Dunn and Dumber
I once posited that Marketing people shouldn't run technology companies, and most examples of publicly-traded companies prove me right:
Tech people running tech companies well:
- Intel: Andy Grove, Craig Barrett, Paul Otellini.
- Apple: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.
- Microsoft: Bill Gates, Paul Allen. Ballmer is a tool.
- Samsung: Yun Jong Yong. BSEE, MBA.
- VeriSign: Stratton Sclavos. Dual BS in EE and CE.
- AMD: Hector Ruiz, PhD in quantum electronics.
- ATI: Dave Orton, BS in Mathematics from Wake Forest, MSEE from Duke.
- Creative Labs: Sim Wong Hoo, Co-Founder, Co-Inventor, EE.
- nVidia: Jen-Hsun Huang, MSEE from Stanford, former microprocessor designer at AMD.
- Google: Eric Schmidt, former Novell CEO and Sun CTO. PhD in EECS. Co-creator of lex. Page & Brin both hold MS in CS from Stanford and Google was their PhD thesis (still in progress).
Examples of non-tech individuals ruining tech companies:
- Symantec: John W. Thompson, former Marketing VP.
- Computer Associates: John Swainson, former Sales VP.
- McAfee: George Samenuk, former Customer Service VP.
- Novell: Jack Messman... Environmental Services CEO. Banking CEO. Publisher CEO. Chemical Engineer by degree. Sank the company almost single-handedly.
- Novell, Part 2: Ronald Hovsepian, former Sales VP.
- Dell: Kevin Rollins, MBA management consultant.
- Gateway: Ted Waitt, co-founder, marketing student.
- Gateway: J. Edward Coleman, BA in economics, MBA.
- Hewlett-Packard: Carly Fiorina, BA in medieval history (I shit you not). Got her MBA in 1980 and was hired as a management trainee by AT&T in 1980; slogged through there and Lucent to rise to President of Consumer Products in 1996.
Exceptions:
- Adobe: Bruce Chizen, Marketing/Sales history. Arguably logical because of their market niche (marketing people).
- Hewlett-Packard: Mark Hurd, BA in Business Administration. Spent 25 years at NCR becoming a tech/re-org guru.
Oh, and just to cover Patricia Dunn's curriculum vitae:
- Former part-time secretary at Wells Fargo who rose through the ranks, also working as a freelance journalist. BA in Journalism.
Today's little rant was sponsored by the dual appearances by Patty Dunn and Carly Fiorina appearing on 60 Minutes.
Patty lucked her way to the top by being a stickler for rules; ironically being ousted for breaking the rules that we crazy laymen call "laws".
Carly. Ahh, Carly. I honestly think that she was probably a hard worker at Lucent that was over-promoted and, sadly, became addicted to the idolatry that came with her success as a very powerful woman. Her reign at HP was fraught with selfish acts (the yacht thing, hanging her portrait alongside Hewlett & Packard in the lobby, etc.) and generally sounding like a buffoon on financial matters.
Now she's trying to claim that she was the catalyst behind HP's current wave of success. As a long-time HP customer, I just can't see it. She tried to generate success for HP through pure marketing sparkle, making splashy moves that would generate lots of industry buzz, but with little respect for the business or human issues required to actually make those moves work. Like a movie hero, Hurd's the one who came in at the final moments and saved the train from careening off its tracks.
Again, as a customer, I'm a hundredfold happier since Hurd took over: the products have direction, customer service is way up, and prices are (as they should have been all along) on-par with Dell.