2019年12月19日 星期四

FT Person of the Year 19 Satya Nadella 讓微軟股價創歷史新高、員工更團結。 業績差Marissa Mayer - Most Overpaid CEO in History,


‘From ancient Greece to modern Silicon Valley, the only thing that gets in the way of continued success and relevance, and impact, is hubris’. The FT’s Person of the Year is Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Read why here:




Microsoft was at risk of technological irrelevance but the chief executive has presided over an era of stunning wealth creation

FT.COM

FT Person of the Year: Satya Nadella



3年前的微軟,Windows 8採用率低、拒絕支援iOS、Android等競爭平台;現在的微軟,在兩大手機作業系統推出免費Office,與雲端對手亞馬遜整合AI助理。

這些轉換,都發生在執行長納德拉上任之後。






Marissa Mayer 的業績很差,花錢不手軟。


雅虎女CEO 砸2億開豪奢趴

花錢社交不手軟 股東怒提撤換


美國
【國際中心╱綜合外電報導】網路巨擘雅虎一名主要股東,上周向雅虎董事會提交改革簡報,提出撤換執行長(Chief Executive Officer,CEO)梅耶等建議。簡報中痛斥梅耶接掌雅虎3年來,奢侈浪費,上周還砸約2.3億元台幣(下同)辦年終派對,也曾花近億元贊助名流雲集的慈善晚宴,以維持自己在上流社交場合的一席之地。

財經網站《商業內幕》(Business Insider)報導,雅虎第15大股東SpringOwl避險基金創辦人傑克森(Eric Jackson)在長達99頁簡報中,詳列梅耶(Marissa Mayer)2012年7月執掌雅虎以來的誇張支出。 

坐「王位」與人合照

雅虎月初宣布考慮分拆核心網路事業,形同宣告梅耶重振公司效果不彰,但雅虎上周還在舊金山一處碼頭倉庫大手筆辦《大亨小傳》主題的華麗復古風年終派對,會場以水晶吊燈照明、餐桌皆為特製、提供高檔酒飲與餐點、還有特技舞孃吊絲帶為香檳塔倒酒,即將生產的梅耶坐在如「王位」的座椅上和員工合照。她日前已產下一對雙胞胎。
傑克森指出,梅耶還曾花約9840萬元贊助今年5月的紐約大都會博物館慈善晚宴(Met Ball),以維持她的Met Ball會員資格。Met Ball會員名流雲集,還包括《VOGUE》總編輯安娜溫圖(Anna Wintour)、女星珍妮佛勞倫斯(Jennifer Lawrence)、鞏俐、媒體大亨梅鐸前妻鄧文迪等人。
此外,梅耶曾在上任周年時支用公司經費約6560萬元送員工JawBone Up智慧手環,她也是JawBone Up的董事。傑克森指出,梅耶購併一些新創公司如時尚網站Polyvore,該公司並不被看好,但執行長和梅耶私交甚篤。 


復古風派對極盡奢華之能事,還停放勞斯萊斯。
翻攝instagram
派對以電影《大亨小傳》的華麗復古風作為主題。
資料照片
現場有豪華香檳塔及多種高檔酒飲。翻攝instagram

員工力挺讚「英雄」

但《紐約時報》指出,梅耶的支持者對傑克森的批評不以為然。有雅虎員工說,傑克森只是「小咖」股東,掌握的數據「不太對」,也有人認為梅耶接受挑戰挑起重振雅虎的擔子,「已經是英雄了。」 

梅耶(Marissa Mayer)小檔案

◎年齡:40歲(1975/05/30出生)
◎出生地:美國威斯康辛州
◎家庭:已婚,與先生波格育有1子和1對雙胞胎女兒
◎學歷:美國史丹福大學資工碩士
◎經歷:
•1999 成為Google首位女工程師
•2010 升任Google副總裁
•2012/06 成為雅虎執行長兼總裁
•2013《富比士》雜誌「全球百大最有權勢女性」排行榜第32名
◎爭議:近日遭股東指控濫用雅虎經費,包括花147.6億元台幣(下同),在過去4年提供員工免費餐點、送員工1人1支iPhone花3億元、上任1周年送員工JawBone Up智慧手環花6560萬元等
資料來源:《蘋果》資料室 

Bloomberg Business
"If she hadn't announced she was pregnant with twins, she'd be out of a job within six months."



Scott Galloway, professor of marketing at NYU Stern School of Business,...
BLOOMBERG.COM

Since Marissa Mayer took over the helm at Yahoo in 2012, she has been skating on some rather thin ice. The latest in a long line of bosses to try and revive the web firm’s fortunes, she has seen Yahoo’s share price soar thanks largely to its stake in Alibaba, a giant Chinese e-commerce outfit. But its core businesses in areas such as online advertising are still stuck in the doldrums http://econ.st/1BEOahY

微軟裁員1.8萬人 芬蘭大呼上當
英國《金融時報》 理查德•沃特斯 舊金山,倫敦,哥德堡報道

微軟正在將其諾基亞(Nokia)手機業務砍掉一半,擬在該部門裁撤1.25萬個工作崗位。首席執行官薩蒂亞•納德拉(Satya Nadella)拿出他對微軟在移動計算世界薄弱地位的第一個回應。

該部門的裁員是這家美國軟件公司1.8萬裁員的一部分。這1.8萬人總計相當於其全部員工的14%,是其39年歷史上力度最大的一次裁員。

這次大幅裁員標志著,在經受多年嚴重虧損後,微軟正收窄其在智能手機領域的雄心,降低了其對移動設備市場的註重,包括蘋果(Apple)主導的最有利可圖的智能手機板塊,以及曾使諾基亞成為移動通信代名詞的“功能手機”板塊。

這一消息在芬蘭引發不快——諾基亞的多輪裁員傷害了該國的民族自豪感。芬蘭聯合政府財政部長、社會民主黨(Social Democrats)領袖安蒂•林內(Antti Rinne)表示:“可以說我們遭遇了背叛。當微軟達成收購協議時,它留下了會致力於芬蘭及芬蘭專業技術的印象。如今,它看起來似乎不會這麽做。”


納德爾於今年2月執掌微軟帥印。他試圖將此輪裁員描繪為微軟對其移動業務重新聚焦,以求收復多年失地。他在寫給員工的信中表示:“重組我們的員工隊伍是為我們的遠大理想構建合適組織的第一步。”

分析師們表示,這位新任微軟老闆相信,微軟超越其智能手機領域跟班角色的最佳機遇,在於在發展中世界出售新的廉價手機系列。CCS Insight分析師本•伍德(Ben Wood)表示:“蘋果和三星(Samsung)已霸占高端手機領域。”

他補充說,微軟宣佈諾基亞功能手機業務將與智能手機部門合並,也表明該公司在最基本的手機市場減少投入,轉而集中於運行其Windows軟件的設備。

作為該計劃的一部分,微軟表示還將放棄諾基亞今年推出的、使用競爭對手谷歌(Google) Android軟件平臺的廉價智能手機,並讓它們轉而使用Windows操作系統。納德爾補充說,他打算通過“機構的扁平化”改革公司組織結構,減少管理層級。該公司表示,預計明年用於遣散費和其他相關成本的稅前支出介於11億至16億美元。

華爾街對這些意料之中的舉措表示歡迎,早盤時分微軟的股價上漲近1.5%。微軟曾承諾在收購諾基亞之後將每年削減6億美元成本。

就在上周,納德爾對微軟願景的首次闡述遭到某些人的批評,稱其不夠透明且充斥管理套話。不過,這一願景表明,納德爾打算改變戰略,更多地集中於雲服務和企業業務。

譯者/簡易




Commentary: Decrypting Satya Nadella’s CEO Welcome Letter

By
Photo From Microsoft
What is Satya Nadella really saying when he addressed MicrosoftMSFT -0.36%’s employees in a memo this morning? The Wall Street Journal’s Business Editor Dennis K. Berman decrypts his letter, offering commentary in [brackets].
From: Satya Nadella
To: All Employees
Date: Feb. 4, 2014
Subject: RE: Satya Nadella – Microsoft’s New CEO [Why make your welcome letter part of an e-mail chain? Is there anything more representative of big, lumbering companies than interminable email chains?]

Today is a very humbling day for me. It reminds me of my very first day at Microsoft, 22 years ago. Like you, I had a choice about where to come to work. I came here because I believed Microsoft was the best company in the world. I saw then how clearly we empower people to do magical things with our creations and ultimately make the world a better place. [Magical things? Creations? This is the language of Walt Disney and Steve Jobs. Somehow it doesn’t quite fit in the Microsoft context, but perhaps this is part of being a leader. Trying to get people to believe in such a vision.] I knew there was no better company to join if I wanted to make a difference. This is the very same inspiration that continues to drive me today. [Translated: We really value your tech talent. Please don’t decamp to Facebook or Oracle. We will keep the stock options coming, accordingly.]

It is an incredible honor for me to lead and serve this great company of ours. Steve and Bill have taken it from an idea to one of the greatest and most universally admired companies in the world. I’ve been fortunate to work closely with both Bill and Steve in my different roles at Microsoft, and as I step in as CEO, I’ve asked Bill to devote additional time to the company, focused on technology and products. [This is the most intriguing part of the letter. Just how much power and influence is he still going to exert on the company? Who really is in charge of Microsoft? Nominally, and perhaps in fact, it is Nadella. But what happens when the two clash on the course going forward? How will people in the trenches respond to something that “Bill wants” versus something that “Satya wants.”] I’m also looking forward to working with John Thompson as our new Chairman of the Board. [This feels obligatory. It makes it sound like Gates is the Boss, while Thompson is simply the nominal chairman.]

While we have seen great success, we are hungry to do more. Our industry does not respect tradition — it only respects innovation. This is a critical time for the industry and for Microsoft. Make no mistake, we are headed for greater places — as technology evolves and we evolve with and ahead of it. Our job is to ensure that Microsoft thrives in a mobile and cloud-first world. [This seems like an important marker in the ground. He is right about this. And at least for the cloud, Microsoft does have some strengths there. Mobile, however, is a persistent and money-losing conundrum. What is Nadella going to do with Nokia, for instance? No clues yet.]

As we start a new phase of our journey together, I wanted to share some background on myself and what inspires and motivates me.

Who am I?
I am 46. I’ve been married for 22 years and we have 3 kids. And like anyone else, a lot of what I do and how I think has been shaped by my family and my overall life experiences. Many who know me say I am also defined by my curiosity and thirst for learning. I buy more books than I can finish. I sign up for more online courses than I can complete. I fundamentally believe that if you are not learning new things, you stop doing great and useful things. So family, curiosity and hunger for knowledge all define me. [Have to respect his self-description. It seems sincere and honest.]

Why am I here?
I am here for the same reason I think most people join Microsoft — to change the world through technology that empowers people to do amazing things. I know it can sound hyperbolic — and yet it’s true. We have done it, we’re doing it today, and we are the team that will do it again. [Another admirable way of looking at the world. But its insistence shows a kind of self doubt. Can Microsoft really do it again? The answer is uncertain.]

I believe over the next decade computing will become even more ubiquitous and intelligence will become ambient. The coevolution of software and new hardware form factors will intermediate and digitize — many of the things we do and experience in business, life and our world. [Translated: Microsoft is not getting out of the device business, no matter its many failures there. It will probably be doubling down.] This will be made possible by an ever-growing network of connected devices, incredible computing capacity from the cloud, insights from big data, and intelligence from machine learning.

This is a software-powered world. [Not a new insight, but sounds about right. Still, the tone of Nadella’s note suggests this will be a company with a significant consumer focus. In other words, this does not seem like a big strategic shift is on the way.]
It will better connect us to our friends and families and help us see, express, and share our world in ways never before possible. It will enable businesses to engage customers in more meaningful ways. [Again, more consumer focus. Interesting that he puts end-consumers first and not businesses.]

I am here because we have unparalleled capability to make an impact.

Why are we here?
In our early history, our mission was about the PC on every desk and home, a goal we have mostly achieved in the developed world. Today we’re focused on a broader range of devices. While the deal is not yet complete, we will welcome to our family Nokia devices and services and the new mobile capabilities they bring us.
As we look forward, we must zero in on what Microsoft can uniquely contribute to the world. The opportunity ahead will require us to reimagine a lot of what we have done in the past for a mobile and cloud-first world, and do new things.
We are the only ones who can harness the power of software and deliver it through devices and services that truly empower every individual and every organization. We are the only company with history and continued focus in building platforms and ecosystems that create broad opportunity. [A nice sound bite, but this does not seem quite accurate, especially with the iOS and Android ecosystems so ubiquitous and profitable. More open software standards at both the consumer and enterprise level are deeply changing this equation. This sounds like an aspiration at the moment, but not quite the reality.]

Qi Lu captured it well in a recent meeting when he said that Microsoft uniquely empowers people to “do more.” This doesn’t mean that we need to do more things, but that the work we do empowers the world to do more of what they care about — get stuff done, have fun, communicate and accomplish great things. This is the core of who we are, and driving this core value in all that we do — be it the cloud or device experiences — is why we are here. [This sounds like a nice re-summation of the old “productivity” approach to computing. It does not answer why Microsoft helps people do more, compared with the likes of Apple, Oracle, Salesforce, Google, Splunk and hundreds of other companies harnessing the wonders of computational improvement.]

What do we do next?
To paraphrase a quote from Oscar Wilde — we need to believe in the impossible and remove the improbable. [Sounds like he’s getting impatient with Microsoft bureaucracy and structure. Might it be time to re-organize the company again after the recent Ballmer restructuring in August, 2013 that turned Microsoft into a “devices and services” company?]

This starts with clarity of purpose and sense of mission that will lead us to imagine the impossible and deliver it. We need to prioritize innovation that is centered on our core value of empowering users and organizations to “do more.” We have picked a set of high-value activities as part of our One Microsoft strategy. [Sounds like the overall strategy is not going to change.] And with every service and device launch going forward we need to bring more innovation to bear around these scenarios.

Next, every one of us needs to do our best work, lead and help drive cultural change. We sometimes underestimate what we each can do to make things happen and overestimate what others need to do to move us forward. We must change this. [Translated: “We have lost confidence in ourselves. We are bogged down in bureaucracy.”]

Finally, I truly believe that each of us must find meaning in our work. The best work happens when you know that it’s not just work, but something that will improve other people’s lives. This is the opportunity that drives each of us at this company.

Many companies aspire to change the world. But very few have all the elements required: talent, resources, and perseverance. [Translated: Microsoft has a lot of money to play with. Give the new CEO time to experiment and get things right.] Microsoft has proven that it has all three in abundance. And as the new CEO, I can’t ask for a better foundation.
Let’s build on this foundation together.
Satya
Microsoft Names Satya Nadella as CEO
Bill Gates Leaves Chairman Post to Become Technology Adviser

 

Updated Feb. 4, 2014 2:23 p.m. ET
Satya Nadella is seen in this undated Microsoft photograph released Feb. 4, 2014. Reuters
Microsoft Corp. MSFT +0.03% named company veteran Satya Nadella as its next chief executive, a widely expected choice that also returns co-founder Bill Gates to a high-profile role in helping the company confront its challenges.
Mr. Gates, who had been serving as chairman, will become a technology adviser and devote more time to the company, supporting Mr. Nadella in shaping technology and product direction, the company said. John Thompson, who was formerly the lead director, will become chairman.
Both Mr. Gates and Steve Ballmer, who is giving up the CEO role, will remain on the board of directors. Mr. Gates, who for years has mainly focused on philanthropic activities, said he was thrilled that Mr. Nadella asked him to become more involved at Microsoft.
"I'll have over a third of my time available to meet with product groups, and it will be fun to define this next round of products working together," Mr. Gates said in a video message posted Tuesday.
Microsoft has named company veteran Satya Nadella as its next chief executive, and said founder Bill Gates will leave the chairman post to become technology adviser. Rob Enderle of Enderle Group joins MoneyBeat to discuss what the changes mean for the software giant. Photo: AP.

Ballmer on His Exit

Getty Images
In a series of exclusive interviews, Microsoft's CEO told The Wall Street Journal how he came to believe he wasn't the best person to remake the technology giant for its next act.
More on Microsoft's Future
Mr. Nadella, who takes his new position immediately, becomes the third CEO since the Redmond, Wash., company was founded in 1975. Mr. Ballmer, who announced plans to retire in August was originally handed the reins in 2000 when Mr. Gates stepped aside after 25 years.
The appointment of Mr. Nadella, who is 46 years old and leads the Microsoft division that makes technology to run corporate computer servers and other back-end technology, is considered a safe choice. It comes after a lengthy search during which the company considered a long list of external and internal candidates.
Mr. Nadella, who will also join the company's board, said his selection marked a "humbling day" and vowed to reinvigorate Microsoft's role as a leader despite stiff competition in markets such as mobile devices and what the industry calls cloud services.
"Our industry does not respect tradition—it only respects innovation," he said in a letter to employees. "The opportunity ahead will require us to reimagine a lot of what we have done in the past for a mobile and cloud-first world, and do new things."
Little in Mr. Nadella's public history at Microsoft, however, suggests he will break from the company's pattern as a fast follower, rather than a trend setter.
"As Microsoft continues down the right lane of the highway at 55 mph with its new CEO in hand, the fear among many investors is that other tech vendors from social, enterprise, mobile, and the tablet segments continue to easily speed by the company in the left lane of innovation and growth," wrote analysts at FBR Capital Markets.

Meet Microsoft's Board

Matthew Hedberg, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, wrote that a bigger positive for investors may be the renewed involvement of Mr. Gates in product strategy. He also praised the decision to give the position of chairman to Mr. Thompson, an industry veteran whospent more than 25 years at International Business Machines Corp. IBM +0.03% andled the Microsoft CEO search.
Microsoft's shares were largely unchanged after the announcement Tuesday, which confirmed reports about the CEO change that emerged Thursday and Friday. The stock was up two cents at $36.50 in midafternoon trading in New York.
Mr. Nadella inherits a big, profitable company that has missed some potential growth areas, as people and businesses shift more computing chores to the Web, tablets and smartphones.
Microsoft is heavily dependent on a trio of products—Windows, Microsoft Office and related software to run companies' back-end computing gear—that are deeply tied to the sales of Windows-powered PCs. Other well-known products, like the Bing search engine and the Xbox videogame system, don't contribute as much to results.
The company kicked off the current fiscal year by announcing first- and second-quarter results that easily topped Wall Street's expectations. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters are projecting full-year revenue to rise 7% for the period ended June 30, but the bottom line is expected to be roughly flat.
Meanwhile, Microsoft has faced pressure from activist investor ValueAct Capital Management LP to make better use of its assets. The company and hedge fund reached a deal in August to meet regularly to discuss the business and agreed to potentially add a representative from ValueAct to the board at a later date.
"As an active contributor to the CEO search process, I have spent a lot of time with Satya and he is clearly the best choice to lead the company," ValueAct President G. Mason Morfit said in a statement. "I look forward to working with Satya, Chairman John Thompson and the rest of the board of directors to create value for all shareholders."
People who have worked with Mr. Nadella credit him with repairing technical glitches at Microsoft's Web-search service and fostering collaboration in a turf-conscious workplace.
Most of Mr. Nadella's experience is in serving corporate customers—the source of two-thirds of Microsoft profit—which suggests the company may want to double down in that area. He has been an internal champion of Microsoft's efforts to rent computing power to other companies, even though that business competes with some of Microsoft's most-profitable products.
Mr. Ballmer, in an email to Microsoft employees, called Mr. Nadella a proven leader. "He has a remarkable ability to see what's going on in the market, to sense opportunity, and to really understand how we come together at Microsoft to execute against those opportunities in a collaborative way," he said.
Some of Microsoft's biggest corporate customers are eager for the new CEO to make progress in mobile devices and cloud-related offerings. Stuart Kippelman, chief information officer of Covanta Energy, says he'd like Microsoft to make its bedrock Office applications available on non-Microsoft smartphones and tablets, such as Apple's AAPL -0.16% iPad.
Mr. Kippelman, among a group of chief information officers attending a Wall Street Journal's conference near San Diego, also said he'd like Microsoft to make its software cheaper and easier to manage. "It costs a fortune to own," he said.
Microsoft had previously indicated it would look both inside and outside the company for a replacement for Mr. Ballmer.
A handful of well-known candidates were rumored to be in the running for the post. Ford Motor Co. F -0.55% 's CEO Alan Mulally in early January said he wasn't taking the job.
Others who at one time discussed the CEO job with Microsoft directors have included Nokia Corp. NOK1V.HE +0.40% executive Stephen Elop, Oracle Corp. ORCL +0.33% President Mark Hurd, Pivotal Software Inc. CEO Paul Maritz and Microsoft executive Tony Bates. Ericsson CEO Hans Vestberg was also a rumored candidate.
—Scott Thurm contributed
to this article.
Write to John Kell at john.kell@wsj.com and Shira Ovide at shira.ovide@wsj.com

梅耶爾承認拯救雅虎不容易

科技 2014年01月17日
本月,雅虎的瑪麗莎·梅耶爾在拉斯維加斯的一場行業展上介紹公司即將做出的調整。
本月,雅虎的瑪麗莎·梅耶爾在拉斯維加斯的一場行業展上介紹公司即將做出的調整。
Julie Jacobson/Associated Press
舊金山——看起來,谷歌(Google)的魔法並沒有那麼容易推而廣之。
一年半以前,瑪麗莎·梅耶爾(Marissa Mayer)來到雅虎(Yahoo),各界廣泛認為對這家困境中的互聯網先鋒來說,這是一次機會,會為它帶來那種曾幫助梅耶爾在谷歌成為成功高管的智慧與威望。她是谷歌最早的員工之一,以富有創意和對細節精益求精聞名。人們相信,如果有任何人能拯救雅虎,那就是梅耶爾。
然而雅虎週三宣布,梅耶爾已放棄了她的主要副手恩里克·德·卡斯特羅(Henrique de Castro)。這是梅耶爾首次公開承認,扭轉雅虎的命運遠沒有那麼簡單,而不是像有些針對她的媒體報導所說的那樣。
“這是瑪麗莎第一位重金招來的人,”SunTrust Robinson Humphrey的分析師羅伯特·佩克(Robert Peck)說。“你可以想像,要承認錯誤會有多不容易。”
德·卡斯特羅也曾長期擔任谷歌的高管,邀請他加入只是梅耶爾高調做出的眾多舉措中的一個。她還以11億美元(約合67億元人民幣)收購了博客網站Tumblr,雇了電視主播凱蒂·庫瑞克(Katie Couric)來主持一檔在線新聞節目,並啟動了一本在線的美食雜誌。
恩里克·德卡斯特羅
恩里克·德卡斯特羅
Tobias Hase/Picture-Alliance, via Deutsche Presse-Agentur, via Associated Press Images
梅耶爾成了公眾的焦點——例如,這個月,她親自在拉斯維加斯的一個行業展會上推出了雅虎新的消費類科技站點——而德卡斯特羅則擔負著不那麼引人矚目卻同樣至關重要的任務:提振雅虎的廣告業務。雅虎過去10年的運勢每況愈下,對於這家公司的任何人來說,要提振其廣告業務都將是無比艱難的。而廣告行業高管、分析師和曾在谷歌和雅虎與德卡斯特羅共事的人都說,他是尤其不適合這份工作的。當梅耶爾僱他的時候,這一選擇讓公司內外的人都深感迷惑。公司內部的人說,這兩位公司領導人之間的關係很快就變得緊張起來。這些人中的大多數因為擔心會影響商業合作關係,不願具名。
一位曾與德·卡斯特羅在谷歌共事的人說,德·卡斯特羅曾在麥肯錫(McKinsey)擔任顧問,他愛用會計表格,但是對谷歌的產品卻不甚了解。
另外,他並非一位魅力十足的推銷員,不願意與麥迪遜大道上的市場營銷人士們拉關係,說服他們把廣告費投給雅虎,而不是Facebook和谷歌等競爭對手。
美國星網公司(Starcom USA)投資與拓展總裁阿曼達·里奇曼(Amanda Richman)說,“恩里克不像他的前任或競爭對手那樣積極面對市場。”美國星網公司每年會代表卡夫(Kraft)和家樂氏(Kellogg)等大的消費品品牌採購數十億美元的廣告。
為了提升雅虎在數字新聞領域的影響力,梅耶爾(右)雇了凱蒂·庫瑞克。
為了提升雅虎在數字新聞領域的影響力,梅耶爾(右)雇了凱蒂·庫瑞克。
Robyn Beck/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
週四,德·卡斯特羅沒有回復電話和電子郵件。梅耶爾也拒絕了採訪的要求。
雖然同事們普遍認為德·卡斯特羅十分聰明,他們也說他舉止傲慢、粗魯,且不善溝通。德卡斯特羅的母語為葡萄牙語,說英語時有很重的口音,有時候很難聽懂。據一位曾與德·卡斯特羅在谷歌共事的人說,員工對他有許多負面的評價,以至於人力資源部門不得不出馬進行評估。
谷歌拒絕對人事問題發表評論。
說到底,除非梅耶爾能夠徹底改變公司的運作方向,脫離其低迷的核心業務——銷售顯示廣告——這整個不幸事件可能並不重要。
“如果有內部紛爭,肯定對公司不好,但這可能也沒什麼太大的關係了,”Pivotal Research Group的分析師布賴恩·威澤(Brian Wieser)說道。“你沒法克服結構性問題。”
在互聯網發展的初期,雅虎正是憑藉了那種炫目的主頁橫幅廣告發了家,但這種廣告形式如今已逐漸失去吸引力,人們紛紛轉向谷歌的搜索廣告、Facebook的定向社交媒體廣告,以及那些在小型網站上接觸消費者的自動化系統,它的收費相對來說微不足道。在移動廣告領域——廣告行業的最熱增長領域——雅虎幾乎沒有任何影響力。
近幾個月,雅虎已經採取了一系列行動,來增加它站點的訪問量,包括推出新的移動引用、改進它的Flickr照片服務、增加視頻新聞的供應,並拓展其消費類科技站點。這一站點的主持人是戴維·波格(David Pogue)——前《紐約時報》的專欄作家。
“有內容就有眼球,有眼球就有廣告,”佩克說道。
此外,雅虎也為自己的廣告購買平台改頭換面,增加了新的模式,如所謂的原生廣告(native advertising)。廣告商會提供一些與網站上其他文章和視頻看起來相似的內容。
里奇曼說,雅虎一直在聯繫更多的廣告商,比起它的競爭對手們,雅虎會與它們分享更多用戶數據和廣告效果,幫助品牌改進它們的營銷。
到目前為止,投資人基本無視了所有這些努力。
“有趣的是,這些事對股市並沒有多少影響,”威澤說道。
華爾街對雅虎的評價極高,這從很大程度上是因為它所持有的部分阿里巴巴股份和雅虎日本,但其核心業務卻遠沒有那麼值錢。阿里巴巴是一家成功的中國電子商務企業,計劃今年上市。週四,雅虎收盤報40.34美元。
第三季度,雅虎總收入為11.4億美元,較上一年同期下降5%。淨利潤為2.97億美元,而上一年的則是31.6億美元。去年,雅虎從出售阿里巴巴的股份上賺得了28億美元。
目前尚不清楚梅耶爾是否會選擇另一位首席運營官來接替德·卡斯特羅的工作。她已將他的職責分攤給了其他幾位高管,其中由美國在線(AOL)的前高管內德·布羅迪(Ned Brody)負責北美的廣告業務。
佩克說,各界對阿里巴巴上市計劃的關注,讓梅耶爾有更多時間來修整雅虎的核心業務。
他還讚揚梅耶爾有勇氣捨棄德·卡斯特羅,儘管公司要為他的離開支付數以千萬計的遣散費和向他所承諾的股權賠償。
“這是對她能力的證明,”他說。“她公開承認自己犯下了一個昂貴的錯誤。”

Yahoo Seeks to Regain Its Touch

January 17, 2014


SAN FRANCISCO — It looks as if the Google pixie dust isn’t so easy to spread around.

Marissa Mayer’s arrival at Yahoo as chief executive a year and a half ago was widely hailed as an opportunity to infuse the struggling Internet pioneer with the smarts and cachet that had helped her succeed as a top executive at Google. She was one of the earliest employees at Google, with a reputation for inventiveness and attention to detail. If anyone could fix Yahoo, it was believed, it was Ms. Mayer.

But the announcement on Wednesday that she had tossed out her top lieutenant, Henrique de Castro, was her first public acknowledgment that turning around Yahoo would be far more difficult than has sometimes been suggested by the media attention she has received.

“That was Marissa’s first big hire,” said Robert Peck, an analyst at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. “You can imagine how difficult it would be to admit a mea culpa.”

Bringing on Mr. de Castro, who was also a longtime Google executive, was just one of many prominent moves Ms. Mayer has made, including buying the blog site Tumblr for $1.1 billion, hiring the television host Katie Couric to be the anchor to a new online news operation and starting an online food magazine.

While Ms. Mayer took the public spotlight — for example, she personally introduced Yahoo’s new consumer technology site at a trade show in Las Vegas this month — Mr. de Castro was charged with the less sexy but equally vital task of reviving Yahoo’s advertising business. While that would be a herculean task for anyone at a company whose fortunes have been declining for a decade, Mr. de Castro was particularly ill-suited for the job, according to ad-industry executives, analysts and people who worked with him at Google and Yahoo. When Ms. Mayer hired him, the choice mystified people both inside and outside the company. And tension quickly developed between the two leaders, according to the company insiders, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to not upset business relationships.

Mr. de Castro, a former consultant at McKinsey, was fond of using spreadsheets but was weak in his knowledge of Google’s products, said a person who worked with him at Google.
Additionally, he was not a charismatic salesman willing to schmooze with Madison Avenue marketers to persuade them to spend their ad dollars on Yahoo instead of on rivals like Facebook and Google.
“Henrique wasn’t as market-facing as his predecessors or competitors,” said Amanda Richman, president of investment and activation at Starcom USA, which buys billions of dollars of ads a year on behalf of big consumer brands like Kraft and Kellogg.
Mr. de Castro did not respond to phone and email messages on Thursday. Ms. Mayer declined a request for an interview.
Although colleagues universally described Mr. de Castro as very smart, they also said he was a poor communicator with an arrogant, abrasive manner. A native Portuguese speaker, his strongly accented English was sometimes hard to understand. At Google, Mr. de Castro had so many negative reviews from employees that the human resources department had been called in to review the situation, according to a person who worked with him there.
Google declined to comment on personnel matters.
In the end, the whole misadventure might not matter unless Ms. Mayer is able to redirect the company away from its failing core business of selling display ads.
“It certainly didn’t help that there may have been internal conflict, but it probably didn’t make a big difference, either,” said Brian Wieser, an analyst with the Pivotal Research Group. “You can’t overcome the structural issues.”
The splashy home-page banner ads that Yahoo rode to riches in the early days of the web are fading away in favor of Google’s search ads, Facebook’s targeted social ads and automated systems that reach consumers on smaller sites that charge a relative pittance. In mobile advertising, the hottest area of growth for the industry, Yahoo has virtually no presence.
In recent months, Yahoo has begun a series of initiatives to increase traffic to its sites, including new mobile apps, an overhaul of its Flickr photo service, expanded video news offerings and the consumer tech site, which is anchored by David Pogue, a former columnist for The New York Times.
“With content, there’s eyeballs, and with eyeballs, there’s advertising,” Mr. Peck said.
In addition, Yahoo has overhauled its ad-buying platform and added new formats like so-called native advertising, in which advertisers provide content that looks similar to other articles and videos on the site.
Ms. Richman said Yahoo has also been contacting more to advertisers, sharing more data about users and ad performance than its rivals, helping brands refine their marketing.
For now, investors are basically ignoring all of it.
“The funny thing is how little any of this matters to the stock,” Mr. Wieser said.
Wall Street values Yahoo, which closed on Thursday at $40.34, mostly for its partial ownership stakes in Alibaba, a successful Chinese e-commerce company that plans to sell stock to the public this year, and Yahoo Japan. The core business is not nearly as valuable.
In the third quarter, Yahoo reported revenue of $1.14 billion, down 5 percent from the previous year. Net income was $297 million, compared with $3.16 billion in the previous year, in which Yahoo had a gain of $2.8 billion from a sale of Alibaba shares.
It is not clear whether Ms. Mayer will choose another chief operating officer to succeed Mr. de Castro. She has divided his responsibilities among a number of other executives, with Ned Brody, a former AOL executive, overseeing the North American advertising business.
Mr. Peck said the attention on Alibaba’s expected initial public stock offering gives Ms. Mayer more time to fix Yahoo’s core business.
He also praised Ms. Mayer for having the courage to cut her losses on Mr. de Castro, even though his departure will cost the company tens of millions of dollars in severance and stock compensation that he was promised.
“It’s a testament to her,” he said. “She made a public acknowledgment of an expensive mistake.”

*****

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has said multiple times that advertisements, if done well, can actually improve the user experience


在美國,今年3月初的 Yahoo的一紙行政命令,更觸及企業員工/團隊的"創新vs 生產力"之吊詭。

紐約時報的大作家開始發雌威

Op-Ed Columnist

Get Off of Your Cloud

When Marissa Mayer became queen of the Yahoos last summer, she was hailed as a role model for women.
The 37-year-old supergeek with the supermodel looks was the youngest Fortune 500 chief executive. And she was in the third trimester of her first pregnancy. Many women were thrilled at the thought that biases against hiring women who were expecting, or planning to be, might be melting.
A couple months later, it gave her female fans pause when the Yahoo C.E.O. took a mere two-week maternity pause. She built a nursery next to her office at her own expense, to make working almost straight through easier.
The fear that this might set an impossible standard for other women — especially women who had consigned “having it all” to unicorn status — reverberated. Even the German family minister, Kristina Schröder, chimed in: “I regard it with major concern when prominent women give the public impression that maternity leave is something that is not important.”
Almost two months after her son, Macallister, was born, Mayer irritated some women again when she bubbled at a Fortune event that “the baby’s been way easier than everyone made it out to be.”
“Putting ‘baby’ and ‘easy’ in the same sentence turns you into one of those mothers we don’t like very much,” Lisa Belkin chided in The Huffington Post.
Now Mayer has caused another fem-quake with a decision that has a special significance to working mothers. She has banned Yahoos, as her employees are known, from working at home (which some of us call “working” at home).
It flies in the face of tech companies’ success in creating a cloud office rather than a conventional one. Mayer’s friend Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook wrote in her new feminist manifesto, “Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead,” that technology could revolutionize women’s lives by “changing the emphasis on strict office hours since so much work can be conducted online.”
She added that “the traditional practice of judging employees by face time rather than results unfortunately persists” when it would be more efficient to focus on results.
Many women were appalled at the Yahoo news, noting that Mayer, with her penthouse atop the San Francisco Four Seasons, her Oscar de la Rentas and her $117 million five-year contract, seems oblivious to the fact that for many of her less-privileged sisters with young children, telecommuting is a lifeline to a manageable life.
The dictatorial decree to work “side by side” had some dubbing Mayer not “the Steinem of Silicon Valley” but “the Stalin of Silicon Valley.”
Mayer and Sandberg are in an elite cocoon and in USA Today, Joanne Bamberger fretted that they are “setting back the cause of working mothers.” She wrote that Sandberg’s exhortation for “women to pull themselves up by the Louboutin straps” is damaging, as is “Mayer’s office-only work proclamation that sends us back to the pre-Internet era of power suits with floppy bow ties.”
Men accustomed to telecommuting were miffed, too. Richard Branson tweeted: “Give people the freedom of where to work & they will excel.”
While it is true that women have looked to technology as a leveling force in the marketplace, it is also true that tech innovators — even as far back as Bell Labs scientists — have designed their campuses around the management philosophy that intellectual ferment happens when you force smart people to collaborate in person and constantly bounce creative ideas off each other.
Mayer has shown that she is willing to do what it takes, with no coddling. She has a huge challenge in turning around Yahoo — she was the third of three C.E.O.’s at the company in 2012 alone. She had success brainstorming face to face during her years at Google, where she was the 20th employee, the first female engineer and the shepherd of more than 100 products. The Times’s Laura Holson wrote that when meeting with Google subordinates, Mayer came across like a “meticulous art teacher correcting first-semester students.”
Mayer’s bold move looks retro and politically incorrect, but she may feel the need to reboot the company culture, harness creativity, cut deadwood and discipline slackers before resuming flexibility.
Coming into the office, Yahoo H.R. chief Jackie Reses wrote in a memo, ensures that “some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people, and impromptu team meetings,” adding tartly that if “Yahoos” “have to stay home for the cable guy, please use your best judgment in the spirit of collaboration.”
Maybe as Mayer rejuvenates “the grandfather” of Internet companies, as she calls Yahoo, she needs the energy and synergy of a start-up mentality.
She seems to believe that enough employees are goofing off at home that she should bring them off the cloud and into the cubicle. But she should also be sympathetic to the very different situation of women — and men — struggling without luxurious layers of help.
Mayer has a nursery next to the executive suite. But not everyone has it so sweet.

雅虎女老闆和雲辦公技術唱對台


華盛頓
去年夏天,瑪麗莎·梅耶爾(Marissa Mayer)成了雅虎的女王,被譽為女性楷模。
當時她37歲,既是超級電腦天才,又有超級模特般的美貌,還是財富500強公司最年輕的首席執行官。而且,彼時她正懷着自己的第一個孩子,懷胎七個月左右。許多女性歡欣鼓舞地想,對僱傭孕期女性或計劃懷孕的女性的偏見可能正在消失。
兩個月後,她的女性崇拜者們就高興不起來了,因為這位雅虎首席執行官只休了兩周產假。她還自掏腰包,在辦公室旁邊建了一個育嬰室,好讓自己可以基本不間斷地工作。
梅耶爾此舉可能為其他女性樹立了一個無法企及的標杆,特別是那些已經認為“兼顧家庭和工作”是童話的女性。人們普遍有此擔憂。就連德國聯邦家庭事務 部部長克里斯蒂娜·施羅德(Kristina Schröder)也說,“高職位的女性給公眾造成這樣一種印象,認為產假並不重要。我對此非常擔心。”
梅耶爾生下兒子麥卡利斯特(Macallister)約兩個月之後,她再次惹惱了一些女性,因為她在一次《財富》雜誌(Fortune)活動中脫口而出,“生養孩子其實很容易,是大家把這事看的太嚴重了。”
麗薩·貝爾金(Lisa Belkin)在《赫芬頓郵報》(The Huffington Post)上斥責道:“把‘孩子’和‘容易’這兩個詞放在同一句話里,你就變成了我們不喜歡的那種媽媽。”
現在,梅耶爾又一次引發了女權地震,因為她做出了一個決定,將嚴重影響需要照顧孩子的職業女性。她禁止了雅虎僱員在家辦公。(我們中的一些人把這叫做在家“工作”。)
此舉直接挑戰了技術公司成功打造雲辦公而非傳統辦公模式的做法。梅耶爾的朋友、Facebook的謝莉爾‧桑德伯格(Sheryl Sandberg)在自己新的女性主義宣言之作《進取:女性、工作及領導意願》(Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead)一書中寫道,“由於許多工作可以在線進行,嚴格的上下班時間變得不再那麼重要了,”科技能讓女性生活發生變革。
她補充道,“不幸的是,根據辦公室出勤率而非工作成果評判僱員的傳統做法仍然根深蒂固,”儘管專註於成果更加有效率。
雅虎此舉讓許多女性震驚。她們認為,梅耶爾住在舊金山四季酒店(San Francisco Four Seasons)頂層的豪宅里,穿着奧斯卡·德拉倫塔服裝,拿着1.17億美元(約合7.02億元人民幣)的五年期合同,她似乎忘了,對她那些享受不到這 麼多優越條件,卻有孩子要照顧的姐妹們來說,遠程辦公是她們的生命線,不然生活就會一團糟。
這種大家必須“肩並肩”工作的獨裁式命令,使得一些人謔稱梅耶爾為“硅谷的斯大林”,而不是“硅谷的史丹能”(Gloria  Steinem,美國女權運動先鋒。——譯註)。
梅耶爾和桑德伯格都屬於精英階層。喬安妮·班伯格(Joanne Bamberger)在《今日美國》(USA Today)上憤怒地寫道,她們“讓需要照顧孩子的職業女性的處境發生了倒退。”她寫道,桑德伯格鼓勵“女性穿上高跟鞋去戰鬥”的論調是毀滅性的;正如梅 耶爾的辦公室宣言,“她宣布,只能在辦公室工作,讓我們回到了前互聯網時代,所有人都必須西裝革履的。”
習慣遠程辦公的男性也因此惱火。理乍得·布蘭森在Twitter上寫道,“讓人們自由選擇在哪裡上班,他們才會做的更好。”
儘管女性視技術為一種增進職場平等的力量,但是技術發明者們在設計工作模式時,依據的還是這樣的管理理念:只有讓聰明人面對面的合作,在接觸中不斷探討有創意的點子時,才會產生智力發酵效果。早在當年貝爾實驗室的科學家們那個時代,就是這麼做的。
梅耶爾已經表明,自己願意做一切必要的事,毫不心軟。她執掌雅虎時,面臨巨大挑戰:僅在2012年,雅虎就三易首席執行官,她是第三位。她在谷歌工 作時,有成功的面對面集體研討經驗。她是谷歌的第20名員工,首位女工程師,並負責過100多種產品的研發。《紐約時報》的羅拉·豪森(Laura Holson)曾寫道,在谷歌,梅耶爾跟下屬開會時“像一個一絲不苟的美術老師在糾正一年級學生的錯誤”。
梅耶爾的大膽之舉似乎是倒退的,政治不正確的。但是她可能認為,在恢復靈活性之前,需要重整公司文化,發揮員工創造力,裁汰冗員,整頓一下懶散的人。
雅虎人力資源總監雅姬·雷塞斯(Jackie Reses)在一份備忘錄中寫道,到辦公室上班,“雅虎僱員就可以在餐廳里、過道中討論問題,可以認識不同的人,可以即興進行小組會議,由此確保雅虎能做 出最佳決定,想出最棒的點子。”她尖刻地補充道,如果“雅虎僱員需要在家等有線電視公司的人,請本着團隊合作的精神自己好好判斷一下。”
梅耶爾把雅虎稱作互聯網公司中的“老爺爺”。可能她在讓這位“老爺爺”重獲青春的過程中,需要一點創業公司的那種活力與合力。
她似乎認為,許多僱員其實是在家裡遊手好閒,她得把他們從雲端拽下來,放到格子間里。但是,她也應該考慮到,那些女性,還有那些男性,他們跟她的情況並不一樣。他們沒有她那麼優厚的條件,只能自己辛苦努力。
在她的行政套間旁邊,梅耶爾有個育嬰室。但並非人人都享有如此美好的特權。
翻譯:梁英



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