Stealing isn't easy. It's even harder stealing a person. Increase that ten-fold if that person is on the side of your arch-nemesis.
But that's what Yahoo! successfully did when they took Google's then long time employee, Marissa Mayer, and appointed her CEO of the company in 2012. While Mayer was still at Google, Yahoo! would plan out meetings with Mayer under an agenda code-named "Project Cardinal." When Yahoo! executives and Mayer would meet, Mayer had to repeat "Project Cardinal" aloud for a limo driver to swing by and pick her up. Seems like a pretty intricate plan, but even so, Mayer didn't think she had the job locked up. It wasn't until a voicemail came from a Yahoo! board member that said, "Marissa, you should be smiling. We're smiling, too," that she had the job confirmed. If she didn't get it, it looks like she might have been ready for a change, either way: the voicemail is still saved to her iPhone.
[via The Verge]
