YAHOO! REORGANIZATION
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I wish I knew more. Carol Bartz, new CEO of Yahoo!, today announced her plans for the expected reorganization. Whenever I read of a reorg, I'm interested in seeing how much of the discussion focuses on moving the boxes in the org chart - and the people in those boxes -- and how much focuses on the company's policies, procedures, technology, strategy, etc. As I teach in my org design course, "You can't change just one thing" - (Skwish toy example)
Neither can you change everything all at once. Better to take small bites (ok, still a big bite in this case), see how it's working (e.g., track, look for evidence), and make adjustments or renegotiations as needed.
In the full memo to the employees (thanks CNET and Steven Shankland) she says,
I know you guys have reorg fatigue. Hang in there--our intention is to leave this structure in place for two to four years. We'll continue to make adjustments as needed, but we expect this core structure to stay put.I'm loving the dynamic. I also love that in the memo she touches on the full organizational design, including their own technology infrastructure -- not just that which is customer facing:
Service Engineering & Operations: This new team is responsible for delivering common technology services at scale, including application management and infrastructure. No matter how cool our products are, the customer's experience won't be great unless our applications consistently deliver. Note that we're bringing Service Engineering together as one group because these engineers bring expertise that is best applied horizontally. Leading this organization is David Dibble, who joined Yahoo! in December. David's team also will be accountable for delivering more effective corporate IT systems.... and finally, she understands how to manage the whitespace -- that part of the organization chart that isn't between the lines:
Also, as you know, no organizational structure is a substitute for collaboration, communication and trust. We'll all need to evolve our behavior a bit--as teams and as individuals--to make this structure work the way it's designed.I wish them all the best. And, yes, I do love purple....
