Discussing the market on Bloomberg West, Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO)’s chairman, Maynard Webb, talked about business fundraiser and how CEOs should deal with crises when they come.
“Problems don’t get better with age,” Webb said. With the discussion focusing on Box, which raised $150 million by offering a stake in the company to two institutional investors, Mr. Webb said that the CEO Aaron Levie cannot be criticized on the timing of the fundraiser move.
“Market time is not something that you try to get perfectly right. You try to build the business for the long haul.” he said.
Although the Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) executive revealed that he was not a huge fan of Box’s CEO Levie, he hopes he “will figure out the right thing to do.” He also thinks that Mr. Levie is trying to get great talents and put great products out there as part of the bigger picture in growing the company.
Box has delayed its IPO because of the market uncertainties, especially because of its cash issues. As to how CEOs should deal with crises, Mr. Webb said, “It is important to know you have a problem and assess how big it is.”
The Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) executive thinks that doing so helps in deciding how to approach the problem, especially in the allocation of best resources.
“If the problem is big you’ve got to put your best people on it 24/7.” said Mr. Webb.
However, Mr. Webb pointed out that CEO should be careful to communicate only what they know when managing a crisis.
Although most business leaders have the first instinct of hiding a problem while hoping that it will go away, Mr. Webb thinks it is always better to tell the truth even if it means running into the fire.
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) Chairman has also recalled a tough experience at eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) where he served as a Chief Operations Officer. He said they made an unpopular decision that resulted in an imaginable damage that they had to apologize. Mr. Webb noted that good business leaders naturally apologize when things fail to work out as expected.
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