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Yahoo! and You Too

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Stan Slap Kicking off our 2013 BusinessNext Social conference (formerly the Social Media Business Summit) on day one is Stan Slap, president of the international consulting company called, by remarkable coincidence, “slap.” Stan has a history of accomplishments as a CEO with as many as 5,000 employees reporting to him and has served as a director of several companies with their CEOs reporting to him, which he prefers a whole lot more.

Stan has directed the successful expansion for companies ranging from Patagonia to Pennzoil. He designed the plan that helped Oracle sell their strategic intent to 40,000 employees in 167 countries and developed employee re-engagement plans for HSBC, Europe’s largest bank. He has created winning brand strategies for companies from Deloitte to Black Entertainment Television. He has invented many successful advertising campaigns, consulted to leading advertising agencies and personally written slogans for companies from Coca-Cola to Checkpoint Software.

I had the pleasure of working with Stan in 2002-2003, back in the days when he spiked his hair and his book Bury My Heart in Conference Room B was merely a life changing experience. Ten years later, thousands more people are living their values at work, and Bury My Heart in Conference Room B is a New York TimesWall Street Journal and USA Today bestseller.

Stan’s latest thinking – advice to Marissa Mayer on how to go about restoring Yahoo! to its former glory – is featured today on Forbes.  Stan begins:

“I don’t know Yahoo! personally; they’re not one of my company’s clients. But I know how cultures work and how to work them. The turnaround that Marissa Mayer is attempting will be decided by the reactions and actions of its manager, employee and customer cultures – in that order. You may not know Yahoo! either but these are the same three groups that are deciding the success of your own company while you read this sentence. Listen up.

A culture is not simply a bunch of managers, employees and customers. When they form as a culture, each of these groups is far more self-protective, far more intelligent and far more resistant to standard methods of corporate influence.”

In the article, part of Mark Fidelman’s “Socialized and Mobilized” column, Stan outlines Marissa’s main challenges — to foster the manager culture’s willingness to treat the success of the company like a personal cause; to win the trust of an employee culture pre-conditioned to be weary and wary; and to regain its brand status, which has been the subject of sightlessness inducing self-abuse — and how to overcome them. 

To hear more of Stan’s take on business today, be sure to register to see him live and in person on January 6th at the BusinessNext Social conference in Las Vegas (powered by BlogWorld).

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17
  • Kelly

    Stan is a brilliant business man. Marissa is a brilliant business woman. Together they will transform every company out there for the better. We need more business people like them.

  • Ron Beck

    I learned a lot about how to run my business much better after I read “Bury My Heart in Conference Room B”. A must read for business owners who are looking to expand properly. Stan is an awesome business man.

  • H K Saini

    i do have strong feeling of Yahoo comeback. and the feeling got much stronger after myspace comeback in social networking arena. yahoo have some of great products but they are in some bits and pieces. its good to see how will yahoo make a big picture out its products and yahoo will be able to comeback or not. lets hope for the best.

  • Ryan V

    I have complete faith that Yahoo will recover and be better than ever. Marissa is going to make it happen. Yes I do believe she will. I am glad to see that Stan gave her advice as well because it will be a hard task but she can do it.

  • Amanda

    Awesome article.

  • Tammy

    I would give anything to get to know this guy. I need some serious business advice.

  • Dan Baxter

    I was extremely pleased to hear that Marissa was taking this position for Yahoo! as they needed someone to help them change for the better and she will do that. I have always had a lot of respect for her as a business woman.

  • Jenna Dobkin

    Thank you all! We are very much looking forward to Stan speaking at BusinessNext. His insights for Marissa certainly apply to many businesses looking to bring their manager and employee cultures on board a social business!

  • Shane F

    What an excellent write up and would love to see if I can at all make it to the upcoming event. I could learn a lot from this.

  • Ross

    Marissa is going to rock Yahoo and this is one of the best written up articles I have read in a long time.

  • Luigi

    Nice article. Stan is will host a great event. Too bad I am unable to attend but maybe sometime down the road I will go. He will host many more.

  • Abbie

    I am looking forward to going to the event in January. Very exciting.

  • Andy

    Thank goodness for Marissa calling the shots for Yahoo. I now see a bright future for them. I know I am not the only one who feels that way.

  • sharon

    Stan is the only mentor who I would take advice from. I did read “Bury My Heart in Conference Room B” and this suggestions helped me in more ways than I can express. Unfortunately I will not be able to make it to the big event but I hope at some point I can attend another.

  • Cathy

    Stan and Marissa are brilliant business people. Very well written article too.

  • Tom

    I have a feeling that Yahoo! is gonna be rocking the world 🙂

  • Hal

    What a great write up. I can’t wait to see Yahoo making a big come back.

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