4 posts and columns on matrix

Gilt Groupe's Susan Lyne Talks About Fashion, Local and (Not) IPO!

in News on August 26, 2010 at 2:03 pm PT

Yesterday, BoomTown dropped into the lower Park Avenue offices of the New York-based Gilt Groupe, the online fashion retail site, to talk to its CEO, Susan Lyne. Since 2007, the site has raised $83 million, giving it a $400 million valuation and spurring interest from investment bankers who think Gilt might be a good candidate for an initial public offering. That’s doubtful for now, given how important it is for Gilt to expand its business, even as competition increases.

The Yahoo Management Structure: Who Is In and Who Is Out?

in News on February 23, 2009 at 7:30 am PT

On Friday, BoomTown first reported that new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz is likely to be announcing a sweeping new management structure soon, which can only mean the possibility that some existing top execs are likely to be broomed out, even as some new ones are ushered in. “This is going to be a full-scale peanut butter recall,” joked one exec, referring to the infamous “Peanut Butter Manifesto,” which was sent around the company several years ago by former exec Brad Garlinghouse. It laid bare the problems at Yahoo, most especially a decided lack of decision-making and lugubrious levels of managers. Here is the sticky skinny.
sidewalkbroom

Will Tough-Talking Bartz Reorg Yahoo Soon and Finally Blue-Pill the "Matrix"?

in News on February 9, 2009 at 10:00 am PT

My favorite anecdote collected so far about new Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz is the one in which she called together two separate groups of execs who were direct reports of former Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang and President Sue Decker. Bartz, several sources recounted, went around the table and asked them one by one what they actually did, making various outspoken comments along the way about management. Stories like this about Bartz’s take-charge style have been ricocheting through Yahoo as she navigates the troubled company to come up with a plan to revive it. But of all the various things many employees I have talked to hope she does first is dump the “matrix” organizational structure that many at Yahoo have grown to despise.