{"id":2825,"date":"2012-07-18T11:06:10","date_gmt":"2012-07-18T01:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/knowledgetoday\/?p=2825"},"modified":"2012-07-18T11:06:10","modified_gmt":"2012-07-18T01:06:10","slug":"yahoo-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/blog\/2012\/07\/yahoo-2\/","title":{"rendered":"As Mayer Brings the Pizzazz, Yahoo Waits for the Magic"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the Knowledge@Wharton today\u00a0blog<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yahoo\u2019s hiring of Marissa Mayer \u2014 a high-profile executive and innovator ensnared from rival Google \u2014 as its new CEO has all the trappings of a coup. But Wharton experts say\u00a0Mayer will have to move quickly to win the search engine new users and advertisers, and to jump-start product innovation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWill Mayer be the one to finally work some magic at Yahoo and restore its glamour in the industry?\u201d asks Wharton management professor Lawrence Hrebiniak<\/a>, adding that he his happy with the choice. \u201cShe brings experience with, and knowledge of, consumer websites gained at Google, a good place to work and learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayer\u2019s last post in her 13-year Google career was vice president of the search giant\u2019s local, maps and location services, overseeing product management, engineering, design and strategy. Yahoo credits Mayer \u2014 who made Glamour<\/em> magazine\u2019s 2009 list of \u201cWomen of the Year\u201d \u2014 with heading up some of Google\u2019s most successful innovations and launching more than a hundred features and products, including Gmail, Google News, and the \u201clook and feel\u201d of the Google experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cMarissa Mayer is a great win for Yahoo,\u201d says Wharton operations and information management professor Kartik Hosanagar<\/a>. \u201cShe\u2019s from a relevant domain and is a star exec. She will provide good, positive PR and will help in recruiting some good folks back to Yahoo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prior to Mayer\u2019s hiring, Hosanagar told Knowledge@Wharton Today<\/a> that Yahoo needed a leader with an \u201centrepreneurial spark\u201d as CEO. \u201cMarissa is close, but not quite that,\u201d he says now. \u201cShe joined Google very early \u2026 but she\u2019s been at Google too long and it\u2019s not clear to me she\u2019s the person who comes up with new product ideas and gets them done. I\u2019d have preferred someone who has started and grown a company. Even Jack Ma [founder of Chinese business-to-business trading platform Alibaba.com] would have been a great choice. That said, I think Marissa is overall not a bad choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayer will have to hit the ground running at Yahoo, which has struggled to maintain stable leadership at the top<\/a> and seen a steady decline in revenue over the past few years. \u201cHer focus will be on Yahoo\u2019s core advertising business,\u201d says Hrebiniak. Adds Hosanagar: \u201cThe one thing Marissa needs to do is to focus on developing a new winning product at Yahoo instead of financial reengineering, restructuring the organization and the like. Some of the latter is needed, but what will get Yahoo out of this mess will be a new product, much like [the introduction of the] iPod for Apple. Given her background, I think her focus will indeed be on products.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hrebiniak suggests that the work done by Mayer\u2019s predecessor, interim CEO Ross Levinsohn, including settling disputes with Google and Alibaba, will allow her to focus on the advertising business.<\/p>\n

Closing the Revolving Door?<\/strong><\/p>\n

But Mayer could face other distractions, as well as formidable hurdles to overcome, Hrebiniak points out. \u201cLevinsohn\u2019s being passed over may generate resentment among key managers and employees, which could [lead to] defections and other problems,\u201d he says. \u201cGoogle and Facebook, which have steadily been stealing Yahoo\u2019s users and advertising revenues, aren\u2019t going away. A frontal attack by Mayer is certainly anticipated and the two formidable foes will assuredly be prepared for Yahoo\u2019s new assaults.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mayer is Yahoo\u2019s fifth CEO in as many years, and \u201ca revolving door itself creates uncertainty and possible confusion,\u201d Hrebiniak notes. \u201cLevinsohn, for example, was reportedly in the process of formulating and executing his version of a new strategy. Mayer may upset the apple cart with something new and different, creating confusion and a feeling of \u2018here we go again.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Wall Street seemed to cheer the choice of Mayer, notes Hrebiniak, but adds that \u201conly time will tell if the trust in her capabilities in a competitive marketplace is warranted.\u201d Mayer has a lot going for her \u2014 including a baby boy due Oct. 7 \u2014 and has been named in four consecutive years starting in 2008 to Fortune<\/em>\u2018s list of the \u201c50 Most Powerful Women in Business.\u201d As one of only 20 female CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, and Google\u2019s 20th-ever employee, \u201cmaybe 20 is the magic number,\u201d for Yahoo, says Hrebiniak.<\/p>\n

This blog was previously posted in Knowledge@Wharton today\u00a0blog<\/a>: As Mayer Brings the Pizzazz, Yahoo Waits for the Magic<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the Knowledge@Wharton today\u00a0blog. Yahoo\u2019s hiring of Marissa Mayer \u2014 a high-profile executive and innovator ensnared from rival Google \u2014 as its new CEO has all the trappings of a coup. But Wharton experts say\u00a0Mayer will have to move quickly to win the search engine new users and advertisers, and to jump-start product innovation. \u201cWill […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":336,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/336"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2825"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2827,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2825\/revisions\/2827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.unsw.edu.au\/BTOpinion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}