"Henrique is an incredibly accomplished and rigorous business leader, and I'm personally excited to have him join Yahoo!'s strong leadership team," said Mayer in a statement. "His operational experience in Internet advertising and his proven success in structuring and scaling global organizations make him the perfect fit for Yahoo! as we propel the business to its next phase of growth."
One of my first managers confided in me that there were no bad employees, there were just bad fits. And over the years I have really come to appreciate the wisdom of that. I've watched folks who were useless in one environment become superstars in another, and superstars, recruited with much fanfare, who just couldn't get it together when their environment changed. What I haven't found is some magical factor which allows me to predict if someone will do well or not in some environment.
Given the short time between announcement and departure date, I'd be curious to know how that worked. At Sun one of the VP's was told it find a new job and he basically walked out that afternoon and did not return. Other situations have had transition periods. I recognize its a sort of morbid curiosity, wondering if it is something I would do in a similar situation.
I believe it's the curiosity factor that drives interest in these stories, not any intrinsic news value.
Mind elaborating, even if it's wild speculation and rumor? I haven't been following YHOO closely to know the backstory or context behind this individual.
>Considered whip-smart and clever, the former business consultant also made a number of powerful enemies at Google, including top ad product execs Susan Wojcicki and Neal Mohan, among many others.
Looks like the same old carpet baggers... Are there any actual programmers or former programmers occupying high-ranking decision-making positions at these tech companies?!
I think there's a huge problem trying to have someone non-technical take charge of a technical task without a proper engineering team behind him. The automatic buying of ads seems like a difficult task.
I don't think a CEO like MM can buy big execs to solve this problem for Yahoo. They need teams of intelligent engineers in addition to experienced execs.
Taking this into account with all the talent acquisitions Yahoo has been doing, it's becoming clear that Yahoo will not be able to create any kind of technical infrastructure. At best, they can hold onto their current revenue model and try to reduce their costs as much as possible.
His task wasn't technical, he was hired as COO (not CTO) and tasked with bringing in ad revenue from big brands for Yahoo. They would presumably hire a people-friendly salesperson to do that.
But the article has quotes about his "difficult personality". He's been called charming but also "kind of an asshole" who was disliked by clients and employees.
Yahoo's problems go deeper than that. Throwing a few million dollars at some acquisitions or talented execs may be a right step, but it is a far cry from fixing the engineering and work culture. That will take sometime, and I hope that the board and MM have the patience.
You lure advertisers by building great products people want to use (and spend time on). Has Yahoo released anything truly noteworthy since she became CEO?
Their digest and weather app are both rated 4.5 stars in the app store and received very positive reviews. Digest is featured in the app store right now.
These apps are both (presumably) something people use every day.
Yahoo! hires! top! Googler! to! revamp! operations! Marissa Mayer gets her man – for a price
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/10/15/yahoo_hires_coo/
"Henrique is an incredibly accomplished and rigorous business leader, and I'm personally excited to have him join Yahoo!'s strong leadership team," said Mayer in a statement. "His operational experience in Internet advertising and his proven success in structuring and scaling global organizations make him the perfect fit for Yahoo! as we propel the business to its next phase of growth."
So! Much! For! All! That!