"Defining the purpose and the mission of the business is difficult, painful and risky" -- Peter DruckerAccording to Kara Swisher's post in AllThings-D earlier this week Yahoo's new CEO is going to punt on the question "What is Yahoo?" Which is a wise decision because a company doesn't get to decide what it is. What a company can do is decide what it wants to be.
I have been a user of Yahoo! for eight years and, for me, Yahoo! is a serviceable email provider that also happens to break an occasional sports story. Y! can refer to itself as a "technology enabled media company," as the previous CEO did, but as a customer I would rank it as below average in both tech and media.
Yahoo! is also a stock. I've held on to it for more than 4 years just to remind myself that I should not waste my time and money on E*Trade trying to predict the actions of others (honestly, I didn't see any way Y! board would turn down any offer above $30/share). I should always hire a professional to waste my time and money.
For any company trying to decide "What It Is," consider this: It is not a clever turn of phrase or a pithy tag line. Your company is an aggregation of your previous activity. Understanding this activity takes an investment in analysis and resources. This is the way to know what your company is. Once you have figured this out, only then can you undertake the "difficult, painful and risky" challenge of determining what you want your company to be.
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