A fascinating leaked memo from Brad Garlinghouse, a Yahoo senior vice president, points out that the company doesn't actually have a clue about where it's going. There's duplication - even competition between different bits of the company. So what's to be done?
Garlinghouse writes:
We want to do everything and be everything -- to everyone. We've known this for years, talk about it incessantly, but do nothing to fundamentally address it. We are scared to be left out. We are reactive instead of charting an unwavering course. We are separated into silos that far too frequently don't talk to each other. And when we do talk, it isn't to collaborate on a clearly focused strategy, but rather to argue and fight about ownership, strategies and tactics.
He also points to a list - and it's a long one - of things where there is clear duplication:
- YME [Yahoo Music Entertainment] vs. Musicmatch
- Flickr vs. [Yahoo] Photos
- YMG video vs. Search video
- Deli.cio.us vs. myweb
- Messenger and plug-ins vs. Sidebar and widgets
- Social media vs. 360 and Groups
- Front page vs. YMG
- Global strategy from BU'vs. Global strategy from Int'l
Even if you don't know what the last three are, you can see that's a list which is about four, five, six items too long.
Among his recommendations: cull 15-20% of the staff.
It's going to be tough. Might this call the end of the bubble that Yahoo really inflated about a year ago with the purchase of del.icio.us?
You can read the memo in full at the Wall Street Journal.
