“The year was 1998 and eBay was little more than a glorified flea market with 6 million in sales,” recalls Meg Whitman when she became eBay’s CEO. Three years later eBay had $748 million in sales and 62 million registered users, becoming the envy of the dot-com world.
Whitman attributes this growth to persistence and vision, but her real success is based on quickly spotting trends and listening to customers. When a new product category sprouted legs, she played it up to ensure maximum buzz on user bulletin boards.
She also made it a rule to constantly work user inputs into daily operations. Several times a year she would fly customers to eBay headquarters to get their take on ideas. A few weeks later she would follow up with conference calls to fine tune the ideas before they were implemented. Whitman explains, “The users are our company since they are the ones who bring the product and merchandise it.” She knew that the more options users have, the more often they return.
In 2002, one of these ideas led to the expansion of fixed prices, providing an alternative to those who would rather buy without bidding. As the CEO, she set big goals and developed strategies to get there. It was this thinking that led to eBay buying out Pay-Pal to reduce their processing costs.
What lessons from Meg Whitman and eBay can you apply to your business?
