Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz, well known for her “f*ck off” comment to a blogger earlier this year, recently spoke with USA TODAY about a variety of topics including the company itself, her role in it, the economy, and more.
The interviewer questioned Bartz about Yahoo’s lack of social media and she correctly points out that social media is more than just status updates and tweets – any interaction online can be considered social media, even comments on a blog post. That’s not to say Facebook won"t become a strong competitor to Yahoo; the amount of information they gather on members is valuable, albeit “creepy,” but Bartz doesn’t think they’re direct competitors quite yet.
Bartz goes on to talk about her ideas on leadership and what she looks for when hiring people (hint: If something is guaranteed to work, it’s not a risk!) as well as her opinion on the future of connected TVs.
On the topic of economy, she refused to say anything about President Obama due to being a “very private political person,” yet goes on to confirm that she will be voting for Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina in the California elections. The predictions for an economic turnaround have been pushed back to the end of 2011, but it was obviously a guess.
She finished up by discussing the mobile platform and while Google has their own Android operating system, Yahoo has many mobile tools such as Mail, Messenger, and finance and that they have a very strong international presence.
Overall it is a very interesting interview from a CEO who doesn’t like to mince words.