GIGAOM
OM MALIK
6 JULY 08
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German writer, once noted that “if you get on the wrong train, running down the aisle in the opposite direction really doesn’t help.” HBO series The Wire co-creator Edward Burns used that quote to describe the drug culture, bankruptcy of the political establishment and eventual fall of some of the great American cities in an interview with Reason magazine. You might as well use the same words to describe Yahoo!
Over past few months, Yahoo’s destiny has become fodder for headlines and cheap shots including some by myself. What hasn’t really been discussed is the systematic rot that has set into the once proud company. What hasn’t been discussed is that the company isn’t really facing up to the fact that its layers of management have resulted in a state of masterful inactivity, masked perhaps as a culture of consensus. This starts at the top - from the company’s board and senior management down to VP level where people are prone to organizing and attending twenty meetings before deciding the fate of a project.