Carol Bartz, Yahoo's turnaround chief executive, has made her first blog post, about Getting our house in order. She says she has "been on a whirlwind tour for the last six weeks" and now she's "rolling out a new management structure that I believe will make Yahoo! a lot faster on its feet". She mentions one major change:
I've noticed that a lot of us on the inside don't spend enough time looking to the outside. That's why I'm creating a new Customer Advocacy group. After getting a lot of angry calls at my office from frustrated customers, I realized we could do a better job of listening to and supporting you. Our Customer Care team does an incredible job with the amazing number of people who come to them, but they need better resources. So we're investing in that. After all, you deserve the very best.
Bartz has also made a number of staff changes. Chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen has resigned and Yahoo is looking for a new one. Marco Boerries, boss of Yahoo Connected Life, has resigned "to spend more time with his family": the guts of the division will become Yahoo Mobile, run by David Ko. Elisa Steele, from NetApp Inc, will join Yahoo as chief marketing officer. There have been other changes, not officially announced, but detailed in Bartz's memo to staff, which has been published by Reuters in Yahoo unveils re-org, sort of.
This is something Bartz apparently wants to stop. As The Industry Standard has noted:
Many Yahoo-related rumors and memos are released by BoomTown's Kara Swisher, whose reliable Yahoo insider -- or insiders -- have steadily forwarded emails, tips, and company gossip since April 2007. Bartz is clearly irked by the situation, judging by her offer of cash rewards to employees who turn in other Yahoo employees who leak to the press. The news, of course, was leaked to BoomTown. Oops.
It's too early to know how all this is going to turn out. However, one good thing you can say about Bartz is that at least she knows how to use capital letters. It's a start.
