Steve Jobs trotted out to motivate Yahoo! execs
In a move that reportedly resonated well with many of Yahoo's top brass, chief executive Jerry Yang on Friday did his part to revitalize sagging morale at the search giant with an exec-level meeting that included a surprise motivational speech by Steve Jobs as one of its highlights.
Yang, who called Jobs one of his "heroes," was admittedly nervous as he sat down to interview the Apple chief amongst some 300+ Yahoo executives who he was hoping to inspire and set forth on a new path towards success and innovation.
The basic message that Jobs delivered was that Yahoo -- a company with one of the largest Internet user bases -- can do and achieve anything. Like Apple, he explained, Yahoo retains some incredibly valuable assets, but now must focus on execution.
Among the other key focuses of the meeting laid out by Yang and other Yahoo executives were "the building out of Yahoo?s ad network, taking advantage of its 'consumer insights'; the creation of a healthier corporate culture where fresh ideas could bubble up more effectively and be launched with less agony; and a new move to create a more open network a la Facebook on Yahoo for third-party developers to publish on and create more robust offerings."
While many were reportedly dubious of the latter and Yahoo's ability to open itself up, the meeting was deemed a resounding success with several of the company's vice presidents returning to their jobs "feeling jazzed up and ready to rumble."
Yang, who called Jobs one of his "heroes," was admittedly nervous as he sat down to interview the Apple chief amongst some 300+ Yahoo executives who he was hoping to inspire and set forth on a new path towards success and innovation.
The basic message that Jobs delivered was that Yahoo -- a company with one of the largest Internet user bases -- can do and achieve anything. Like Apple, he explained, Yahoo retains some incredibly valuable assets, but now must focus on execution.
Among the other key focuses of the meeting laid out by Yang and other Yahoo executives were "the building out of Yahoo?s ad network, taking advantage of its 'consumer insights'; the creation of a healthier corporate culture where fresh ideas could bubble up more effectively and be launched with less agony; and a new move to create a more open network a la Facebook on Yahoo for third-party developers to publish on and create more robust offerings."
While many were reportedly dubious of the latter and Yahoo's ability to open itself up, the meeting was deemed a resounding success with several of the company's vice presidents returning to their jobs "feeling jazzed up and ready to rumble."
Comments
DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELO.....
oh, wrong steve.
sorry.
Slow news day.
It was, but I honestly would have published this even on a busy news day. You don't at least find it interesting that they asked him and he showed up?
Best,
K
It was, but I honestly would have published this even on a busy news day. You don't at least find it interesting that they asked him and he showed up?
Best,
K
Meh, I was more thinking; "There's a few issues in inside your company that need to be addressed first Steve - namely that phone thing."
I found it very interesting, and I wonder what Google thought about this?
Enough of that mischief there. Stay back after class you
It was, but I honestly would have published this even on a busy news day. You don't at least find it interesting that they asked him and he showed up?
Best,
K
The image of Steve Jobs being brought out to amuse some people like a dressage horse made me laugh, so thanks for that at least.
/Adrian
It was, but I honestly would have published this even on a busy news day. You don't at least find it interesting that they asked him and he showed up?
Best,
K
I found it interesting.
I'm intrigued by the relationships Apple and SJ is developing with Yahoo and Google. I wonder where it's heading.
I found it very interesting, and I wonder what Google thought about this?
Thinking, Apple wants to expand it's brand.
Yahoo! can start by allowing Safari users access to their mail beta.
Yeah.... p***es me off.
Yang, who called Jobs one of his "heroes," was admittedly nervous as he sat down to interview the Apple chief amongst some 300+ Yahoo executives
Dang, 300+ Yahoo executives?! Does Yahoo have an employee base to do the work???
Can you imagine 300+ executives at Apple?? I mean sure there is the Top Brass and of course lower tier managers and department heads of their respective employees but I doubt that they would fall into the category of executives... would they?
Yeah.... p***es me off.
The latest Yahoo Mail release works with Safari 3.03 - albeit a couple of rendering bugs.
I don't think the full release has rolled out to all their mail farms yet, however.
The basic message that Jobs delivered was that Yahoo -- a company with one of the largest Internet user bases -- can do and achieve anything. Like Apple, he explained, Yahoo retains some incredibly valuable assets, but now must focus on execution.
Is he the world's most expensive motivational poster boy/speaker?
Among the other key focuses of the meeting laid out by Yang and other Yahoo executives were "the building out of Yahoo’s ad network, taking advantage of its 'consumer insights'; the creation of a healthier corporate culture where fresh ideas could bubble up more effectively and be launched with less agony; and a new move to create a more open network a la Facebook on Yahoo for third-party developers to publish on and create more robust offerings."
While many were reportedly dubious of the latter and Yahoo's ability to open itself up, the meeting was deemed a resounding success with several of the company's vice presidents returning to their jobs "feeling jazzed up and ready to rumble."
The best way to fix corporate culture is to find the right people in the company, group together and defect to build a new company, but then, there probably are non-compete contracts in the way.
And Yahoo's ad network bites, but that's just a perspective of someone that's actually tried to use it. I've never seen an internet-based service so poorly assembled that it might be worse than services designed to drive people away. Yahoo obviously didn't even properly try out the service / network before buying it.
Is he the world's most expensive motivational poster boy/speaker?
He's 100x better than Anthony Robbins, at least. Though when the RDF wears off, you'll be like, OMFG what did I just do... I've just bought 5 MacBookPros and 10 iPhones because I was so inspired to change the world...
...The best way to fix corporate culture is to find the right people in the company, group together and defect to build a new company, but then, there probably are non-compete contracts in the way.
Somebody said non-compete was illegal in California...?
And Yahoo's ad network bites, but that's just a perspective of someone that's actually tried to use it. I've never seen an internet-based service so poorly assembled that it might be worse than services designed to drive people away. Yahoo obviously didn't even properly try out the service / network before buying it.
I hate Yahoo with a passion, in general. Everything about it -- mail, messaging, ads, portals, music, everything.
I think basically Yahoo is freaking out because Google is up their rear end and FaceBook is making everyone, er, lose face.
I had an interview in 2004 with Yahoo Australia/NZ in Sydney. I had (a) no idea how I got the interview (and they called me back for a second interview) (b) no idea what the position was (c) no idea what their revenue model was or what everyone in that big office actually did.
Social networking 2.0 I at least understand. Google Maps, Search, Mail, Calendar, Blogs, I get. OK flickr is actually cool but it was independently developed before Yahoo bought it???
In fact, W.T.F. does Yahoo actually *do* nowadays????
Shamrock etc etc...
Business picking up?
You guys are great! Yeah, I know your chief competitor's search is hard-coded into our browser's toolbar, and yeah, Eric's on my board, but no, you guys, really, I love you, and you should really keep doing all that great stuff you do. And look! I brought each of you a coupon for a Starbucks' latte!
An ally today may become foe tomorrow. You never burn your bridges and diss another company...at least in public (see Michael Dell) ;-)