Yahoo's CEO Shows the Big Boys How It's Done

Nice to see some refreshing candor from Yahoo's newish CEO, Carol Bartz.

At the hipper-than-thou D Conference sponsored by the Wall Street Journal, Bartz stage-whispered the f-bomb at media high priestess Kara Swisher, not a direct shot but definitely a signal that she was to be taken seriously.

Then, at the same conference, she interrupted an interview with CNBC's Jim Goldman, who was midway through a statement/question that Yahoo seemed to be "contenting itself" with offering services that Google didn't. First Bartz cut him off with a terse "excuse me" and then took over the question by asserting that Yahoo played second fiddle to no one and that Yahoo is "very different, and just as special as they are."

Why do I like these exchanges? In the case of the Swisher interview, she sends the signal that she is strong and in control, a critical message for anyone with an interest in Yahoo (i.e., investors, employees, users, competitors). With Goldman, she was even stronger: cutting him off wasn't that big a deal, but it did show her confidence as a spokesperson. But then, she went on to assert the strength of Yahoo in the strongest terms, and even if your first reaction is "yeah, right," the overall impression is one of some who is not going to back down until her words are indeed 100% true.

The Goldman interview is prime example of the confidence CEOs ought to exude when they are speaking as representatives of their companies.

The easiest way to watch these videos is at Valleywag right here.