Former eBay CEO Under Fire for ‘Disruptive Innovation’ Comments


Former eBay CEO Under Fire for Disruptive Innovation Comments

Former eBay CEO John Donahoe, who now heads Nike, took flak over his comments about “disruptive innovation” last week, a term that may trigger online sellers who were on eBay in the mid-2000s.

Donahoe blamed remote work for Nike’s innovation challenges, telling CNBC in an interview published on Friday, “In hindsight, it turns out, it’s really hard to do bold, disruptive innovation, to develop a boldly disruptive shoe on Zoom.”

Brian Elliott, former CEO of Alibris and Monsoon Commerce in the 2000s, was among those who took issue with the Nike CEO’s comments. Wendy Hamilton, CEO of TechSmith, was far more blunt in her reaction to Donahoe’s remarks:

“You know what does hurt innovation?” Hamilton wrote. “Treating employees like cogs. Extreme cost-cutting. Not understanding your customer. The CEO started laying off in 2020 continuing painfully into 2021, and remains in cost-cutting mode with an announcement four months ago of $2B in planned cuts over the next three years.”

Cost-cutting may be part of Donahoe’s DNA, having been a Bain management consultant for much of his career (eBay sellers sometimes referred to him as “one of the Bobs,” a reference to the movie Office Space).

Even more searing over the weekend were comments from financial services executive Josh Oliveira, who professes to be obsessed with the future of work, who said, “Nike CEO John Donahoe is trying to save his reputation, because it’s looking like the company is turning into Kodak/Blockbuster under his leadership.”

Many smaller online sellers work from home so don’t have skin in the game when it comes to the issue of remote work. But Donahoe’s remarks last week may have resonated with those who lived through his era as CEO of eBay when he unleashed disruptive innovation, a painful process for many sellers. Eventually he left eBay in 2015 after he capitulated to activist investor Carl Icahn and broke up eBay and PayPal.

A day after Donahoe’s remarks to CNBC on Friday, Nike founder Phil Knight came out in support of John Donahoe, according to the Oregon – but the publication also reported that Nike is expected to soon have a second round of layoffs this year.

CNBC posted a clip of the interview on YouTube where John Donahoe dropped the term “disruptive innovation,” but you must be a CNBC Pro subscriber to see the full interview:

Ina Steiner

Ina Steiner
Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She’s a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of “Turn eBay Data Into Dollars” (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, “Blogging Heroes” (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 – present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 – present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.


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