Key assumptions and values in eBay's culture before Meg Whitman

Meg Whitman eBay, Inc.

EBay is an online place in the internet where buyers meet sellers. Before the arrival of Whitman's as CEO of the company, the value given at EBay to its customers was very high as compared to any other website or working place. This is why EBay was often referred to as a site of the people, by the people and for the people. The values given to people were so strong that the people, who used this site for doing transactions, proudly called themselves as the user of this site and referred themselves as E-Bayer's. This clearly indicated that this site was not just a place where people come to buy and sell their goods and services. Moreover, it was a site where the people interacted with each other tried to know each other and tried to develop strong sense of working relationship together with trust being the binding factor as all these things were merely done in good faith (Hill, 1999). Therefore, EBay had a unique and healthy culture as it was totally based on trust, respect autonomy, empowerment and equality. Most companies often say that customer is always right but not only EBay believes in this sentence but it goes way beyond it. Since EBay had no control over the buyer and seller decisions or discussion on their site the only way they could influence them was by telling everyone on the site to respect each other just like that a person require for himself just setting a very positive trend at EBay. All these ideas were influenced by Omidyar as previously before EBay came into existence Omidyar use to work in General Magic as a software developer. Over there he was very much frustrated, as he was not given the access to shares of stock from the initial public offerings as the institution brokers had. From here onwards, Omidyar decided to setup an efficient market where everyone was provided with an equal opportunity and equal access to information and where the customers treated each other with honesty and respect. All these factors were quite visible in the values and culture at EBay (Hill, 1999).

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At EBay al these manifestations were quite visible as we clearly saw customers treating each other with respect and furthermore by trusting them. Trust is a very important factor in building and maintaining a relationship, as without it customers especially at EBay cannot transact with each other. So for this the company emphasized it customers at EBay to promote and respect each other as with respect you will be able to gain trust of the customer which will be healthy for customers as well as the company. These things clearly reflected in EBay operations and environment at EBay was so healthy that customers were proud to tell each other user of this site and proud called themselves as EBayers, which reflects the values and culture incorporated by the company in their customers (Hill, 1999).

B. These values and culture was also reflected within the internal structure of the organization and with the company dealings with its employee. As EBay was site of the people by the people and for the people it clearly showed that without the people support the company would cease to exist. Furthermore EBay had very little to do for regulation of the site or for assisting its customers because the seller is also a customer and the buyer is a customer. EBay never took responsibility for these transactions and for logistic support. What it did to regulate was that it promoted the sense of respect, trust and honesty between the customers and created a feedback forum where customers can share their experience of transacting at EBay, which automatically regulated this whole process.

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The change in system capacity was a good decision but the EBay only system capacities were its systems, which were quite unconventional for this purpose. EBay decided to update its system capacity but due to lack of communication and lack of understanding, EBay went offline for maintenance. This was done in order to increase its capacity but this outraged its customers especially those who were in middle of the auction. Furthermore, the use of this site kept increasing, which meant with every passing time load on the system increased as thousands of bids were being processed at one time thus further increasing the risk of outrage so it was important to update system capacity.

The change in marketing strategy was a very essential as it was very important to determine what type of customers were involved in these trading activities so they can be distinguished and for that a marketing team was created the only problem here they faced that unlike other systems customers were the buyer and they were the sellers also. After the analysis several new program were initiated to facilitate and help their customers and more importantly, brand positioning of the company was set.

As the company enormously grew, it was very important to set u a specialized unit who were well capable of performing their tasks and for this purpose a separate engineering team and a marketing team was setup. Further, more Whitman's decided to onboard EBay with executives who would be responsible for managing the company effectively and the most important thing she did that she kept a legal advisor for the company legal proceedings (Hill, 1999).

Community safety issues became a big problem for the company, as there was report of frauds and illegal trade activities, which became a major concern for the company itself. The problem was that EBay insisted that it only acted as a venue and that it was not responsible for what was being sold. To EBay community safety was important so they decided to launch program for minimizing frauds and disapproving any illegal activity being carried on the site.

The strategic partnership with AOL was seen as a major strategic move for the company as both the companies complemented each other very well and this decision would help grow both the companies positively.

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