Wenda Harris Millard, who joined Yahoo! the same year Terry Semel did and helped take US ad sales from $240M to $1.5B in less than a decade resigned today. Gregory Coleman, Yahoo’s EVP of Global Sales added:
“While Wenda Harris Millard was a big contributor to our success in the past, the industry has shifted and requires a different set of skills to take the business forward. We appreciate her dedication during her years of service and wish her well in the next chapter of her career.”
WTF? I don’t know the backstory, rumor was that Millard would be leaving for OMD, turns out she left for Martha Stewart instead. But why did Coleman find the need to add that line?
In fact, it’s not just Coleman, whom I don’t know, but all management types tend to become royal assholes with one another. I’m really not talking about Coleman, but generally, my experience and observations are that folks in management roles think that the Board, the very senior management or investors will think highly of them if they tow the company line to the extreme when in fact it makes them look like spineless saps. Ultimately, I think it makes them all look bad.
You see it all of the time: a guy is employed by a company and goes out of his way to demonstrate some kind of fake, phony loyalty. Then he’s out, for whatever reason, and he turns on his former employer and pisses on them publicly.
They’re all a bunch of hypocrits. A good example was a senior executive I once worked with who’s now at a major media company: he himself bragged about bolting from his old employer and breaking his non-compete and joining the competition… he had no qualms. Then months afterwards when one of his subordinates left to start his new company, the SOB went all legal and sued to shut the new business down even though he had no merit. Did he think his employer would think highly of him? All he did was look like a putz.
Folks, avoid either extreme: don’t be a doormat and suckup when you’re on payroll, and don’t be a douche bag when you’re off of it. When your boss, the Board, etc., see that you’ll sell out so easily and bend over so willingly, they’ll see your weakness and return the favor in due time.
Coleman’s line there, totally uncalled for. The woman raised sales sixfold! What happened to loyalty? As a Yahoo! shareholder I don’t find that classy at all.
File this under “Assuming You Care/Advice You Didn’t Ask For”, but here’s what I would have said:
“Wenda joined Yahoo! at a challenging time for the industry, she played a major role in helping make Yahoo! the place major marketers turn to to advertise online, we’ll miss her and MSLO is lucky to have her, but we won’t miss a beat because yada-yada-yada.”
Everytime someone asks me why I left corporate life to start a company, I point to corporate BS like that.
Digg this Blog
Share on Facebook
WatchMojo on Twitter
WatchMojo on YouTube
Add to Favorites
WatchMojo Newsletter
