Is EBay a proper primer for a governor?

[alp227]

Meg Whitman might have seemed an unlikely candidate to oversee EBay when she was tapped as its chief executive in 1998.

She was a veteran of corporate America, a Harvard MBA who powered her way to executive jobs at Procter & Gamble, Walt Disney Co. and consulting firm Bain & Co. EBay was a small tech startup with 30 employees, derided by skeptics as "FleaBay."

It didn't seem to matter. During a decade as its chief executive, Whitman guided EBay Inc. to explosive growth and profitability. Its stock price soared 1,200% during her tenure; its workforce grew even more.

Whitman also succeeded in guiding EBay through a minefield of potential disasters: early concern about fraudulent sellers, competition from Yahoo and Amazon, and technology problems that once shut down the site for 22 hours.

EBay's revenue grew from $47million in 1998, Whitman's first year with the company, to $7.67billion in 2007, her last as CEO. The Harvard Business Review recently lauded her as the eighth-best-performing chief executive in the world.

"How many CEOs can you find who have steered a company from less than 1,000 employees to more than 15,000 in a span of eight years?" asks Sandeep Aggarwal, a technology analyst with Caris & Co. in San Francisco. He hails Whitman as "one of the finest CEOs of her time."

--snip--

But a young, fast-growing online company in the midst of the Internet boom is almost the antithesis of what she'd inherit in Sacramento: a state saddled with a deeply divided Legislature and a massive budget deficit coming off the worst recession in decades.

Some former employees and Silicon Valley observers question whether a forceful corporate executive used to getting her way would be capable of the compromise needed in government.

"You certainly have many more freedoms as a CEO than you do as an elected official," said Larry Gerston, a political science professor at San Jose State. "We don't elect kings."

--snip--

At EBay, Whitman was known as a demanding boss. She gave plum jobs to outsiders with pedigreed backgrounds, could be dismissive of dissent and was known to have a temper, several former EBay staffers said.

Whitman shoved a subordinate, and the company paid a $200,000 settlement, the New York Times reported this year, citing unnamed sources. The Whitman campaign acknowledged a dust-up but did not readily admit it had become physical.

"EBay was not a democracy," said Reed Maltzman, who worked in strategy and product management at EBay from 1998 to 2002. "There are certain people who make you feel even though they have a position of power that they value your input and it's OK to disagree with them. Meg is not that person."

Maltzman said Whitman forged ahead with the disappointing 1999 acquisition of high-end auction house Butterfield & Butterfield, despite objections from many that it was not a good fit. EBay sold the company three years later.

--snip--

Whitman has worked to separate herself from Schwarzenegger. She said she would move to Sacramento full time — which Schwarzenegger didn't do — and would make a point of getting to know every legislator by name.

On the campaign trail, Whitman rarely misses an opportunity to flaunt EBay's success. But some critics have said that the company founded by software engineer Pierre Omidyar was so innovative and superior to competitors that any competent chief executive could have guided it to success.

Full article: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-whitman-ebay-20101024,0,7872463,full.story

BTW, I'm taking one of Gerston's classes right now.

[BuelahWitch]

1. Most of the original eBay crew jumped ship within a year of her signing on

The sellers used to call her "the toy lady" and hated her guts. I never worked directly WITH her while I was there (we were in Draper, Utah, not the San Jose base) but you could tell that the company culture changed for the worse when she took over.

[AdHocSolver]

2. Being at the head of a company that grew and prospered does not mean she was responsible for it.

For example, Microsoft rode to prosperity on the coattails of IBM, not because of any quality of its software. (I first programmed IBM PC's on a two floppy drive PC running PC-DOS 1.0.)

I worked for many businesses over the years, and it was often the case that the executives had business degrees, and very few had even a rudimentary understanding of the technical aspects of the business. In many cases, it was obvious that the businesses were successful in spite of the (very limited) capability of upper management.

When the business did well, the executives took credit for it and gave themselves bonuses. When the business took a downturn, if they couldn't blame the "economy", they found some poor slob at the low end of the pecking order to blame.

[Frustratedlady]

4. She also didn't listen to the sellers unless they were mega-sellers.

The Mom and Pop shops propelled eBay to big business, but Meg left them in her dust once eBay began to grow. She is a stubborn woman to say the least. It even looks like it pains her to be gracious during her speeches. I cringe.

[Merlot]

3. Skype, anyone?

I'd say ebay grew IN SPITE of having whitman, not because of her.

[mulsh]

5. Why has no company hired Meg since E-Bay"

You'd think someone with her background and accomplishments would be able to chose from a number of job offers and places on boards of directors. The fact that she's only involved in running the family tax shelter/ponzi scheme, I mean charitable trust, and has been chronically unemployed since E-Bay should speak volumes and be featured prominently in any review or her career or "qualifications"
like Bill Mahr said "the last thing California needs is an amateur as governor."

[bemildred]

6. Government is not a business, and it's not supposed to be like a business.

Being a CEO is nothing like being an elected politician.

[MurrayDelph]

7. Ebay is only a proper training ground

if you want government going to the highest bidder.