Cartoon image of a business meetingYahoo—a name left over from the boom and bust period of the dot.com world—has somehow managed to limp along in a world where many struggle to understand its value proposition. The financial markets vote with their valuations, and have recently concluded that the firm is worth no more than its holdings in the high-flying stock, Alibaba. Stated another way, the financial markets view the core Yahoo business as effectively worthless. (Note: as of this writing, there’s a good deal of swirl but little clarity surrounding the potential disposition of the Alibaba holding.)

The December 2015 issue of Forbes includes an interesting article, entitled: “The Last Days of Marissa Mayer?” Mayer is the firm’s CEO, and a former high-flying and early-stage Google Executive who has served as the face of Yahoo and the firm’s turn-around efforts for the past three years. If the article and sources are accurate, Mayer is failing as a manager and as a leader, and a big part of that failure is around the hard work of strategy.

In my recent post on strategy, I focused on the importance of the heavy lifting necessary to develop a clear, accurate diagnosis as a critical first step in building a coherent plan. The subsequent step, what strategy expert Richard Rumelt describes as, defining the “guiding philosophy,” builds on the diagnosis to frame the general approach to the situation. It’s the combination of the diagnosis and guiding philosophy that give coherence to the subsequent actions designed to seize opportunities and blunt threats. Anything short of clarity around both of these, and the prediction is in the immortal words of Mr. T, “Pain.”

The article in Forbes highlights in a very visual form the departure of key leadership and technical experts, and it reports (albeit from mostly anonymous sources) the growing frustration, tension and emotional responses to the lack of strategic clarity for the firm. The firm is in pain, and perhaps it is in its death throes. While creative destruction is inevitable in our world of change, one wonders whether a firm with the name and eyeballs of a Yahoo is aggressively striving to snatch defeat from what could be a victory.

In my work as a strategy adviser and facilitator, I see the impact of firms avoiding the hard work, introspection and experimentation that should surround an on-gong strategy process, all too often. Almost without exception, the issue is that top management has failed to take the time and put forth the effort to properly diagnose its situation. I listen to top executives and hear disparate views on the challenges and opportunities. I listen to them for clarity and unity on how they propose to move forward, and what I hear ranges from silence to cacophony.

The Bottom-Line for Now:

The failure of any business is a sad affair. There are people and families and careers and dreams attached to our businesses, and when those are squandered due to ego and pride and unhealthy politics or worse yet, due to managerial laziness, it’s reprehensible. You owe it to your team and your firm to be a positive voice and catalyst in pursuit of strategic clarity, coherent actions and healthy, constant communication.

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Art Petty serves senior executives and management teams as a performance coach and strategy facilitator/adviser. Art is a popular keynote speaker focusing on helping professionals and organizations learn to survive and thrive in an era of change. Additionally, Art’s books are widely used in leadership development programs. To learn more or discuss a challenge, contact Art.