Scott Monty

The Last Straw at Yahoo - or, My Bologna Has a Second Name

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It's M-A-Y-E-R.<br />
<br />
Have you been following the Yahoo saga? In fairness, it's been going on for 20 years, but the last four under Marissa Mayer have been particularly fulsome. I covered much of the early history, right through the Verizon purchase in <a href="http://smonty.co/fullmonty05">Episode 5</a> of <a href="http://fullmontyshow.com/show" target="_blank">The Full Monty</a>.<br />
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Mayer has made some big bets with the company's assets, including the $640 million purchase of Brightroll and the $1.1 billion acquisition of Tumblr. In case you were following, the Tumblr purchase was written down - twice - to the tune of $710 million.<br />
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Her focus has been on so-called "MaVeNS" - an acronym for mobile, video, native and social - said to be the key to Yahoo's future, against which everything was balanced. However, it was never broken out as a separate business unit and was subsumed into everything else the company did. The laudable intention was to simplify Yahoo, but functionally, nothing changed.<br />
<br />
One thing that did change was Yahoo's work-from-home policy. Mayer very quickly eliminated that, thus alienating a huge group of employees, many of whom were working mothers. She didn't do herself any favors when she had a nursery installed in her office so she could return to work after only 2 weeks of maternity leave. Not every employee had that option.<br />
<br />
So, we come to part of our story where Verizon purchased the core assets of Yahoo for $4.8 billion. Happy ending, right?<br />
<br />
Not so fast. Since that time, a few things have surfaced. Namely: <br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-yahoo-nsa-exclusive-idUSKCN1241YT">Yahoo secretly scanned all incoming emails of users</a> on behalf of U.S. intelligence, in what is said to be the largest and most comprehensive operation of its kind. The good news is that Yahoo Mail users' accounts are mostly jokes that they incessantly forward to their kids. </li>
<li>Those 500 million user mail accounts were involved in a data breach in 2014, which Yahoo disclosed only weeks ago. Insiders say that <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/29/technology/yahoo-data-breach-hacking.html">security took a back seat to CEO Marissa Mayer's other priorities</a>, as she denied additional funding to the security team and didn't want a massive password reset or a warning message sent out to users. </li>
<li>After this news, <a href="http://venturebeat.com/2016/10/06/verizon-reportedly-wants-1-billion-discount-on-yahoo/">Verizon asked for a $1 billion discount</a> on the sale price. Rightfully so. </li>
<li>And then came the news that <a href="http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/10/06/yahoo-ceo-marissa-mayer-led-illegal-purge-of-male-employees-lawsuit-charges/">Mayer discriminated against male employees</a> based on their gender. </li>
</ul>
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Any one of these things would seem to be a dereliction of duty. Yahoo's board - historically ineffectual - still doesn't seem to be concerned about Mayer's fitness to lead, nor do they particularly have a sense of urgency about things.<br />
<br />
Well, as I typically include a poem in each episode of <a href="http://fullmontyshow.com/show" target="_blank">The Full Monty</a>, I've decided to dedicate this one to Yahoo's current CEO (with apologies to Dr. Seuss).<br />
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<h4>
<b>Marissa A. Mayer, Will You Please Go Now!</b></h4>
The time has come. The time is now.<br />
Just go. Go. GO! I don't care how.<br />
You can go by foot. You can go by cow.<br />
Marissa A. Mayer, will you please go now!<br />
<br />
You can go on skates. You can go on skis.<br />
You can go in a hat. But please go. Please!<br />
<br />
You can go on a bike. <br />
You can go on a purple bike if you like.<br />
<br />
You can Wander and Blink and Aviate too.<br />
Just go, go, GO! <br />
Please do, do, DO!<br />
<br />
Marissa A. Mayer, I don't care how.<br />
Marissa A. Mayer, will you please GO NOW!<br />
<br />
You can go on stilts. You can go by fish.<br />
You can go in a Tumblr if you wish.<br />
<br />
If you wish you may go <br />
by Yahoo mail.<br />
Just scan yourself <br />
and leave Sunnydale.<br />
<br />
Marissa A. Mayer!<br />
Don't you know <br />
the time has come<br />
to go, Go, GO!<br />
<br />
Get on your way!<br />
Please, Marissa A.!<br />
You might like going in a Flickr way.<br />
You can go by neglect…or lack of sense<br />
You even can go by incompetence.<br />
<br />
You can go by lawsuit…or jet.<br />
I don't care how you go. Just GET!<br />
<br />
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Get yourself some ravens.<br />
Fly away with your MaVENS!<br />
<br />
Marissa, Marissa!<br />
Will you leave this room!<br />
<br />
Marissa A. Mayer! I don't care HOW.<br />
Marissa A. Mayer! Will you please GO NOW!<br />
<br />
I said GO and GO I meant…<br />
The time had come, SO…Marissa WENT.</div>
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<b><i>If you liked this commentary, you can listen to it in my podcast <a href="http://fullmontyshow.com/show/fullmonty08" style="color: #280170; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">The Full Monty</a>. Subscribe <a href="http://fullmontyshow.com/subscribe" style="color: #280170; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">via email</a> or on <a href="http://smonty.co/fullmontyitunes" style="color: #280170; text-decoration: none;">iTunes</a>, <a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen?t=The_Full_Monty&utm_content=buffer2143a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer&u=0&view=/ps/Iy3ehvkts2zousixune2kwgmhl4" style="color: #280170; text-decoration: none;">Google Play</a>, <a href="http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=96004&refid=stpr" style="color: #280170; text-decoration: none;">Stitcher</a>, <a href="http://www.spreaker.com/show/the-full-monty_1" style="color: #280170; text-decoration: none;">Spreaker</a> or <a href="http://soundcloud.com/fullmontyshow" style="color: #280170; text-decoration: none;">SoundCloud</a>.</i></b></h4>
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The Last Straw at Yahoo - or, My Bologna Has a Second Name

It's M-A-Y-E-R. Have you been following the Yahoo saga? In fairness, it's been going on for 20 years, but the last four under M...

How Leaders Should Communicate

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Leaders — particularly business leaders like presidents and CEOs — are typically in the public spotlight. Many times, they are the face of their company and give statements to the press or even interact with customers online.<br />
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As the company's chief spokesperson, the CEO spends about 50 percent of their time performing functions that are associated with communications. This includes writing, presenting and public speaking, involving all of an organization's stakeholders. Emails to employees, cogent presentations, question and answer sessions with the board, speeches to townhalls, investors, and industry groups.<br />
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And in doing so, the Communicator-in-Chief should have a clear, succinct and memorable message. Because if anything, leadership is about taking complex ideas and making them understandable, relatable and actionable. In short, effective communication means clarity.<br />
<br />
So, let's pause for a moment and reflect on the communications ability of one of the presidential candidates. There's no doubt that Donald Trump has managed to tap into a vein of discord and dissatisfaction in America, and has used Twitter in particular to fan the flames. The 140-character platform seems perfect for his insults, jabs, and sound bite-laden thoughts. But if you listen to him speak at events where he has unprepared remarks - and let's face it: that's most of them - he speaks in disjointed tweets.<br />
<br />
But separate from his success with his core supporters, one must ask whether or not his style of speaking helps or hurts his cause with a broader audience. Is it clear? Is it understandable? Does he have a message?<br />
<br />
Let's look at one speech which <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/lexicon_valley/2015/07/31/donald_trump_this_run_on_sentence_from_a_speech_in_sun_city_south_carolina.html">Salon.com asked readers to help diagram</a>:<br />
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Any takers? The only thing worse than having to figure out how to diagram that sentence is having to listen to it over and over again as you get a transcript.<br />
<br />
While the jumbled thoughts may leave you scratching or shaking your head, largely due to the lack of coherent message and syntax, there is one thing that Trump can get credit for: repetition. Not repetition of message, but rather repetition of words like they and it. <br />
<br />
As you think about the leaders you admire and their ability to effectively communicate - consider Ronald Reagan, who was known as the Great Communicator - their success doesn't depend on how well they speak to stakeholders who currently support them, but rather on how well they can persuade those who don't yet agree with them.<br />
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The best leaders are natural storytellers. Stories have a beginning, a middle and an end, and are easy to follow, whether they're written or spoken. And whichever role you inhabit — writer, speaker, or leader — you have a responsibility to your audience to bring them along the journey with you, ensuring they aren't inadvertently stranded on the way to the common understanding. <br />
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After all, that's why you're the leader.<br />
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<b><i>If you liked this commentary, you can listen to it in my podcast <a href="http://fullmontyshow.com/show/fullmonty08" style="color: #280170; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">The Full Monty</a>. Subscribe <a href="http://fullmontyshow.com/subscribe" style="color: #280170; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">via email</a> or on <a href="http://smonty.co/fullmontyitunes" style="color: #280170; text-decoration: none;">iTunes</a>, <a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen?t=The_Full_Monty&utm_content=buffer2143a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer&u=0&view=/ps/Iy3ehvkts2zousixune2kwgmhl4" style="color: #280170; text-decoration: none;">Google Play</a>, <a href="http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=96004&refid=stpr" style="color: #280170; text-decoration: none;">Stitcher</a>, <a href="http://www.spreaker.com/show/the-full-monty_1" style="color: #280170; text-decoration: none;">Spreaker</a> or <a href="http://soundcloud.com/fullmontyshow" style="color: #280170; text-decoration: none;">SoundCloud</a>.</i></b></h4>
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<i>Image credit: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:General_George_Washington_Resigning_his_Commission.jpg#/media/File:General_George_Washington_Resigning_his_Commission.jpg" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a></i></div>
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How Leaders Should Communicate

Leaders — particularly business leaders like presidents and CEOs — are typically in the public spotlight. Many times, they are the face o...

Twitter Needs a Sense of Urgency

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Twitter is in a rut. If you look at the growth of user numbers each quarter, you'll find a relatively flat number, hovering around 310 million monthly active users on a good month. The latest numbers show that <a href="http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Twitters-Share-of-US-Social-Network-Users-Dropping/1014343">Twitter's share of social network users in the United States is dropping</a>, with only two percent year-on-year growth.<br />
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If you look at the stock price over the last year, it's down over 40 percent. It continues to be a haven for trolls, yet it is a dominant source of breaking news. It's Donald Trump's weapon of mass distraction. But no discernable progress on the product and the company's strategy have been made. A series of top executives from the product, media and communications teams have left over the last six months. <br />
<br />
The public — at least the non Twitter-using public — still doesn't understand what Twitter is. And perhaps the issue is that neither does Twitter. We just witnessed what happened to Yahoo after a decade of not being able to effectively define itself. On one day, Twitter seems to be mimicking elements of Facebook. On another, it's <a href="http://qz.com/758484/twitter-believes-stickers-are-the-latest-answer-to-its-woes/">adding stickers</a> to be more like Snapchat. On the next, it is focused on <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/15/technology/with-nfl-deal-twitter-live-streams-its-ambitions.html?_r=0">streaming video deals with major sports franchises</a> and media outlets. <br />
<br />
To this commentator at least, Twitter doesn't seem to have any appreciable strategy for digging itself out of these doldrums. As of this writing, it is considering a sale and with Google, Apple and Disney bowing out of the bidding, it looks like <a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/10/5/13181704/disney-twitter-buy-iger-dorsey" target="_blank">Salesforce is the lead contender</a>.<br />
<br />
If we return to what Jack Dorsey said when he was initially made CEO, he pledged three things, as noted recently in <a href="http://www.recode.net/2016/8/19/12540422/twitter-slow-execution-killing-urgency-turnaround-jack-dorsey">Recode</a>: <br />
<ol>
<li>Ensure a more disciplined execution </li>
<li>Simplify our service to deliver Twitter’s value faster </li>
<li>Better communicate our value. </li>
</ol>
<br />
Let's just focus on the last two: simplify the service and improve communication. For all of its brevity in 140 characters, Twitter is immensely complex. The platform seems to be whatever you define it to be: an advertising medium, a research tool, a community, a news feed, a crisis management utility. The simplification, both in the product itself and how we refer to it, has yet to arrive.<br />
<br />
And the communication function at Twitter — much like the rest of the Silicon Valley startups — has been lax and reactive. If I were advising the communications team there, I'd recommend creating a message that supports the company's strategy (assuming it has one) and aggressive storytelling and media relations. The public can't be expected to understand Twitter without Twitter better communicating what it is.<br />
<br />
A big part of that effort should be more frequent and visible communications from Twitter's CEO, Jack Dorsey. As mentioned in <a href="http://smonty.co/fullmonty07">Episode 7</a>, the CEO is the communicator-in-chief. But Jack is also the CEO of Square — a job he didn't want to give up when he returned to Twitter to take the same role. As a result, <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/features/2016-twitter-dorsey-strategy/" target="_blank">Jack Dorsey is losing control of Twitter</a>.<br />
<br />
Whether or not the market or others realize it, Twitter is on the cusp of <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/on-anniversary-of-dorseys-return-twitter-is-exploring-sale-1475681282?tesla=y" target="_blank">the fight for its life</a>. A half-time CEO with a less than urgent approach is not what the company currently needs. If I were on Twitter's board, I'd demand that Jack Dorsey put more than 140 characters' worth of effort into figuring out how he's going to solve the aforementioned issues. <br />
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Because right now, it looks like you don't know, Jack.<br />
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<b><i>If you liked this commentary, you can listen to it in my podcast <a href="http://fullmontyshow.com/show/fullmonty08" style="color: #280170; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">The Full Monty</a>. Subscribe <a href="http://fullmontyshow.com/subscribe" style="color: #280170; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">via email</a> or on <a href="http://smonty.co/fullmontyitunes" style="color: #280170; text-decoration: none;">iTunes</a>, <a href="https://play.google.com/music/listen?t=The_Full_Monty&utm_content=buffer2143a&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer&u=0&view=/ps/Iy3ehvkts2zousixune2kwgmhl4" style="color: #280170; text-decoration: none;">Google Play</a>, <a href="http://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=96004&refid=stpr" style="color: #280170; text-decoration: none;">Stitcher</a>, <a href="http://www.spreaker.com/show/the-full-monty_1" style="color: #280170; text-decoration: none;">Spreaker</a> or <a href="http://soundcloud.com/fullmontyshow" style="color: #280170; text-decoration: none;">SoundCloud</a>.</i></b></h4>
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<i>Image credit: <a href="https://flic.kr/p/vCDSXR" target="_blank">Francesco Veronesi (Flickr)</a></i></div>
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Twitter Needs a Sense of Urgency

Twitter is in a rut. If you look at the growth of user numbers each quarter, you'll find a relatively flat number, hovering around 31...

Scott Monty - Strategic Communications & Leadership Advisor

The Last Straw at Yahoo - or, My Bologna Has a Second Name

How Leaders Should Communicate

Twitter Needs a Sense of Urgency

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