the Yahoo mistake your startup can't make

Here's a shocker: The Web changed everything.

You've heard that before, mostly about 10+ years ago. Actually, over the past 20 years the Web has become such an integral part of our lives that it's hard to imagine life without it. I can't even remember how I managed to drive from one place to another before Google Maps. And how did I satisfy personal curiosity before the sum of all human knowledge was literally at my fingertips? Am I the only one who gets stressed out when watching old movies, wondering why no one is checking their iPhones?

There's such an immediacy to everything now. Take this blog post, for example. I just sat down and started typing. In a few minutes I'll hit "Save & Close," and this thing will go public. It will post to my website, then the RSS feed will be picked up by the service that pushes it to my social media channels. Within half an hour it could be read by hundreds, thousands, heck maybe millions (a fella can dream), who only a couple of decades ago would have to wait for it to appear in their paper or in a magazine, weeks or months after it was written. 

I DID write for papers and magazines back then, you know. Stop scoffing!

Along with the immediacy—the increased expansion of "reachability" that content producers have—there's been a simultaneous decrease in limitations of distance. I'm sitting in an office in Houston, but you may be reading this from a bedroom in Paris or a ski slope in Colorado or a men's room in Chicago (hi there). 

Recently, Yahoo and Best Buy decided to pull in their remote work force. They have their reasons, and likely a room full of well-paid, brilliant minds that can explain, to the decimal, exactly why this is a good move for these companies. I can only come at it from the perspective of the lowly marketing consultant and copywriter.

It's a mistake. 

Pulling in the troops means increasing overhead. It means cutting yourself out of the worldwide pool of brilliant experts that are only an inbox away. It means limiting your access to a broader canopy of ideas and experiences, and drastically reducing your ability to innovate.

The good thing about Yahoo and Best Buy is that they are established brands, powerful enough to correct for a mistake once they see it impacting the bottom line. So by no means do I believe this is the end for either company, unless they stubbornly hold on to what they're planning. A bigger issue is that many smaller companies are watching, and may follow Yahoo's lead.

DISASTER. The only real advantage that startups and small- to mid-sized businesses have is their flexibility and adaptability. Having access to the larger pool of talent made available by technology gives them the ammunition and the arsenal they need to be competitive. Keeping everything "in-house" has been the death knell for more companies than I could possibly name.

There is no way to predict what will happen with Yahoo and this drive to bring everybody home from the wilds. It may work very well for them. They do have the advantage of being a known brand with a lot of backing. People may uproot and move closer to Yahoo offices worldwide, just for the opportunity to be a part of the company. More likely, from my perspective, is that those talented people Yahoo depends on, who could balance work and family life before because they worked from home, are going to be on the lookout for a chance to jump ship, first opportunity they get.

And because they ARE talented people from Yahoo, with a proven track record for working remotely, they'll likely find that opportunity sooner rather than later. Contracts and golden handcuffs be damned.

So Yahoo loses some of its top talent, and the industry gains it by simply offering the chance for a balanced work/home lifestyle. Does it really cost Yahoo that much time and productivity for people to communicate via Skype or IRC or email or the million other ways we communicate online? As far as I can tell, most office buildings are crammed full of people who are mostly doing anything they can to get through the day so they can get back to their families and homes ... the real point of working, actually.

If someone is not producing, you let them go. If they miss deadlines, you let them go. If they are not collaborating effectively, you let them go. Or better yet, you train them, incentivise them, get them on the same page, and let them go if they can't manage that. It's really very simple, and cost effective. It doesn't matter WHERE people work. It matters that they produce.

If your business is more focused on keeping people within sight than with results, you're going to have a very tough time. Focus on metrics, and adjust your strategy according to those results, and you will succeed. It's worked for thousands of billion-dollar companies. It will work for your small startup. Don't worry about where your people are. Don't worry at all. Just make a plan, make your expectations clear, demand quantifiable results, and prepare to change your strategy based on what you're seeing. That's the formula. It works.

To Yahoo, all I can say is, good luck. I personally see this as a chance to quietly dismiss a large number of employees, without having to lay them off. It's smart, really, from a certain perspective. But it's not right. It is, in fact, wrong. No shade of grey there. This is the wrong move, and it will have a cost, even if that cost can't be predicted at the moment.

For startups and small businesses ... there are going to be some very talented former Yahoo employees looking for new opportunities very soon. Go get 'em.