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Marissa Mayer and Elizabeth Holmes have both hit
seriously tough patches in their respective journeys. They both clearly took on
very challenging assignments. One turning around a company that has only been
left further and further behind by its peers over the last decade. The other
creating and driving an Elon Musk like disruption to the health industry.
One interesting observation is the make up of their
Boards. Jean-Louis Gassee at themondaynote comments on how the list of names
makes him squirm. Interestingly, subsequent to his blog, Theranos did reduce
the size of the Board, removing former Secretaries of State Henry
Kissinger and George P. Shultz. (pushed or jumped?).
Meanwhile, Max Levchin left the Yahoo Board earlier
this year, leaving behind a group of very respectable yet aging members,
including Lee Scott of Wal-mart and Charles Schwab.
Perhaps the idea in both cases was that the CEO
herself was the technical and product hot shot, so the Board needed only complement in the areas of general business skills. And yet, in both cases, it
seems to be the product, or lack of, that is the primary driver of
deteriorating financial performance or increased risk. If that CEO also does not seek challengers to ideas internally either, but only supporters, then the Board is likely putting too much confidence in one person to drive product success.
Theranos Trouble: A First Person Account | Monday Note: Digging a bit deeper, Theranos’ Board of Directors makes me squirm. Former Secretaries of State (George Schultz and Henry Kissinger) and Defense (William Perry), and an erstwhile US Senator (Sam Nunn)… How can these people help with innovative healthcare technologies and business models?
Theranos relents, says it will publish data showing accuracy of its blood tests | The Verge: Theranos could argue that it has traded peer review for speed of development and the maintenance of trade secrets, but by finally presenting evidence in public, Theranos could go some way toward earning back the consumer confidence it has lost over the past week. That is, of course, if its tests work as advertised.
Yahoo: The Moment of Truth Is Near - WSJ: Still, it isn’t clear how much sense it makes for Yahoo to double down in search. And the Mavens growth represented a deceleration over the second quarter’s 60% growth. It also didn’t offset slowing revenue elsewhere. Overall, Yahoo’s revenue excluding commissions to search partners fell 8%, to $1 billion. Yahoo and Ms. Mayer aren’t giving investors much reason to stay in their seats once Alibaba is off the stage.
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