Jerry Yang as Henry V? That's his choice

From the outside looking in, it sure seems to be going from bad to worse at Yahoo, where Jerry Yang and Sue Decker appear unable to stop the hemorrhaging in the executive ranks.

I do have a plan. Really!

(Credit: Dan Farber/CNET News.com)

But before getting flagged for piling on, is the rush of recent departures at the company really is as bad as it appears to 99.9 percent of the blognoscenti? Let's pause and think about that for a moment. With no disrespect to any of the people who are departing for greener pastures in the last couple of weeks, Yahoo's not losing any superstars. (Check out Mike Arrington's running tally of "former" Yahooers.)

The fact is that Yahoo made a strategic choice when it rebuffed Microsoft and got into bed with Google. A year from now we'll know whether that was the wise choice. In the meantime, Yang and Decker need to weed out the disgruntled and the half-hearted as quickly as possible. Anyone not willing to charge the hill and risk taking shrapnel ought to be encouraged to follow the rest who have opted to quit. Otherwise, they'll have to redecorate the corporate corridors with an ancient Rome motif to fit with all the backstabbing bound to ensue.

The worst thing Yahoo's leadership could do is to dawdle enacting the big reorganization everyone seems to be expecting. Here's an excerpt from Kara Swisher's prescient post on the subject.

Sources all talk about a much more deep and profound managerial shift--rather than the deck-chair-arranging that has been typical of most Yahoo reorgs. For those just checking into this drama, reorganizations are to Yahoo as floods are to Venice--inevitable, annoying and very unpleasant.

Still, CEO Jerry Yang and President Sue Decker--who appears to be the main architect of the changes--do have to try to give the company's management structure a new shape for the challenges ahead and before the Aug. 1 annual meeting.

Meanwhile, the clock keeps ticking and Yahoo's press keeps getting worse. At this point, the battle for perception takes center stage. As I noted on another occasion, if ever there were a time for management to deliver a "band of brothers" speech to rouse the troops, this is the time. (Note to Yang & Team: If you're stuck for inspiration, try Kenneth Branagh's marvelous interpretation of Shakespeare's Henry V.)

[Sumatra-Bosch]

Who can blame anyone for running for the exits if there is even the slightest chance that MSFT will get their hands on the company?

Imagine having other options and facing the prospect of A) MSFT working with psychopaths like Icahn to destabilize the company and B) Ballmer telling you what to think or do.

It could go on for years. MSFT is a psychopathic company with a hunger for senseless destruction and no capacity for self-examination, like, hey, does buying an antique like Yahoo! make sense? Who needs to ride that turbulence? What comes after? At best surviving the assault and working for a traumatized company.

Living as the target of a terrorist campaign for months or years is almost as horrific a prospect as coming to work one day and seeing Ballmer pile out of his Chevy, run up and dry hump the building shouting, "I won! I won! Bwahahahahaha!" and then run in the building to throw chairs at the survivors and bark commands. Yang is lucky there is anyone left in the building now.

Any way you cut, when you're dealing with MSFT, unless you're lucky or very clever, it's either Masada or Alamo. My advice to Jerry is to study the Alien films. The monsters in that series aren't very different from MSFT.

[royster_live]

Mr. Cooper, I salute you!

While Yang is no Lou Gerstner, Yahoo needs the kind of reorg that IBM had if there's ever a chance at turning this sinking ship around. It's tough and a lot of people won't like it. You either agree with the plan or you go. Superstars or not, it doesn't matter. A lot of top people left IBM back then as well, so what? No one is indispensible in a corporation.

[The_Decider]

Exactly what I have been saying. Executives are a dime a dozen and the average MBA isn't very bright. Yahoo will be fine without them, especially if they put technically knowlegable people in those positions.