Comments on: eBay's Mistake and What Management Can Learn

By: Your HR Guy

Your HR Guy — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 17:33:19 +0000

Thanks Zip.

By: Zip Kilowatt

Zip Kilowatt — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 05:33:06 +0000

“Managers can take note: the tactic used by Bill Cobb was entirely ineffective at meeting itâ€™s goals. Unless his goal was to communicate ineffectively.”

I know the blogosphere isn’t about highly manicured copy, but could you lose the inappropriate apostrophe in the possessive form of “it”? While I’m at it, you probably want to either substitute “eBay” for “Bill Cobb” or “his” for “it’s.” And why the plural “goals” in the first sentence and the singular “goal” in the second?

By: Your HR Guy

Your HR Guy — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 01:05:31 +0000

So I don’t know why they spend so much time trying to justify the change on the front end. If BCobb thinks this is a good idea, he should just come out and say it: Store Inventory listings cost more than we priced them. We are now adjusting our pricing acoordingly. Here it is. Here are the supporting statistics.

It doesn’t seem like great leadership. And granted there are no other places to go now, who says this doesn’t touch off someone else to start something new? They might have done it anyway but at least you don’t look like a poor leader.

By: Colin Kingsbury

Colin Kingsbury — Fri, 21 Jul 2006 01:00:36 +0000

“Unless his goal was to communicate ineffectively.”

Well, their plan is to raise fees by close to 50%. Is there any upside? Most eBay merchants have little choice to go elsewhere; they are peasants and Bill Cobb is the Tsar. So the goal may well be to pickle-barrel the thing in hopes that a large proportion of people don’t pay too much attention to it. Communicating a positive message first requires that there be a positive message to communicate, even if it’s a stretch.