July 17th, 2007
Yahoo to lay out strategic plan in next 100 days
Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang made his earnings conference call debut on Tuesday and said the next “100 days or so” will be spent mapping out the strategic plan for the company.
Yahoo, which reported its second quarter results and cut projections for the second half of 2007 (statement), will unveil a new strategic plan in the fall, said Yang.
“The next 100 days or so will be spent mapping out Yahoo’s strategic plan,” said Yang. “We’re well underway in our review of the business. We will move fast in a focused way.”
Yang, who noted that he took the CEO post “not out of obligation but desire,” said he will be taking a “fresh look” at Yahoo’s assets and deemphasizing parts that are not performing well or don’t fit in.
Yang acknowledged that he didn’t have all the answers today, but said he intends to get them. He said:
“I believe Yahoo is too often defined by the competitive landscape. Yahoo is a deep and active market place. The way we will strengthen Yahoo is to strengthen the market place. There’s a gap of where Yahoo is and where Yahoo needs to be.”
In the short run, here are Yahoo’s priorities pending the strategic review:
- Insight: Yang said Yahoo wants to leverage data across the advertising platform for advertisers and publishers. For users, this means better personalization.
- Faster decision making: Yang said Yahoo will focus on differentiated products.
- Set a new bar for Yahoo culture: Yang said he intends to prioritize teamwork, leadership and the will to win. Yang also noted that the search for a new CTO is underway and he plans to “bring on additional leaders to the company.”
Yang also noted that Yahoo will coalesce around key principles such as insight and openness for its partners and users.
“We will accelerate transformation and invest heavily,” said Yang. “We are in investment mode.”
It was a good opening performance for Yang. Now all he has to do is deliver.
Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and Editorial Director of ZDNet sister site TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.
Subscribe to Between the Lines via Email alerts or RSS.
