Yahoo`s Latest Reorganization - A Closer Look at Yahoo’s Crew
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So who is left at Yahoo? Swisher has received a number of comments from “Yahoos, ex-Yahoos and others” about the company’s latest changes. While she does not identify any of the people making the comments, one of them is particularly revealing. “Now we’ve got a CEO who has never been a CEO before [Jerry Yang]. A COO with limited operations experience [Sue Decker]. A CFO who has never been a CFO in his life [Blake Jorgensen] and an EVP of Ad Sales with no sales experience [Hilary Schneider]. Next, I think we’ll hire a CTO who is well versed in arts and culture with no prior tech experience [still a mystery].”
Yes, this sounds dangerous, but it’s also something of an exaggeration. Let’s look at Schneider first. She was smart enough to get out of the newspaper business at Knight Ridder. She has plenty of experience being in charge, having formerly served as president and CEO of two companies (not simultaneously), Red Herring Communications and Times Mirror Interactive. At the very least, then, she knows how to work with troubled digital properties. The new structure at Yahoo gives her as many direct reports as Decker (8). She herself may have no sales experience, but a good CEO learns to rely on experienced staff.
Blake Jorgensen may have never been a CFO at a big company, but he knows money. He is a former investment banker and manager at Thomas Weisel Partners and Montgomery Securities. His new position should put everything he has learned to the test, and then some. He is a good friend of Decker, which should be a big help to him not because the new Yahoo president is likely to protect him, but because she was highly commended for her work as Yahoo’s CFO. If necessary, Jorgensen should be able to turn to Decker for advice but as president, Decker will probably be too busy turning Yahoo around to be tempted to micromanage him.
Of course, this brings us to Decker herself. It’s true that she has limited operations experience. It’s worth noting, however, that when Yahoo’s stockholders called for a serious management restructuring in a grassroots movement not that long ago, Decker was one of the few individuals (along with Jerry Yang) who did not come in for serious censure. Quite the opposite in fact. Judging from the press she's received, she does not seem to have the charisma of a Steve Jobs, or the intensity of a Steve Ballmer. But she does have focus, strength, the loyalty of her troops, and the kind of company knowledge you can only get from serving as CFO. Her plain-spoken, no-nonsense style of leadership is probably a breath of fresh air for the beleaguered firm. And investing $1.1 million of her own money in shares of Yahoo actual shares, purchased on the open market rather than options is a vote of confidence likely to play well with analysts, stockholders, and other Yahoos.
Speaking of Yahoos brings us to the biggest Yahoo of all: Jerry Yang, who founded the company with David Filo. He is also no Steve Jobs, but he is the right person to help find a vision for the venerable search engine. Yes, he was around in the company’s early days of milk and honey, but this is not the first time he’s seen a downturn: remember, Yahoo made it through the first dot-com crash alive. Don’t count him or Yahoo out just yet.
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