3.

What were Yahoos contingency strategies to control and secure access to scarce and valuable resources in the environment in which it operates? Yahoo focused on improving its web directory, its concern was to create compelling news and entertainment content by adding more and more new services and features to increase its value and appeal to web users and so encourage them to register on its website. Yahoo hopes to keep as much as users as possible, in order to do that, yahoos registered users they could customize their own page that shows specific new sections or pages that they are interested in, such as technology, entertainment and so on. By the early 2000s, Yahoo faced with another search engine competition, oogle. !o strive for its new content"driven strategy, Yahoo established new kinds of services and ac#uired specialist. $ntil this day, some professionals wonder if Yahoos problem is that it has lost its sight of the original business model and mission. %t has become clear what the company is today and what kind of portal it aspires to be.

4. Using the concepts of symbiotic and competitive interdependence, describe what strategies Yahoo implemented to manage its interdependencies. There are many strategies used by Yahoo to manage its interdependencies. Yahoos strategies used to manage symbiotic interdependencies (interdependencies that exist between an organization and its suppliers and distributors) are, strategic alliances in the form of contracts and takeo ers. !effrey "allett recruited marketing experts to build the companys ad ertising functions. These experts signed a contract with Yahoo to share information. Yahoo also ac#uired and took o er a lot of web firms$ in %&&' they ac#uired Yoyodyne (ntertainment (internet shopping portal and direct marketing company), in %&&& they ac#uired )ocketmail (email ser ice pro ider), *eocities (web hosting ser ice), and +roadcast.com (audio and ideo programming on the ,,,), in -..% they ac#uired /ot0obs (0ob hunting and placement company), and in -..1 they ac#uired 2lickr (photograph hosting and sharing site) and 3pcoming.org (online social e ent calendar company). Yahoo formed theses alliances and ac#uired these companies to impro e their online content to interest new users and to compete in the market. These companies could be considered suppliers and distributors as they assist Yahoo in operating different features it ne er had before. Yahoo is now as a ast base of knowledge in arious ser ices that it can offer users. Yahoo also used strategies to manage their competiti e interdependencies (interdependencies that exist among organizations that compete for scarce inputs and outputs), such as informal strategic alliances using contracts. Yahoo formed an alliance with *oogle (competitor) to use its high4#uality search results as part of Yahoos search listings. Yahoo and e+ay (competitor) formed a 5marketing6ad ertising alliance in -..7, which ga e Yahoo the contract for creating customized ad ertising on e+ays web pages8 (!ones, -.%.). The strategies Yahoo implemented had both positi e and negati e conse#uences but o erall Yahoo was able to expand not only in features but also in number of users.

5. What strategy would you recommend to the Board for Yahoo to compete against its major competitors such as oogle and eBay! Why! There are many strategies that Yahoo could implement. They could hire a 9(: that boasts a reputation of #uality and creati ity to compete with competitors. ,e would suggest that Yahoo focus more on the product de elopment strategy. They should look to create a more personalized website directory that caters to the consumer. Yahoos competitors ha e gained the competiti e ad antage and Yahoo needs to work towards re4establishing itself as the top search engine6ad ertising website. They need to analyze *oogle and e+ays performance and compare it against their own so that they can impro e their performance. ;f Yahoo can become e#ual to or e en surpass *oogle and e+ay in some of their weaknesses, then yahoo will be on the right track to being known as the best website once again. ( eryone in Yahoo needs to be committed to working together in order for change and de elopment to take place and for these changes to be successful.