Sheryl Sandberg and the Death of 'The Deal'

Five years. When she took the job as COO at Facebook, she figured she would be there for a long time. Enough time to change the company's swaggering culture into something sustainable, build a wildly successful ad business, and set up a policy operation in DC. She wants to establish herself as an international standard Setter for female executives. She might run for office or head a giant company like Disney.

It wasn't until today that she announced she was leaving the company. Fourteen years at the same post is an eternity for an ambitious corporate superstar like Sandberg. She was either forced out by the collapse of the company's reputation in the wake of relentless privacy and content management scandals or worn out by having to defend them all the time. Even the company's name was changed because she stayed around so long.

Her farewell post is suitable for a Medium, but she also posted it on the Facebook blue app Feed. She mentioned a woman in Poland who sells stuffed animals on the platform. It was carefully crafted, to the point where you couldn't tell that the company was among the world's most castigated. The sad part of the news was not in her resignation letter, but in her farewell to her.

When she joined Facebook, she made a deal with the company. While she was reporting to the CEO, she was given complete control over certain parts of the company. It made sense for him to sell ads. According to The Deal, her world included communications, lobbying, policy, and other non-engineering areas. The chief security officer reported to the general counsel. Things fell apart after the election, but it took a long time for them to reach Mark. The consequences were terrible. It would have been impossible to internalize all the different parts of what running a company could be without the life experience of the founder.

In his post today, he heaped praise on his departing COO. While the essay painted her tenure in the rosiest tones imaginable, the statement from the CEO was a giant corporate course correction. He mandated changes to Meta's organization to make sure nothing like that era will ever happen again, after he proclaimed that Sandberg's departure was the end of an era. He wrote that a more traditional COO role would be assumed by the presumed successor, Javier Olivan. The company's runaway growth organization won't be run by Olivan alone, as he originally did.

Some of that had begun. The first big change was last year when Nick Clegg was given the responsibility for policy and communications. The chief legal officer was moved to a direct report. Even as he celebrated, he ripped up her organization and put it under his control. The head of HR will also report to him. The chief diversity officer is also in the domain.