by News Editor
L. Sutherland
L. Sutherland
Carol Bartz, the recently appointed chief executive of Yahoo!, seems keen to make her mark on the struggling search engine. Bartz announced a company-wide shuffle that would result in a top-down management structure designed to streamline the company. In a blog post, titled Getting our house in order, Bartz revealed her plans for a new management plan designed to make Yahoo! "a lot faster on its feet" and improve its brand image.
But a speedier information exchange within the company wasn't the only thing she revealed. Bartz went on to imply that Yahoo! hadn't been very efficient at picking up on what was going on around it and explained what she hoped to do about it. She said:
"I've noticed that a lot of us on the inside don't spend enough time looking to the outside. That's why I'm creating a new Customer Advocacy group. After getting a lot of angry calls at my office from frustrated customers, I realized we could do a better job of listening to and supporting you. Our Customer Care team does an incredible job with the amazing number of people who come to them, but they need better resources. So we're investing in that. After all, you deserve the very best."
Staff changes haven't been officially announced yet - apart from the departure of chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen, but a Yahoo! internal memo released by Reuters indicates a number of the changes ahead. For example, a new position - chief marketing officer - will be filled by Elisa Steele, a senior executive at NetApp, and Joel Jones, a corporate strategist at Yahoo!, will take a new role as Bartz's chief of staff.
It seems that the last few years have been packed with similar reorganisations for Yahoo!, but maybe Bartz's attempt to speed up decision making will result in a less cumbersome, and more dynamic, business model. Her large-scale shake up is one thing, but if she can revamp the Yahoo! brand and reassure customers that the search engine is here to stay that's entirely another.
