• Annual Reviews and Puppy Training with Yahoo's Carol Bartz

    Adam Bryant of The New York Times has a quick interview with Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz . Bartz has been CEO since January, and to her credit seems to have been largely candid in her public interviews about Yahoo. This interview is less about Yahoo and more about Bartz and her thoughts on management. The gem comes when she discusses the value (not so high) of annual reviews: I have the puppy theory. When the puppy pees on the carpet, you say something right then because you don’t say six months later, “Remember that day, January 12th, when you peed on the carpet?” That doesn’t make any sense. “This is what’s on my mind. This is quick feedback.” And then I’m on to the next thing. If I had my way I wouldn’t do annual reviews, if I felt that everybody would be more honest about positive and negative feedback along the way. I think the annual review process is so antiquated. I almost would rather ask each employee to tell us if they’ve had a meaningful conversation with their manager this quarter. Yes or no. And if they say no, they ought to have one. I don’t even need to know what it is. But if you viewed it as meaningful, then that’s all that counts. Read the interview here .

  • Yahoo CEO Bartz on 'What is Yahoo?'

    At last year's D: All Things Digital conference--D6-- Jerry Yang , then-CEO of Yahoo , stumbled when host Kara Swisher asked him "What is Yahoo?" So this year at D7, Carol Bartz , the new CEO of Yahoo, came with that question in mind . Here's her answer: Bartz also discussed a challenge that a lot of new company chiefs face: making sense of the org chart. At Yahoo, there were a lot of technical reasons for the company being organized the way it was, but that didn't mean Bartz couldn't tackle major restructuring tasks. In fact, it seems, she had to, or Yahoo would cease to innovate: You can watch more highlights of the interview here .