Linda Yaccarino: Elon Musk’s ‘scapegoat’ and the lesson of former Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer to clean up ‘garbage’ for the mistakes of her predecessor

Sacrificial goat (Goat for sin or Repentance) is the term for an ancient Jewish sacrificial goat recounted in the book of Leviticus. Accordingly, this goat was driven into the desert to be sacrificed to Azazel with the implication that it would take all the sins of man on its head. This goat will take the blame for the Jews in particular and mankind in general.

In 2012, former Google executive Maissa Mayer became CEO of Yahoo, an unexpected decision for experts when the company was on the verge of collapse and needed a talented enough leader to save it. save the empire.

Mrs. Mayer only held this position for exactly 5 years before Yahoo was merged into Verizon for a cheap $ 4.8 billion. The irony is that Yahoo has been shaken before by a series of bad decisions of its predecessors, but it is CEO Mayer who is the most criticized.

“ It’s easy to blame women when things fail. People are still affected by gender discrimination when it comes to judgment, which puts female CEOs at greater risk no matter how much they contribute to the company,” said Associate Professor Jo Ellen Pozner of the company. Santa Clara University said.

According to Ms. Pozner, billionaire Elon Musk’s appointment of Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter is similar, when the Tesla founder knocked down almost everything and then assigned a female leader to “clean up” by herself. created by myself.

In the end, if success is due to Elon Musk’s vision, failure is due to incompetent female CEO.

Glass wall

According to Fortune, Elon Musk’s sudden resignation of Twitter CEO position in favor of close friend Linda Yaccarino surprised many people, but some experts said that this was a move to deny the billionaire’s responsibility. Tesla billionaire with the term “glass wall” (Glass Cliff).

The term “glass wall” refers to a woman or a vulnerable individual appointed to an important position that is vulnerable to criticism if it fails. This appointment was theoretically a promotion, but in fact put the woman in a difficult position because the situation was too “broken” to be able to turn the tide.

“ The story here is that it looks like we women are given the opportunity to succeed, but in a very difficult situation and easily criticized when things fall apart. This is a classic case of ‘glass walls’, when corporations on the brink of crisis hire female CEOs to clean up the mess of arrogant and patriarchal managers,” said media consultant Heidi. N Moore lamented to Fortune.

Indeed, Elon Musk has completely smashed Twitter since completing a $44 billion acquisition. Although the Tesla founder said Twitter has shown signs of stabilizing, the future of this social network is too dim and has lost its reputation compared to before.

Elon Musk himself had to admit that he “bought” more than $ 20 billion for Twitter. At first, the same billionaire had to lament that Twitter was likely to go bankrupt because of the huge interest burden because Elon Musk owed the bank to complete the deal. Most of his wealth is in Tesla stock, not cash.

The irony is that while Elon Musk is engrossed in Twitter, artificial intelligence (AI) technology is the new trend of the industry. The success of ChatGPT from OpenAI, which was co-founded and abandoned by Elon Musk, has now become a fortune worth tens of billions of dollars in the hands of Microsoft.

So when spending money to buy a bunch of debt, the old project was successful, causing Elon Musk to regret, and now he called for a pause in AI development for the “benefit of the user” but instead blamed it. money to develop its own new AI technology.

Worse, the loss of Tesla’s total market capitalization of $ 13 billion because of Elon Musk’s distraction further angered shareholders who wanted to replace him with CFO Zach Kirkhorn, who runs the company on a day-to-day basis. not the founder.

In another aspect, expert Moore thinks that Elon Musk’s appointment of Yaccarino as CEO but still responsible for technology development and product design at Twitter will create a situation of “one mountain and two tigers” when the boss. This company has not yet relinquished control and entrusted the company to a new manager.

Sacrificial goat

According to Ms. Moore, even as CEO, Yaccarino can hardly assure advertising businesses of a stable Twitter, without shocking statements or affecting the brand image.

” I don’t see the possibility of Elon Musk allowing the new CEO space to express himself while he is still involved in the day-to-day operation of Twitter ,” warned Ms. Moore.

Instead of an opportunity, many people think that Yaccarino is easier to become a “scapegoat” for Elon Musk because there are so many history lessons in the past.

In 2019, CEO Sue Gove was appointed to run Bed Bath & Beyond while everything was shaking and soon the company had to shut down, all responsibility fell on Ms. Gove.

Then, female CEO Heyward Donigan was appointed to lead Rite Aid just one year after the company lost 50% of its total market capitalization despite the company’s difficult situation before, and once again all responsibility fell. on Mrs. Donigan’s head.

The most famous is the case of CEO Mayer at Yahoo when everyone criticized this businesswoman no matter how hard she tried or who pushed Yahoo to this situation before Mayer came to power.

Associate Professor Pozner said Elon Musk has created a mess on Twitter and this billionaire never admits to mistakes. The Tesla founder always blamed businesses that did not advertise for this unrest instead of his own actions such as reckless statements, reckless and professional mass layoffs.

Of course, Yaccarino still has the opportunity to turn the table, but it is too small, especially under the grip of Elon Musk, the boss who is famous for his temperament. Just a small mistake of the new CEO can also spark conflict and cause internal rifts.

Finally, Ms. Pozner said that appointing a female CEO from outside the business, not understanding the internal culture and human resources is extremely irresponsible at a time when Twitter employees are shocked.

“ The thinking that the female CEO will take all the blame and the rest will be safe is completely wrong ,” concludes Associate Professor Pozner.

*Source: Fortune