{EAV:84adeba5c5b1539f} I read The Guardian’s article with great disdain this evening, announcing that PayPal President Scott Thompson is being appointed as Yahoo’s new CEO.
A business that’s failed to innovate, allowed competitors to get ahead & steal their market share (Flickr as a prime example of this failure, demonstrated by the rise of Instagram, 500px and ors), and failed to look after & listen to their customers – has appointed a CEO who was president of a company who has failed to innovate, allowed competitors to steal market share, and consistently fails to listen to customers (today’s example of the $2,500 antique violin destroyed to prove a claim is the latest example, as well as my ongoing horrors with this nightmare of a company come to mind).
So this caused me to cast my mind back, and made me think of this quote from Season Five of The West Wing (#504, “Han”). Toby and Will are trying to write a speech on the appointment of Bob Russell as the new veep.
Having hit the wall of writers block hard, they delve into the absurd and unprofessional to best sum up their feelings about Bingo Bob Russell. You could replace all references to Bingo Bob in the following quotes with Scott Thompson – and you’d pretty much hit the nail on the head:
“‘Distinguished’ is as high as we go. You’d have to be high to go loftier. Here’s what it should be: ‘In a triumph of the middling, a nod to mediocrity, and with gorge rising, it gives me great nausea to announce Robert Russell — Bingo Bob, himself — as your new Vice President.'”
Will is typing this and gets into the spirit, adding, “This lapdog of the mining interests is as dull as he is unremarkable—”
“— as lackluster as he is soporific…. this reversion to the mean—”
“—this rebuke to the exemplary—”
“—gives hope to the millions unfavored by the exceptional…. Bob Russell: not the worst, not the best, just what we’re stuck with.”
Scott Thompson: Not the worst, not the best, just what we’re stuck with.
All things empty 