Management at a Company: Yahoo - Assignment Example

Management at a company: Yahoo According to Harvard business review on knowledge management (1998), the Management of the company is always the company’s vital division. Management is the captain of an organization or a company. A strong management is the pillar of every successful company. Investors are always keen on the management of the company with their investments (Harvard business review on knowledge management 1998). They always want a company with good management team. In the business management is the function that involves planning, organizing, coordinating, controlling and staffing. It is the coordination of the company resources including human and financial and directing them to achieve company goals and objectives. This essay reviews the management of Yahoo. Yahoo! Inc. is a large American multinational pioneer internet company with its headquarters in Sunnyvale, California. The company is known for its products –Yahoo Search web portal and related services such as Yahoo mail, Directory, News, Answers. In addition, it also has Yahoo Finance, advertising, media, sports, groups, online mapping among others. It was founded in 1994 and incorporated in 1995. The internet communication company is one of the largest in the world competing only to its main U.S based rival, Google (Girard 2008). Girard (2008) outlines that ever since its incorporation, Yahoo has seen several changes in its leadership and management style. The most hyped change in management was in 2012 when Yahoo named former Google chief executive Marissa Mayer as its new CEO, President and Executive Director. The three positions held by one person was a change to the previous leadership where the president and executive director was the founder while there was a different CEO. The result of that appointment was that in July 2013 yahoo surpassed Google in the quantity of visitors to its websites in the USA for the first time since 2011 showing a 21% increase (Girard 2008 and The Independent 2013). In reference to Girard (2008), earlier in 2009 WHEN Yahoo was facing a consecutive two year-profit decline and management decision problems, the appointed Carol Bartz at its CEO to replace the founder and CEO Yang. It took Carol six months to diagnose a company’s problems and begin prescribing cure. She initiated several management shake-ups including the positions of Chief Financial Officer (CFO), chief technology officer, new chief sales and marketing officer and several other directors. Her hope was to speed up Yahoo’s decision-making with a strong management team that would support her strategy of turning around the company that had been battling three years of profit decline (The Independent 2013. She wanted to recapture the communication giant and pioneer’s glory days. Bartz, therefore, created a division in the company of handling complaints from their advertising companies and frustrated users (Girard 2008). Under Mayer’s leadership, the company is doing very fantastic. Having eclipsed Google, for a short period, in 2013 Mayer focused her attention on maintaining Yahoo at the top level. In 2013, she described yahoo as ‘the world’s largest started up’ and included that turning the company around to that level would take more years. In that period she has put her focus on four key strategies namely building the right products, hiring the right people, turn that into traffic that will eventually lead greater revenue. She is quoted saying, ‘the products have to be for traffic to follow them (Girard 2008).’ To confirm her strategy seven months after appointment Reuters reported that Mayer was personally involving herself in reviewing every employee that the company was hiring (Primary Research Group. 2008). The report said that she was getting interested in the academic credentials of the candidates and their university pedigree. This followed a directive that had banned all Yahoo employees from working from home. Mayer wants to live to her promise in Yahoo. After her appointment Yahoo’s share price rose by 30% and for the first time in four years the company began experiencing growing prices and rising profits (The Independent 2013). Yahoo’s management had no substantive role in the changes. Management board was looking to ‘put the right people in the bus’ and ‘the correct driver on the wheels’ then they met the two CEOs. Bartz was given the position of CEO and Executive Director while founder Yang still held the position of president. However, Mayer took all three positions as CEO, Executive Director and president. Her management style has included getting involved in the company hiring and work ethics and making all employees work in an office full time. According to The Independent (2013), The management transitions were seamless. When Bartz took over, yahoo was struggling to recover from a one-full-year takeover battle with Microsoft. She was eventually fired, by phone, and she paved way for Mayer as she joined the board. After seeing the change strategies of Mayer, Bartz had one advice for Mayer. She said that a change in a company, the size of Yahoo is difficult, and she had to be more than strong and willing (The Independent 2013). The Yahoo management team has a press center that communicates all company related information to the public. The press center is housed in the public relations (PR) department that also houses the spokespersons. The spokespersons are accredited with the role of passing all information that the company deem necessary to the public and speaking on behalf of the company whenever necessary. These professionals in the PR office deal with ultra-high visibility of the company and direct the mind share of the population world over (The Independent 2013). Hence, they must always be credible and ensure that the corporate image of the company is always protected. So far, the spokespersons of Yahoo have been doing a great job providing a great public relation o the company as the company is revamping its public image to its glory days (Girard 2008). Having an idea is in a company one thing; having an idea and communicating it in a company the size of Yahoo is another thin. However, great employees are the ones who provide their company with ideas that can bring change (Primary Research Group 2008). As a person with much interest in corporate and employee welfare I have an idea that the company should have a daycare unit that will serve both the employees and every other person with a child. Such an idea will cost the company more resources, but I believe the results will be awesome. It is, therefore, important to deal with the management from the top trickling down; therefore, its implementation will take time once it’s approved by the management. Because I am confident that it’s a great idea, and the management will approve it, I have drafted I careful plan that I will present to the top management including the building for the daycare unit. In reference to Bidgoli (2003), the world is swimming in a constant change in the Information, Communication and Technology sector. Much of the change is in corporate and security of all nations in the world. However, the people driving the changes are the youth. There is a massive population of the youth in the world, and they dictate what they want ICT to provide for them. Bidgoli (2003) says that the youth use Yahoo in very many searches and division and they are a huge face of our company. Yahoo has already indicated that it’s revamping back to its successful days under the leadership of Mayer. I predict that in the next one year, with the newly created position of complaints from unsatisfied advertising customers and users, Yahoo will learn more complaints from the youth and security agencies and respond appropriately to their demands. If Yahoo can satisfy the demands of youth and security agencies, it will be the leading company in communication even above Google (Bidgoli 2003). In conclusion, the management of a company always directs it to success or failure. A failing management is a failing company. Mayer is a successful manager, fit for a company the size of Yahoo. Public relation is important to the image of the company hence every company must invest efficiently in their public relation like Steve Jobs invested in the best public relation professional in silicon valley with Apples first ever cheque. A well-balanced management style is beneficial to both the company and the customer alike in profits and satisfaction respectively. References Bidgoli, H. (2003). The Internet Encyclopedia, Volume 2. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. Girard, B. (2008). The Google way: 12 management strategies to revolutionize your business. San Francisco, Calif: No Starch. Harvard business review on knowledge management. (1998). Boston, Mass: Harvard Business School Press. Primary Research Group. (2008). Libraries & the mega-Internet sites: A survey of how libraries use and relate to Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia, eBay, Amazon, Facebook, YouTube & other mega Internet sites. New York: Primary Research Group. The Independent. (Friday, 27 February 2009). Yahoo gets massive management shake-up. New York. The Independent Media. Read More