When is an internal document not an internal document?
December 13, 2006 (Press Release) --
The Yahoo Peanut Butter Memo
By Joseph Pratt
When is an internal document not an internal document? Answer: when it’s leaked to the media. Like classified governmental missives that seem to surface on a regular basis, secret corporate memos get leaked to the press for public review, too. The contents of such leaks are made available almost instantaneously to the business world via the Internet.
Yahoo’s ‘Peanut Butter Manifesto’, a colorfully dubbed memo authored by the company’s respected senior vice president of communications and communities, Brad Gurlinghouse, was one such leak that caused a stir in the interactive world last month. This memo, presumably written for executive eyes only, addressed issues that have been dogging Yahoo’s public reputation lately, particularly that the company has spread itself too thin and lacks focus.
Despite the heat that the financial world has heaped upon Yahoo, they remain the world’s most popular Web site – 480.6 million uniques last month alone. We’re not talking about a lost cause here. And Yahoo knows this; this memo is not a desperate distress signal.
It’s my belief that the Peanut Butter Manifesto is a Public Relations ploy and not an act of internal sabotage. It’s aimed at influencing the sentiments of Yahoo’s investors, competition and general market watchers. For starters, there is nothing damning in this memo, nothing embarrassing to Yahoo and it contains no industrial secrets. The language is direct and easy to digest and devoid of any Yahoo-centric references that would be lost on people who did not work there. This memo was more like cheerleading that made allowances for the general complaints that have been often lodged against them of late – but still, the manifesto implied that Yahoo’s proactive response is already under way. Consider this: “Last Thursday's NY Times article was a blessing in the disguise of a painful public flogging. While it lacked accurate details, its conclusions rang true, and thus was a much needed wake up call.“
As a PR planner at ICMediaDirect.com I’d specifically identify Gurlinghouse as engaging in Public Relations Web 2.0 style - and I laud him for it. The situation is this: Yahoo has been taking a beating in the media. The natural reaction, and possibly the correct action in the days before the Internet, for Yahoo would be to fight insinuation with a stiff repudiation of equal or preferably greater intensity. The general idea being that insults are not to be taken suffered gladly.
By Joseph Pratt
When is an internal document not an internal document? Answer: when it’s leaked to the media. Like classified governmental missives that seem to surface on a regular basis, secret corporate memos get leaked to the press for public review, too. The contents of such leaks are made available almost instantaneously to the business world via the Internet.
Yahoo’s ‘Peanut Butter Manifesto’, a colorfully dubbed memo authored by the company’s respected senior vice president of communications and communities, Brad Gurlinghouse, was one such leak that caused a stir in the interactive world last month. This memo, presumably written for executive eyes only, addressed issues that have been dogging Yahoo’s public reputation lately, particularly that the company has spread itself too thin and lacks focus.
Despite the heat that the financial world has heaped upon Yahoo, they remain the world’s most popular Web site – 480.6 million uniques last month alone. We’re not talking about a lost cause here. And Yahoo knows this; this memo is not a desperate distress signal.
It’s my belief that the Peanut Butter Manifesto is a Public Relations ploy and not an act of internal sabotage. It’s aimed at influencing the sentiments of Yahoo’s investors, competition and general market watchers. For starters, there is nothing damning in this memo, nothing embarrassing to Yahoo and it contains no industrial secrets. The language is direct and easy to digest and devoid of any Yahoo-centric references that would be lost on people who did not work there. This memo was more like cheerleading that made allowances for the general complaints that have been often lodged against them of late – but still, the manifesto implied that Yahoo’s proactive response is already under way. Consider this: “Last Thursday's NY Times article was a blessing in the disguise of a painful public flogging. While it lacked accurate details, its conclusions rang true, and thus was a much needed wake up call.“
As a PR planner at ICMediaDirect.com I’d specifically identify Gurlinghouse as engaging in Public Relations Web 2.0 style - and I laud him for it. The situation is this: Yahoo has been taking a beating in the media. The natural reaction, and possibly the correct action in the days before the Internet, for Yahoo would be to fight insinuation with a stiff repudiation of equal or preferably greater intensity. The general idea being that insults are not to be taken suffered gladly.
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