The Google-fication of Yahoo begins with free lunch

New Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer is wasting no time is remaking the company into something akin to her former digs at Google.

Some of the changes Mayer is enacting immediately are free lunch at the company’s cafe and company-wide weekly meeting on Friday, according to a report by AllThingsD’s Kara Swisher. Google is of course known for doing both of these things to boost employee morale and keep up the lines of communication.

The report also indicates that Mayer wants to change the layout of Yahoo employee work spaces to make them more collaborative and (I’m guessing) less like a cubical prison — with other perks in the works as well.

Changes like this don’t necessarily make sense to a company when looking purely at the numbers. But, Mayer has a chance to turn around not only Yahoo’s products/services, but also its underlying work culture. And a culture change at Yahoo will mean the smart, innovative workers will now get some attention, while the others will either unlock new potential or move on to somewhere similar to the old Yahoo. Either way, Mayer is definitely cultivating a new breed of Yahooers.

Perhaps what’s more interesting than new desks and free food is who Mayer will chose to help lead the company. It’s likely that at least a handful of people she used to work with at Google will make the jump to Yahoo. Beyond that, we’ll have to wait.

Photo via JD Lasica/Flickr