Back in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, Yahoo was one of the companies that were pushing Telcom providers to deliver faster internet speeds to everyone; not just the cities but the suburbs and rural America. They were peddling the theory that telecommuting was the wave of the future and everyone needed faster-than-dialup speeds. I applaud this because it offered me great career opportunities during my rudderless years as a Graphic Designer and artist. Even now I’m able to work from home doing what I do because of our DSL here in the North-East of the middle of nowhere.
A year or so again the new CEO of Yahoo decided to rescind the “work from home” policy because she claims that it didn’t work; people weren’t getting enough done based solely on data she saw in log-in reports to their servers. Little does she know that many of us get work done only by shutting off the internet before hunkering down, causing her philosophy to be flawed.
There’s also the notion that she what’s other companies to pay “Yahoo!” for the tools their employees to use to work from home, but working from home isn’t good enough for her employees.
Yahoo is alienating their potential client base by making some other genuine stupid moves – like buying companies like the makers of the Astrid app that people like me used for managing or time and then shutting them down without replacing them with something else. I was forced to try other apps and found another one that suits my needs that I rely on now; I have no reason to go back to Astrid or whatever Yahoo will call their app in the future.
I have no desire to use Yahoo products because of their current business model and forcing customers to look for alternatives. The screwing we’re getting now will result in our shunning them in the years to come. Investing in Yahoo is like buying the gun and the bullets for your burglar to use against you later. I can’t help but want Ms. Mayer to disappear and take Yahoo along with her.
This is an example of how you don’t run a business; or it’s a great example of how to ruin a business! Don’t alienate your employees or your customer base at the same time. If you take away a product or service away from the customers you better have a replacement right away.
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