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Technology Stocks : Novell (NOVL) dirt cheap, good buy?
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To: scott blomquist who started this subject4/27/2001 4:24:40 PM
From: Paul Fiondella  Read Replies (2) of 42771
 
waldy --- your whip is a wet noodle

At least give Scott a run for our/his money.

Try this:

Although there is some competition from within Novell as to who is the most forward looking technology guru the role a technology strategist plays in a computer software company is important. That is why Eric was hired. The company finally realized it needed someone who knew something about this industry in the drivers seat.

So why didn't Eric get some execution on his strategy out of this crew of systems engineers?

When I worked at Bell Labs do you think the "boss" whom we all affectionately regarded as the poor guy who had to count the paper clips we used etc. ever told anybody what to do? We knew what to do because we were all smart. Nobody was looking to get out of doing work or sitting on their hands looking for options.

Peer pressure to perform is what kept us on our toes. You sure as hell didn't want your code to bust when it went into the test lab. It was a meritocracy and colleagial.

This may very well be the atmosphere that existed at SunW. The fact that a guy like Sheridan, with no engineering
background, could advance to the level of his intellectual abilities and push forward JAVA says something about the general standard of creativity and colleagiality at Sunw.

But what about Novell?

Novell appears to me to be a very very different company. It is more rigid in it structure, less creative in terms of its
approach to talent, and far more a traditional conservative bureaucracy. They value "loyalty" and being one of "us".

When Eric left execution up to the managers at Novell he made a mistake. These are typical corporate types that needed complete and detailed instructions along with evaluations and punishments.

A very very different atmosphere from the ones that exist in Silicon Valley.

Novell's culture is so rigid and insular. You may have noticed that Scott performs a mission at Novell of going out and finding what is happening in the industry and working with various groups within Novell to integrate what he sees with what Novell does.

========

Messman will only succeed if he moves the management of the company out of Utah. They need to see the larger world too. Utah is just too comfortable a place to spin your wheels in. Its a company town atmosphere there.

The most immediate tasks at Novell are (1) integrate the two companies as quickly as possible. The sooner this is done the more solution sales Novell can make with those 2800 consultants. (2) streamline Novells management and fix the execution problems.

This later task was avoided by Eric. The fact that the company does not execute and the current management never has anything but excuses for its performance cannot be ignored.

If they continue to say "I'll do my thing and you do yours," then we are going to have a company with Messman in Cambridge, Eric in San Jose, and the management in Utah. Novell will run around like a chicken without a head. This is insane absolutely crazy and irresponsible. That chicken isn't going to produce egss its going to bleed to death.

After Messman puts the companies together, he has to address the execution problems.

With 1000 managers and admins at CATP and who knows how many at Novell, not everybody can get a free ride in the merged company. Some people have to go. If you can't get a web site up for quarterly meeting after quarterly meeting, you should be fired, not kept on because you are a long time Novell employee who nbever learned how to use the internet!

So let's welcome Scott back with a kick in the butt. Whens that damn digitalme site goiong to do something Scott? Christmas?
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