Question of the Day: Yahoo!'s 100 days

Is Jerry Yang a founder out of touch?

By Carleen Hawn, July 18, 2007 — 1 Comment

“Om’s post today”:http://gigaom.com/2007/07/17/100-days-of-jerry/#more-9828 critiquing Yahoo! founder Jerry Yang’s proclamation in an earnings call yesterday that he would take 100 days to review his company’s stragtegic shortcomings has prompted some hot dialogue. Om writes candidly that he thinks 100 days is too long: “Am I the only one who is wondering why he needs 100 days to review the business. Is the mess that bad, that it needs a 3-month review?”

Some readers agree:
“I’m going to just get to the point, should I sell Yahoo shares now?” -John
“Yang needs this much time to figure out a company he’s the founder of ? What the hell was he doing during all those meetings with Terry and Dan??” -Tom

Others think the criticism unfair:
“The 90 days might well be the development time needed for a completely new business model…” -Mike
“I think Yang is right. He needs to first evaluate what needs to be done. And not move too quickly.” -Augustus

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK
1) Do founders have a responsibility to stay in close touch with their operations?
2) Is this a sign that a founder, once out of the driver’s seat for many years, is not the right person to handle an urgent turnaround?
3) How do you know when a founder’s time (as CEO) has passed, before it is too late?

About Carleen Hawn
Carleen Hawn is a business journalist based in San Francisco. Prior to editing Found|READ, she was an Associate Editor with Forbes, and the West Coast Bureau Chief and a Senior Writer for Fast Company magazine. Today you can find Carleen's articles in the pages of Financial Week, Business2.0, and Outside magazines, among others.