Who Should be John Donahoe's Successor as eBay CEO?

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Ina Steiner

AuctionBytes Blog
News and insight focusing on
ecommerce and the online auction industry
by Ina Steiner, Editor of AuctionBytes.com

October 16, 2008

Who Should be John Donahoe's Successor as eBay CEO?

By: David Steiner

Thu Oct 16 2008 13:21:29

Pressure is building on eBay CEO John Donahoe as his plans to improve the marketplaces business have not had the intended effect on eBay's Gross Merchandise Volume, up only 4% in the third quarter, year over year. Unhappy sellers have called for his ouster, while blogs and other outlets have floated for months the possibility of a replacement if things don't improve by January.

Donahoe's chances of survival may be impacted by Amazon's performance. In a tough economy, it's easier to allow for slowing growth - but not if your competitor is unaffected. But we'll have to wait until next week to find out - Amazon reports earnings on October 22nd.

If Donahoe's out, who's in? Former CEO Meg Whitman always had a circle of top executives groomed for the top spot, but Cobb, Jordan, Dutta, Bannick - and even Webb and Kazim - are no longer with the company. Whitman had rotated the execs so they would have experience in leading eBay, international and PayPal. But now, there's no clear successor to Donahoe.

So play along, who would be a good choice to run eBay? If you don't have a specific person in mind, give a list of qualities that Donahoe's successor should have. Play nice, be constructive and build a perfect eBay leader.

Comments (205) | Permalink

Readers Comments

Who Should be John Donahoe's Successor as eBay CEO?

by: RealSeller

Thu Oct 16 13:25:43 2008

Randy Smythe. Hey, the guy at least knows what works and what doesn't on eBay.

Who Should be John Donahoe's Successor as eBay CEO?

by: Texas BlueBonnet

Thu Oct 16 13:27:01 2008

eBay should look outside its ranks!

Who Should be John Donahoe's Successor as eBay CEO?

by: Joe

Thu Oct 16 13:43:39 2008

It should be me. I'll do it. I'll put things back the way they were 4 years ago, bring back customer service, and restore the community that made ebay what is once was.

Oh, and I'll only need $10 million up front.

Who Should be John Donahoe's Successor as eBay CEO?

by: Jim S.

Thu Oct 16 13:46:50 2008

How about John McCain? He'll probably be free next year and Meg can be his advisor.

Who Should be John Donahoe's Successor as eBay CEO?

by: Texas Sandy

Thu Oct 16 13:49:27 2008

Anyone could do a better job then this Bozo! I think the next CEO should be a Ebay seller. Or someone with a strong background in customer service. Or Amazon's CEO.

Who Should be John Donahoe's Successor as eBay CEO?

by: sean

Thu Oct 16 13:54:56 2008

Skip Mcgrath or Griff. Bring the fun back to Ebay, then it will succeed.

Who Should be John Donahoe's Successor as eBay CEO?

by: Pretty Betty

Thu Oct 16 14:19:27 2008

Please, on bended knee,

Nothing Bain and nothing Norrington. That Telekinesis or whatever her name is creeps me out. Stupid blind she is. Burke needs to be gone too.

Griff? He sold his soul to the Bainites. He believes 100% of all sellers have caused all buyer disputes. 100%. All sellers bad, all sellers good. That kind of thinking caused this tragedy.

And please,

Get a business person NOT a business consultant.

Donahoe failed at eBay Express and now has taken down the marketplace. Whoever hired/promoted this pack of fools needs to go too.

Who Should be John Donahoe's Successor as eBay CEO?

by: Daisy

Thu Oct 16 14:21:35 2008

I vote Randy Smythe too. He's even said he'd do the job for a lot less earnings.

What's Griff been up to lately? He's been awfully quiet.

Who Should be John Donahoe's Successor as eBay CEO?

by: Another powerseller

Thu Oct 16 14:26:35 2008

I believe John Donahue's actions show him to be a pathologically Narcissist, which is a very serious personality disorder, and a disaster for any business where such a person is at the helm.

Of course most people wouldn't know what I'm referring to, which is half the problem....these kinds of people filter into leadership roles, destroy the place, and move on, and people are left picking up the pieces and wondering what on earth happened?. Its a common scenario, that could be avoided if CEO's underwent proper pych evaluations as part of the recruiting process.

This issue is well documented by Dr Sam vaknin (for anyone interested):

http://samvak.tripod.com/corporatenarcissism.html

Who Should be John Donahoe's Successor as eBay CEO?

by: republican voting democratic

Thu Oct 16 14:27:04 2008

Please "ANYONE THAT HAS COMMON SENSE"

Who Should be John Donahoe's Successor as eBay CEO?

by: Doctor Deals

Thu Oct 16 14:31:11 2008

I have one very simple requirement over and above the standard business leadership experience that the next CEO of eBay should have.

The next CEO of eBay should be someone who has successfully operated a business on eBay. With both buying and a lot of selling experience on this marketplace.

The board of directors needs to apply this sort of litmus test to any future potential leader of eBay. If they cannot or have not used the marketplace successfully, then they have no place leading it because like JD, they have no understanding of it from a practical day to day use of the marketplace standpoint.

JD should line up three or more of his top managers right now and instead of the typical periodic month or more long ''Sebaticle'' eBay management gets. They should all be assigned a 30-45 day project of building a business that makes money ''Selling'' on eBay. They have to find a product, market it, sell it, get paid, ship orders and handle customer service emails. And they need to do it selling at least say 300+ items a month with a net profit of $5000 a month on a sustainable basis. If they can do that, they should be prepared to understand what it is to use eBay.

If the next leader of eBay cannot make a profit selling on the marketplace, and of course setting the highest standards of service with 4.9 DSR's across the board. Then they have no place at the head of a company they cannot understand or use effectively.

So there you go JD and the eBay BOD, when the eBay CEO is eventually replaced, be it next week or years from now, Make sure it is with someone that actually has a hands on understanding of the marketplace from the other side of the eBay Invoice, the side that pays it.

Thank you,

DD

Who Should be John Donahoe's Successor as eBay CEO?

by: Kal

Thu Oct 16 14:36:03 2008

Someone with a BRAIN. I nominate the SCARECROW.

Who Should be John Donahoe's Successor as eBay CEO?

by: Gail

Thu Oct 16 14:40:55 2008

I believe it should be someone who's had the pulse of eBay sellers (and buyers) at her fingertips for years. A person who has listened AND HEARD what is so wrong with the eBay Donahoe is trying to build. A person with business acumen, not just marketing knowledge.

Ina, when can you start?

Who Should be John Donahoe's Successor as eBay CEO?

by: The Graduate

Thu Oct 16 14:54:39 2008

by: Gail
Thu Oct 16 14:40:55 2008
I believe it should be someone who's had the pulse of eBay sellers (and buyers) at her fingertips for years. A person who has listened AND HEARD what is so wrong with the eBay Donahoe is trying to build. A person with business acumen, not just marketing knowledge.

Ina, when can you start?
------------------

I second that!

Ina Steiner would be great. She could determine the percentage to charge sellers that allows eBay and it's sellers to make money. And she apparently has the wisdom to go for long term success instead of short term money grabs.

Who Should be John Donahoe's Successor as eBay CEO?

by: TekGems

Thu Oct 16 14:56:09 2008

Randy Smythe? In case you didn't know - he screwed all of his most recent eBay buyers as glacierbaydvd. Received payment but did not fill orders. Then folded. No, I don't think so.

I'm a geek. I could do a better job than Donahoe. I would ignore wall street and give company products long-term chance to succeed instead of scrapping it after a quarter.

Who Should be John Donahoe's Successor as eBay CEO?

by: genuineseller

Thu Oct 16 14:56:10 2008

Joe the Plumber!!

Who Should be John Donahoe's Successor as eBay CEO?

by: Harriet

Thu Oct 16 14:59:51 2008

It has to be someone who understands the human element which is the backbone of eBay and always has been, more than any other site.

Ignoring the human element is what made this horrible mess.

Who Should be John Donahoe's Successor as eBay CEO?

by: The Graduate

Thu Oct 16 15:01:47 2008

off topic (sorry):

Is eBay search broken today? No searches are producing any results for me right now. Also my FP30 listing end notices are not coming to my email nor showing up in my unsold items (and unsold items are the majority on eBay these days).

Who Should be John Donahoe's Successor as eBay CEO?

by: JR

Thu Oct 16 15:07:52 2008

I know what eBay needs to do. They should not hire "Consultants" or "MBA's" who does not know anything about buying or selling at eBay. All they care about is numbers and numbers and running bogus statistics to manipulate quarterly result.

I can do better than Mr. Duh~~~

1. Change everything back to 2003 including feedback. Prohibiting seller from leaving neg feedback makes eBay the greatest place to steal from sellers. It works great, buy anything over $250, once you receive it without signature, you can file claim to keep goods without any problem.

2. Get rid of stupid programmers who keeps changing item specifics, and category numbers over and over again.
It's a pain to revise thousands of listings once every month. Do you think we have time to mess with eBay employees RIF survival tactics? They need to cutdown employees who harass sellers

3. Make any user to verify their identity to reduce fraud and revert the feedback systems as it was before 2008. EBay/Paypal does not need many people to manage fraudulent issues.

Just fire Doanhue and eBay will do better. Ebay went down since early 2006 after cracking down legit. sellers not cracking down fraudulent buyers.

Who Should be John Donahoe's Successor as eBay CEO?

by: Leery of the smug

Thu Oct 16 15:13:35 2008

Definitely not Tekgems.

Anyone who posts on all the ebay blogs as much as he does, has too much time on his hands.

If Tekgems were truly doing great sales, there would be less time to post. He would be too busy making money and running a business.

PS-I'm not Scot or Randy.

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