LinkedIn’s Reid Hoffman on What Yahoo Should Do Next

Yesterday at TechCrunch Disrupt, Mike Arrington asked LinkedIn founder and CEO Reid Hoffman what he would do if he were $YHOO CEO.

Here’s a snippet:

And so, I think part of where Yahoo has not developed as much as it can, because I think it has, great assets, is, taking key things, Mail, Messenger, even Yahoo Finance, groups which I think like have been not invested in as heavily, because the reason there isn’t as good as the revenue stream and the PNL against them, but it’s something that could actually be a really central product that a lot of people use. They could be enhanced the next level and that’s one area where you’re doing essentially the tech innovation. I think another area is innovating on the business model.

Hoffman would make a great $YHOO CEO (check out his bio here).

But the importance of sharing this interview is not how many great ideas Hoffman or anyone else might be able to entertain during a conversation. As $YHOO leadership has allowed some of the greatest properties in web history to whither over time, there are so many opportunities for improvement one coversation between two smart guys only and barely scratches the surface.

Take for example Flickr, a $YHOO property that Thomas Hawk declared dead last month. Well, Flickr is not quite dead yet but it is suffering from advanced osteoporosis. How difficult would it be for them to fast follow Instagram and create a mobile and highly social mobile photo sharing app? Its not too late and this is only one of a thousand applications that are waiting for a leader with vision and a set of cohones.

The entire interview is well worth a watch and embedded below: