Yahoo! Needs To Reinvent Itself… And Become Like a Startup

I’m probably a little bit late on this topic (all of 12 hours), but I find it to be an important one. The Yahoo! memo by Grad Garlinghouse, that was leaked today finally let’s Yahoo! come clean: they’re in trouble. They’ve spread themselves too thin and are way too big, is the basic overview of the letter. How can Yahoo! fix the problem? THINK LIKE A STARTUP. Best of all, Yahoo! has some of THE best startup talent out there ie- Flickr, Delicious, Bix, etc. Yahoo! is brewing with startup ideology, and it needs to be let loose. Right now, Yahoo! feels like a boring old traditional media company. That’s a shame, because I’ve always loved Yahoo!, and still do. Yahoo! was one of the first sites I used as a kid, at about the age of 11. So here are the startup tips Yahoo! needs to focus on:

Focus- Find a clear and simple message for the company. What are you going to make your mission internally, and then how can that be displayed to the public. Is it search, is it advertising, is it social media,etc? What do you want people to start thinking of Yahoo! for starting 2007 on. Startups need to focus on something and do it right, ask any VC or entrepreneur. Yahoo! needs the same from itself
Consolidate- There are way too many Yahoo! products doing the same damn thing. This is an identity crisis for the user, and it takes away mind share. Yes, delicious is growing, but it will never become monstrous with MyYahoo. Same with Flickr. Stop confusing your users. Unify everything, and consolidate it. Think about it, all the good startups are clear with what their product features do. They definitely don’t have repetitive ones.

Bring Out Leaders- Get rid of the hierachy that is too entagled, but create leaders. With the consolidation of products and focus, it needs to be glued together by GREAT LEADERS. The same way startups work because of who leads them, is the same way Yahoo! can succeed if it has larger than life leaders in the company.

Be Smart With You Money aka Bang For Your Buck- No you don’t need to buy Facebook to shock and awe the world with a big acquisition. That’s right, get rid of your “Google bought youtube” pride. Startups are known for doing A LOT more with A LOT less. Snatching up smaller companies in the 10-30 million dollar range is a great move, and something Yahoo! has been doing. DON’T SPEND, JUST TO SHOW OFF.

Is it stupid of me to suggest that Yahoo! can succeed by acting like a startup? Maybe. Something has to happen. Yahoo! is getting to be big, boring, and just the status quo like AOL. I love Yahoo!, and I believe that they will reinvent themselves. It will be one hell of a ride.

PS- Peanut butter Sucks

[tags] yahoo, web 2.0, startups, memo, google, youtube, facebook, delicious, flickr, publictivity,tech crunch, Brad Garlinghouse [/tags]