Archive for November, 2006

Update (Nov. 20 2006): The more I thought about this manifesto the more annoyed I became. This reeks of shameless self promotion. Furthermore after learning about Garlinghouse’s track record and reading Kevin Kelleher article from the TheStreet.com I couldn’t agree more:

So, now heads must roll at Yahoo!. If so, I’d like to nominate the first one: Brad Garlinghouse.

Things have been busy this last couple weeks, but nothing really that I can disclose. That coupled with things coming up prevented me from writing a wrap-up the last couple weeks.

I came across across an article on MarketWatch about the Peanut Butter Manifesto – an internal (now external) memo written by Yahoo! exec Brad Garlinghouse. After reading other reports, I learned that this has been circulating inside Yahoo for the last couple weeks now. Garlinghouse is a gutsy guy a confused fellow and actually (had) shaved a Y into the back of his head. Initially I thought this was purposely leaked as a precursor to big changes coming – after reading the memo, I think it may have been purposely leaked but for other reasons..

I’ve heard our strategy described as spreading peanut butter across the myriad opportunities that continue to evolve in the online world. The result: a thin layer of investment spread across everything we do and thus we focus on nothing in particular. I hate peanut butter. We all should.

The entire letter can be read from the WSJ.

I came across a good article from ITJungle, that interviews Elaine Lennox (VP of marketing for System i). The article talks about iSociety, The Truth site, the $10m print ads rolling out, the push to port all IBM software to i5, how the TV ads went, and more. Most importantly it gives some insight into the budget and how the money is spent.

Elaine Lennox is happy and excited to have a job that comes with a uniform. It’s red and white with concentric circles and a big blue bull’s eye in the middle of her back. Most people would describe it as a target. But Lennox, who also wears the title of vice president of marketing for the System i division at IBM, isn’t hiding from anyone. She’s used to the rock throwers, the outspoken critics with pointy sticks, and the heat about below average marketing of the platform.