Yahoo Case Study Memorandum
Case starts with a brief introduction of the evolution of the Internet and in short web. As this new segment grows simultaneously in the market, case shows the emergence of some companies to fill the gap in the market. After 1 sass there were increased numbers of PC users around the world, and after discovering the necessary hardware and software developed, It enabled several companies to take an active role In the market. Analysis of the life cycle of Yahoo! Can be categorized as such:
Starting from 1 994 -the foundation of the company by David Fill and Jerry Yang until early 1997 can be recognized as Entrepreneurial stage.
Yahoo! Started to improve the company by adding commerce and community contents to gain a competitive advantage against its’ main competitor Excite, which can be considered as an entrance of collectivity stage. There are also properties of Yahoo! Defined in the text which I don feel to need to refer to avoid summarizing, as a proof of this stage since one of the characteristics of Collectivity Stage Is Major Service with variations.
Company is young and tends to grow; structure is not yet fully and clearly defined. Now the company shows the signs of formalization stage, the reason is mostly related with time; after almost 16 years from collectivity stage we can say that Yahoo! Was able to handle the division of labor and formalized systems; which is also proven by the detailed financial statements provided. Yet, even though the company is in formalization stage, It follows a deferent approach to formalize compared to other companies as we see In the text.
The place they ran their operations from an unassertive building and saying that they are “cheap”.
These slogans may help its users to associate themselves with the company, since there is a bad image for major corporations related with their extreme expense for luxurious items, their lustful behavior and such. Common structure of almost all newly-founded markets Is that, there Is almost always a strict competition after some time. There are several major competitors in the market, consistently trying to take some of the population of the segments from ACH other.
Looking this situation under the Impact of the Environment subject, we can say that there is a Complex/Unstable complexity of the environment. Emergence of the new competitors is relatively easy, hard to stay in the environment since due to environments nature; there Is a need for extensive planning, forecasting and high- speed response.
Companies those are able to that stay In the market succeeded It, the ones that can’t are eliminated. Looking to Hallo, we can say that the company was able to forecast and plan, proof is its’ existence. Structure of the Yahoo!
Is divisional, a good choice of organizational structure may drastically increase it’s outputs. As a company that requires high innovation, communication and change; divisional structure is a strategically right choice. Moreover, the workplace includes innovation, creativity and henceforth, success for a company such as Yahoo! For the reasons stated above.
Another strategic choice is to create an interface that makes users feel comfortable. Many of the contents of Yahoo! Are linked to each other, so that people get used to his easy usage that makes Yahoo! Such desirable for them. Under this concept, there is usually resource dependence, yet the structure of the Web market is quite different from a usual manufacturing company. Still, we can mention a partial dependence, related with the Partnership Yahoo! Has. Since they are always trying to lure more users, they have some partnerships mentioned in the text. They are somewhat dependent on these agreements; it enables them to increase their number of customers since the computers come equipped with a browser that erects them to use Yahoo.
These dependence issue related with the partnership also gives us a hint about the Inter-organizational relationships Yahoo! Has. Hardware- Software are the two components this environment has, the companies related with each division have to have relationships with each other as a consequence of being in the same organizational ecosystem. The agreement between Disney and Infinite is another example of the Interdenominational relationship yet the situation is quite different, Disney is not directly related with this market. While Microsoft has billions of dollars in cash, Yahoo! As on the grow, there was a limit for Infinite to grow more with its limited resources.
On the other hand, Internet grown rapidly, users of Internet increased drastically and Disney saw this growing market that can benefit itself. In short the agreement between these two companies was a win-win situation. Similar case with NBC and Snap gives us a hint about the strategic decisions of the companies, in the new era these companies saw the importance of having control/ ewer over a web based corporation to hold their customers; and these actions inevitably lead to acquisitions and mergers.
This caused uncertainty in the environment -even more- because power balances of these corporations are simultaneously changing with these actions. Yahoo! Implemented another strategy to have a better, more motivated workforce.
Yahoo! Offered its’ employees stock options, although it is commonly used; this kind of option may have been increase organizational commitment to Yahoo! By its employees and had its effect to lead Yahoo! To be a success.
