Yahoo case study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Yahoo case study - Essay Example But yahoo was not able to carry on the fame it had created for long time. In February 2008, yahoo share price fell from $31 a share to less than half of it. In the year 2011, the CEO of Yahoo Carol Bartz was sacked by the chairman of the company. However the share price of Yahoo had plummeted during the tenure of Carol Bartz. Analysis of the case The case study takes into consideration the problems and issues which Yahoo has been facing over the years. Initially the company was able to attract customers but with new competition from other online sites, yahoo started to losing its customers. According to the case study Yahoo lacked the hype and buzz in the technology market. The case study has also introduced many issues and problems that the company was facing along with its employees such as the corporate culture and political conflicts which highlighted the problem that the employees were dissatisfied with the mid level management; the organization was involved in silo thinking and bureaucracy, issue with respect to human resource, leadership changes and restructuring. In addition to the problems faced by Yahoo, the case study also talks about change in leadership. Marissa Mayer who was the head of the Google search group was appointed as the new CEO of Yahoo. Under the leadership of Marissa Mayer, change management has been implemented to get back Yahoo on the right track and Marissa Mayer aims to â€Å"focus on the users† as yahoo in recent years have been known for its distraction than delight. The case study shows how Marissa Mayer implemented the strategy of change management in yahoo and also follows the changes and step that she brought in Google. The case highlights the good and potential qualities of Marissa Mayer to bring about a change in Yahoo but at the same time it also highlights the resistance to change that the employees of Yahoo might face while dealing with the change. Identification of major issues Yahoo major problem was it never b een best at anything and instead of defining itself the company has fitted from one new web portal to another. Yahoo has 44 different business units and with just 3200 employees it had become unmanageable for the company. Despite having about 44 different business units it do not have sales unit leading to much more confused and chaotic situations. During the golden days of Yahoo, customers were getting involved with the company by themselves and the advertisement company was ready to spent dollars on it and as a result Yahoo did not established relationship with its customers as the customers walked it by themselves which led to arrogance (Willians 2008, 209)1 Corporate culture and political conflicts are said to be high in the organization and this can be seen another big issue for Yahoo and the new CEO Marissa Mayer. As per a review it was revealed that in comparisons to 98% of Google employees who thought the outlook of the company will be better in the future only 48% of employ ees of Yahoo felt the same. The employees were not satisfied with the mid level management as the mid level management was control freaks who pressurized the people without making any improvement. In addition with the existence of frequent re-orgs, this resulted in firing of employees and also scrapping of projects along with frequent turmoil at the executive

PHILOSOPHY - What is skepticism Describe Descartes' attempt to build a Essay

PHILOSOPHY - What is skepticism Describe Descartes' attempt to build a secure foundation for knowledge using his method of d - Essay Example Through this, Descartes hopes to find his foundational belief from which a reliable, clear and distinct philosophy can be deduced. But how will Descartes arrive at such a foundational principle? Descartes will doubt all his beliefs in order to arrive at the one thing which cannot be doubted further; this is Descartes attempt to build a secure foundation for knowledge. However, â€Å"is there anything at all that he can know to be true, that can survive the process of doubt?† (Williams 2005, 57) Descartes’ skepticism is termed methodological skepticism; this is defined as â€Å"the use of doubt methodically in order to arrive at true knowledge† (Lavine 1984, 95). In doing so, he first doubts his beliefs on sense perception, which he claims are by nature deceptive. Second, he doubts his beliefs on material objects and the physical world, which are based on sense perception. Third, he doubts his beliefs on natural sciences, which uses objects that are based on sense perception. Fourth, he doubts mathematics. In doing so, he invents an evil demon or genius that conditions his mind and deceives him to fall into error (Greetham 2006, 86). However, Descartes realizes that in order to be deceived, he must exist; in order to doubt, there must be someone doing the doubting. Thus, Descartes arrives at his self-evident principle, which can be stated in Latin as â€Å"Cogito, ergo sum† or â€Å"I think therefore I am† (Copleston 1958, 91). â€Å"This proposition: I am, I exist, is necessarily true each time that I pronounce it, or that I mentally conceive it† (Descartes 2007, 430). So Descartes is now certain of one thing, that is, his existence as a conscious subject; that whenever he is thinking, he is assured of his own existence – but what about the external world? Descartes feared that he may fall into solipsism, the view that â€Å"my mind with its thoughts is the only thing that exists, the only reality: and that othe r persons and the physical world are only ideas within my mind† (Lavine 1984, 100). So in order for Descartes to escape the solitude of solipsism, he has to be able to prove the existence of something other than his own mind. At this point, he sought to prove the existence of God, and bases his proof on his theory of ideas and causes. An idea, for Descartes, is the effect of causes. Herein, he formulates three basic propositions. As Lavine (1984) explains: â€Å"there must be as much reality in the cause as in its effect, something cannot proceed from nothing, and what is more perfect cannot proceed from the less perfect† (104). Given this aforementioned background, Descartes (1993) begins with the claim that he has a â€Å"clear and distinct idea of God† as a perfect being (177). Since ideas are effects of causes, then something must have caused his having such an idea. And since its cause must have the same magnitude to its effect, and that something perfect ca nnot come from something less perfect, then God exists as the only possible cause for his idea of a perfect being, for something cannot come from nothing. Therefore, God exits. Given that God exists, how can this prove that the external world exists? Descartes reaches all â€Å"these conclusions by the application of a method of systematic doubt† (Kenny 2008, 36). Having established his own existence, as well as the existence of God, Descartes now replaces doubt with certainty. Herein, he comes to know that he gains knowledge of material objects