In our 2002 Electronic Recruiting Index, we propose a plan to replace HotJobs in a fair amount of detail. That the initial investment is in the $100M neighborhood is testimony to the vision and cleverness of the pair at the top.

The word on the street is that the hunt for a replacement is on. Certainly, our phones have been ringing though we're pretty happy where we are.

The challenge facing the incoming CEO will be extraordinary. There are three obvious properties that have not fully exploited their opportunities in the Employment Space: AOL, Salary.com and Yahoo. Each opportunity has unique positioning, audience and business requirements. Each is a diamond in the rough, ready to be matured.

In the case of Yahoo, there are a several key sequential questions:

1. Is HotJobs a cash cow or a growing business. In other words, will Yahoo continue to invest in support of a vision or does the HotJobs margin simply drop to Yahoo's bottom line?
2. Is Yahoo going to become a Brand Management Company? In other words, will there be a HotJobs five years from now or is the functionality going to be incorporated under one brand?
3. Is HotJobs still a New York company or is the strategy so important that the CEO must be bi-coastal?

Exploiting the Yahoo opportunity involves building a business that could outstrip TMP's incredible growth track record. But, anyone looking at the huge range of non-integrated offerings embedded in the "My Yahoo!" package might be tempted to imagine a horribly flat bureaucracy that will do little but resist integration. While gobs of traffic will catapult HotJobs' into the stratosphere, the opportunity at Yahoo! involves the existing base of users and the development of an interesting business concept. Traffic is a second level story at best.

The employment section of Yahoo has the potential to be the largest cash producer ever seen in our industry. The infrastructure required to really bring it to life, however, is hardly an afterthought. As we speak, the labor market is shifting, the workforce is aging and the labor shortage is coming. Building on the notion that a career is an investment, Yahoo could easily wriggle into an interesting position as the financial manager for its users. In the end, that would mean that HotJobs changes Yahoo more than the opposite.

  John Sumser

Workstream Recruiting Systems - Make the right choice!