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My meeting with Carol Bartz…was …quite shattering :-(

By Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal on 23 Comments / 1454 views

I met Carol Bartz in a very nice sit down lunch discussion organized by Yahoo India in Nov 2009

 

Yeah – like a moron, I used to wear proper shirts and jackets at that time.

 

Anyway, this is why my first and last meeting with Carol Bartz was ‘shattering’ :

 

– The FIRST and I mean FIRST thing Carol Bartz spoke about when she started her speech was about ‘Yahoo E-Mail’ and the NUMBER OF MAILS that Y! sends out everyday!

 

She labored about the fact that there were zillions of servers that Y! employed and how amazing the entire concept was!!

 

REALLY?

 

I was stunned! Was this someone who had never heard of the cloud and what new Internet architecture was becoming?? I mean what was the big deal about lots of servers and lots of mails??

 

It was stunning to have heard her berating us with the Y! mail piece as if it were a new technology to land a spaceship on the sun.

 

– I asked her ‘why Yahoo has NOT GONE SOCIAL’ ?

 

I pointed out that Y! was a massive massive community of real people ‘hanging’ out on Y! everyday and it was like a MASSIVE fully loaded Football Field WITH THE LIGHTS OFF.

All that was needed was to TURN the lights ON – via a ‘social connect’ button/bar/anything!

 

What Carol Bartz responded back was by saying that PHOTOS was the BIG THING that consumers were sharing and they had flickr that was a great service.

 

I STILL REMEMBER asking her ‘ Carol – WHY NOT GAMES’ ? ( yeah, it was of course a selfish pitch) and I did labor that a majority of Y! users are American Women who happen to be the sweet spot for Zynga Games and hence it was a perfect way to get social and sticky….

 

Carol smiled.

 

– I complimented her about her new India centric Television, Print and TV campaign.

 

Carol’s face lit up and she was very happy that I could actually spell out the base line of the campaign. 

 

Well, I was flattering her for some brownie points but it occurred to me that this was the CEO of one of the largest Internet Company’s of the world getting excited about traditional media ads – something most Internet firms think of as very avoidable and unproductive.

 

– Someone asked her about Facebook.

 

The response was SHOCKING. She said – ‘yeah, I know… That’s what they always ask me in San Francisco, New York, London etc. That’s because the people in these cities think that Facebook is the begginning and end of the world. Well, I tell them – GO TO MIDDLE AMERICA – Ask the Housewife there what she thinks of Y! and then you will know’.

 

That made NO SENSE AT ALL. The Internet was and is a global phenomena. Not local honey that sells in small country farms!! 

 

(ps – those same women now throng facebook and connect with all their friends and relatives and like how)

 

I came back feeling puzzled. She seemed old, out of context and very confused about what Y! was GREAT ABOUT. 

 

NOTE – Lots of the points above may not be the ad verbatim discussion in that meeting – BUT it captures the essense of my meeting with her.  Apologies if there is an exaggeration.

 

Also, a few people including some comments in this post ask ‘Alok – why say this now? When you felt so strongly that time, why didn’t you say so?  Well:


– I WAS CHICKEN – I didn’t have the courage to think of challenging a 60 year old veteran who had made a big reputation for herself. 

– Facebook was still a ‘concept’

– I was possibly pandering to Y! for business/deals etc. In that pursuit, I even wrote a positive post on this meeting (keeping the bad stuff out coz i wasn’t even sure if it was bad and just writing on the person and the good stuff). Now, I deleted that post today but after an amazing whack on the head by fellow rodinhooder Gajendrasingh Verma who commented below, I decided to re-instate that post, available here. This was one of the most educative moments for me! But, I live and learn!

– I had just read a story about Carol Bartz around the time of this meeting: She had breast cancer and was recovering from Chemotherapy. On her way to work, she had chosen spots along the drive (I think from Sausilito to San Fran city) where she would get out and Vomit. She had pre-defined her vomit spots. I was awestruck by someone of this courage and strength.


 

In any case – I LOVE YAHOO. ALWAYS DID – ALWAYS WILL. 

 

I also deeply respect Jerry Yang and David Filo and they will remain my super heroes forever. 

 

******

 

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23 Comments

  1. My father and I were having a discussion which in this context makes sense, as to why the likes of Apple, Google still are revered and why Y! has sorta of lost its charm. I hear there is a SELL out for their stock and the company.

    Its the fact that there was no, and there was no attempt … to have a HERO of the Yahoo Story.

    As Alok points out, there is a massive traffic which still flows to YAHOO but is there one PRODUCT on Yahoo we absolutely ADORE and can’t get enough of. Sadly .. NO.

    I won’t even get to that with the likes of Apple and Google,since it would be a totally unfair comparison.

    For eg –
    Apple has iPod, iPhone, iPad, iTunes, iStore, etc 
    Google has Gmail, YouTube, G+, Gmail for Organisations, Search 

     

    Sadly, though, I don’t know if the traffic to Yahoo as a property could be leveraged. There is an opportunity right there on encashing this traffic by ‘switching the lights on in the stadium’. 

    I am imagining Ms Bartz was given the charge to find the switch and turn it on, but instead she was getting enamoured by the number of servers, hits and emails and was ‘Doing the Bartzman’.

    The truth though stares in our faces, and it is that one of the icons of the Internet, is dying a slow death.

  2. I agree. I was chicken.

  3. Rightly Abhishek, as you point out Hindsight is always 20:20

  4. The answers were really shattering provided that what level she was at.

     

    They have been outclassed in everything they have done. Email, IM, Search engine, Hosting. No tangible product line…nothing, somebody is already providing elsewhere, in a better way.

    They should realize by now that there is a fundamental flaw in the way that they go about things, it is not about hiring or firing.

  5. One small reason why so many migrated from Yahoo to Gmail was the spam messages you get on the Ymessenger.

    The 1st thing i came to know in Internet was yahoo and I still use the same mail id but had stopped using the messenger since ages.

  6. I WAS CHICKEN – I didn’t have the courage to think of challenging a 60 year old veteran who had made a big reputation for herself. 

    – Facebook was still a ‘concept’

    – I was possibly pandering to Y! for business/deals etc.

    – I had just read a story about Carol Bartz around the time of this meeting: She had breast cancer and was recovering from Chemotherapy. On her way to work, she had chosen spots along the drive (I think from Sausilito to San Fran city) where she would get out and Vomit. She had pre-defined her vomit spots. I was awestruck by someone of this courage and strength.


  7. Dear Rodinhood,

    I like the life and business experiences that you share with your readers. Thanks a ton for that.

    But today i witnessed your funny side . I was laughing like anything after i searched for your previous post – rendezvous with carol bartz. I distinctively remembered the quotes u had used for carol – “Carol has come across a person in command, very experienced…. and some more adjectives 🙂  Just to verify whether i was correct, I tried searching for that post – 😀 . Unbelivably , i found that the post was removed LOL . Unfortunately, search engines remember whatever you feed them 🙂

    i found that post here – bit.ly/mR6lqo

    What a U turn 🙂 LOL . 

    Happens 🙂  Its human. Just that, it appeared a little shocking cause it is from The Rodinhood – may be, after reading so much from you, i started perceiving you differently – straight forward person whose thoughts are shaped by experience and understanding and not by circumstances.

    I will not be surprised if my post is editted or deleted, and  i’m banned henceforth 🙂

    And yes,as this might be my last reply[as i might get banned ;)], i would like to thank you for all the experience that you shared. Wish you all the best !

    Regards
    G

  8. no no, its not going to be deleted. I did take a U TURN! I admit that I was overawed by her.

     

    And this was a case of a clear reversal in thinking!

     

     

  9. I am confused G – why would you say I will ‘ban’ you or anything like that?

     

    I mean isn’t it human to like and get awed by someone (while keeping a lot of the strange/not so good stuff in their heads)…  like you did about me and now have a reversal

     

    Its like reading those old quotes by people who went absolutely wrong!

     

    What I AM INDEBTED TO YOU TODAY is teaching me one more level of honesty – I should have KEPT THE POST as is and WRITTEN THAT AS A DISCLOSURE!!

     

    WELL GUESS WHAT???

     

    I DID EXACTLY THAT JUST NOW (Check post)

     

    THANK YOU MY FRIEND. I HAVE LEARNT AN INVALUABLE LESSON TODAY!

     

     

  10. Yahoo did have a much hyped attempt at social networking – Y! Mash. And this was a collasal failure and was shut down last year. Google would probably have learned something from that but I predict G+ will end up in the same place. I mean, who wants to be in a room full of people with no one talking to you.

  11. WOW! Awesome thread, What were you thinking, Gabbar bhool jayenga, saabasi denga ? haan ?

    LolX. K!ller.

  12. @ Alok: Give Jyoti’s posts a like button, or rather sometimes i think that Jyoti is Aloks profile under a pseudo name 😉

  13. gabbar became disillusioned.

  14. yes because Gabbar ke paas Vasco-Da-Gama ki gun nahi hai 😉 LolX am just having fun man, its a sunday & am working i i get weird 😉

  15. sorry boss. then u haven’t understood Alok Kejriwal, Rodinhood or therodinhoods.wpengine.com

     

    disappointed to read such a juvenile comment.

  16. Yes i have noticed that ! but 2 contradicting & well expressed view points are always beneficial, it helps you easily calculate the Pros Vs Cons. I am appreciating the method you guys write in, not the content.

  17. Where Enterprising People Meet ! 

    Still confused on whom you reacted to ?? :-S

  18. this one:

     

    @ Alok: Give Jyoti’s posts a like button, or rather sometimes i think that Jyoti is Aloks profile under a pseudo name 😉

     

    Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal doesn’t need Psuedo names. NEVER.

  19. Wow! didn’t know you take jokes so seriously, i think you should have read it in context, i wasn’t comparing you either. I intended to say that she writes well and you are better. 

     

    Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal doesn’t need Psuedo names. NEVER. – Juvenile & Disappointing 🙁

  20. I agree. Jyoti also pointed that to me. I mistook the point completely. Juvenile and disappointing…both agreed.

    Pardon.

  21. NP Alok ! It was a good day ! My welcome experience with weird people like me, feels like home. TTYL

  22. Thank You mam ! Aap nahi hoti toh aaj Dhanno aur Basanti naraz ho jate.

    on a serious note, Thanks it was a good experience, just how communication is interpreted from people to people 🙂

  23. NOW THAT’S MY KINDA COMMENT!!!!

    Say this kinda stuff yaar….

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