Earlier this week, Facebook CFO Gideon Yu parted ways with
the popular online networking Web site. Why? Facebook headquarters claimed it
was because the company needed someone with more public-company experience
(Keep in mind this is the man who previously held the CFO spot at Youtube and
negotiated the video sharing Web site’s $1.65 billion acquisition with Google).
But that must only be part of the reason. A later memo Facebook CEO and founder
Mark Zuckerberg sent out says the reason involved family: “Gideon’s family is
his highest priority and it’s certainly not the usual cliché to say that he
plans to take some time off to be with his wife and son.”
Yu’s not the only one who has jumped ship since the
company’s beginnings. It started with five founders. Now Zuckerberg’s flying
solo.
The question is, what’s going wrong? What is so bad at
Facebook that money-minded business moguls are leaving one of the most
potentially profitable companies in the world.
Many blogs blame it on Zuckerberg himself. Gawker was so bold to
suggest Zuckerberg should resign (or at least back off the leading role for a
while) and let someone else take the reins to bring the company back on track
and train Zuckerberg to get back in the saddle.
In case you’ve been out of the social media network, here are some slipups Zuckerberg has made
recently:
The Terms of Service Debacle: The Terms of Service was changed to suggest Facebook would keep users’
information forever, even after they’ve deactivated their account. Facebookers
were not cool with this. It resulted in Zuckerberg instituting a policy where users
can have a say in future changes execution.
The Recent Redesign: Facebook
is a following Twitter…literally. The company that had always been praised for
being unique and visionary instituted a message delivery system freakishly
similar to Twitter’s tweet stream. Facebook asks the question, “What’s on your
mind?” rather than “What are you doing?” Again, users were outraged. But did
Zuckerberg listen to user feedback as promised after the Terms of Service
catastrophe? Just the opposite, actually. He told his staff to ignore user
feedback, and Zuckerberg personally deleted any employee concerns from his news
feed. And that brings us to...
The Executive Exodus: They’re
all jumping ship, as we mentioned earlier. It’s apparently because Zuckerberg
is becoming a total tyrant. According to sources quoted in a recent “The
Business Insider” article,
the Harvard dropout no longer allows open disagreement or discussion of his ideas
in meetings. But that was a major contributor to his success in the first
place. Now, employees say the company is completely image-focused.. And
apparently so is Zuckerberg. The article quotes a source saying he’s
“unbearable,” letting all the media hype about his technology genius go to his
head.
What do you think? Is it time for Zuckerberg to call it
quits for a while so he doesn’t run his business empire into the ground before
its even reached its full potential?
~ Alyson ~ @ Twitter
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