?
surely you jest.)

3 - their career doesn't end at twitter

~~~
arcticbull
And of course if (2) falls down and they can't steer the ship, they can
leverage their new position (3) and big bags of money (1) to go move somewhere
else.

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LyalinDotCom
While change is always hard I think Twitter can use some new and hungry people
to drive it in a new direction. Its such an important service and I really
wish them all the best.

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mikebay
Twitter and facebook is supressing peoples opinions/comments/articles and
deleting they accounts when they ideology is not mainstream "suitable". For me
both medias are big disappointment.

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YCode
Do you have some examples of the kinds of things they are deleting?

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lobut
Only one I can recall in recent memory was Milo Yiannopoulos.

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nameisu
twitter is a saudi company now. It cannot be trusted.

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hackaflocka
This has to be good news for Twitter.

Twitter suffered enormously under his leadership. It lost users, potential
revenue, potential profits, and people.

He seemed to not care about all the trolling and abuse problems.

This is good news.

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cloudjacker
Do you guys ever get tired of Twitter stories?

Do you guys ever get tired of me pointing out that it will still be a Unicorn
when it trades at 1/10th of the price and has a sustainable business model? We
call those success stories, but lets be honest, its the share price you are
worried about.

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misterbowfinger
:face_palm:

is there hope? can anyone confirm?

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michaelvoz
I still do not understand why twitter needs one. Fire everyone, bring on a
skeleton crew of engineers to fix bugs, and maybe 4 product engineers, a
couple managers and a couple designers. Boom, instantly ultra profitable.

~~~
paulddraper
And no one to work the advertising deals?

You're leaving money on the table with zero sales staff.

~~~
MichaelBurge
You probably need dedicated account managers too. I imagine the White House
Twitter account is willing to pay for support.

