Marissa Mayer the CEO of Yahoo gets my vote. She is doing it all by the numbers.
When faced with a business like Yahoo with a substantial amount of dead weight dragging it down and a lot of legacy that needs to be cleaned up she has done an awesome job. The first steps in any rescue is to stop the bleed. Only after the patient is stabilised can you get to work in repairing the damage.
First she organises the redesign of the Yahoo interface to bring it up to date (this may even be an interim design).
Second she does something very unpopular that has employees and the media in an uproar. Even Sir Richard Branson just had to have a dig and criticise calling the move ‘perplexing’ and ‘backwards’ in today’s mobile work environment.
She improves productivity by making it difficult to use the system and slack off.. you can’t tell me that home and telecommuting workers are all 100% committed to the business and working to their maximum productivity. We all know it’s a big perk. If you want to disagree, please do, but I have seen it many times first hand. Yahoo has specific legacy here and many of the employees agree with the CEO.
Third she is removing the unprofitable or unsustainable products and services. A couple of days ago there was an announcement about Yahoo Shutting Down 7 Products. From my perspective this is all by the book or if you like “Rescue 101“. So what is Marissa’s next move? Anyone willing to take a punt at a guess?
In my opinion it will be another strategic move that may not be popular but will be designed to reduce the current cost base or possibly introduce a new product/service offering that will improve revenue figures.
Who ever said being a CEO is a popularity contest?
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