Ebay Meg Whitman
Based on reading over the Harvard case study, eBay should acquire Kruse. The eBay case is about the first CEO of eBay, Meg Whitman and potential cultural impact of Kruse purchase on two groups: the user community and the eBay associates, especially the management team.
Meg Whitman was hired by the founder of eBay, Pierre Omidyar in March 1998 at a time when the company was still very young and experiencing a fast paced growth. It was the intention of Omidyar to hire someone who would be instrumental in helping eBay thrive during this time of expansion, as it changed from a small start up company into a large established one. Whitman was experienced enough to know that eBay had a unique culture already in place and that respecting that culture was of the utmost importance, Whitman also understood that implementing sweeping change could not only be demoralizing to current employees, but could also damage to the company’s reputation amongst its customers.
The decision to purchase of Kruse hinges on effective management of the impact of change, on company’s reputation amongst its customers and current employees.
The lesser of these two appears to be the impact on the company’s reputation amongst its customers. The user complaints at eBay's growth appear to have little substance, at least as articulated in the article. For users that trade in less expensive items, their world appears to remain the same with identical features to safeguard the community. The change is incorporating higher-end auction items. The sense of betrayal expressed by some users seems unfounded. eBay is merely opening up to a broader community of users with expectedly the same processes that fostered the existing community. Downside is unsatisfied customers will always roll the dice with a new company if they feel the service is lacking or unreliable.
The second impact is on the eBay’s current employees. In light of this week's material, as eBay gets larger the tendency will be
Meg Whitman was hired by the founder of eBay, Pierre Omidyar in March 1998 at a time when the company was still very young and experiencing a fast paced growth. It was the intention of Omidyar to hire someone who would be instrumental in helping eBay thrive during this time of expansion, as it changed from a small start up company into a large established one. Whitman was experienced enough to know that eBay had a unique culture already in place and that respecting that culture was of the utmost importance, Whitman also understood that implementing sweeping change could not only be demoralizing to current employees, but could also damage to the company’s reputation amongst its customers.
The decision to purchase of Kruse hinges on effective management of the impact of change, on company’s reputation amongst its customers and current employees.
The lesser of these two appears to be the impact on the company’s reputation amongst its customers. The user complaints at eBay's growth appear to have little substance, at least as articulated in the article. For users that trade in less expensive items, their world appears to remain the same with identical features to safeguard the community. The change is incorporating higher-end auction items. The sense of betrayal expressed by some users seems unfounded. eBay is merely opening up to a broader community of users with expectedly the same processes that fostered the existing community. Downside is unsatisfied customers will always roll the dice with a new company if they feel the service is lacking or unreliable.
The second impact is on the eBay’s current employees. In light of this week's material, as eBay gets larger the tendency will be