September 3, 1996 This PC Week Novell needs to come out of hiding
By John Dodge
Novell has edged toward marginal-player
status for years now. And the people I
spot-surveyed said it's far more unlikely
than likely that the company will return to
prominence. Of course, Novell won't and
shouldn't give up. It has a strong franchise
in NetWare. It has $1 billion in cash. It is
profitable. It knows networking. It has a
fire-breathing sales type as president. It even has a Web site.
Here are a few suggestions:
Hire a communicator. For a company of its size, Novell has done a crummy job in getting its message out. I had to stumble upon its powerful NetWare Client for Windows NT 4.0 and a compelling demo of a third-party tool (see "NetVision to link NDS with Win NT") that neatly laid out the resources of a nearby NT server. An IT manager from Aetna, watching over my shoulder, said, "I want that [to manage my NT servers]."
Why doesn't Novell tell the world about these products?
Novell's press relations stink. It's not that they are contentious.
They don't exist. We know what Novell is doing only when we force it out of them. The new management needs to come out of its hiding place in Utah.
"Bob [Frankenberg] was a great person, but very low-key. His marketing reflected that," says Novell President Joe Marengi, who says his "hat is in the ring" for CEO. Rightly or wrongly, Marengi believes Novell's strong product position will get better with forthcoming Java, clustering and intranet products.
What's broken, he says, is the sales and marketing.
Buy technology. Late to the party, it's not too late for Novell to exploit the Internet. But it can't go on a Noorda-esque buying spree whose aim is the destruction of Microsoft. Rather, it must wisely choose niches that exploit its powerful directory services. Don't give us namby-pamby statements about how you'd prefer to partner with companies. Do what it takes.
Get moving. Wake up. Splash 33-degree water on your face
every morning. Andy Grove is right: Only the paranoid survive.
Frankenberg wasn't scared enough. Rigid focus on his
downsizing strategy tended to ignore real events in the
marketplace. You have to know when to wear blinders and
when to take them off.
Execute. The company is not one to meet its own deadlines.
And too many technologies such as NEST and Corsair have
fallen by the wayside. It doesn't take long for these flailing
initiatives to sap all credibility. Novell must choose a leader for
whom people will rally and execute.
Here are a few suggestions for CEO. Oracle's Ray Lane has
done a masterful job and knows large IT sites. I can only
imagine how much he'd like to get out from under Larry Ellison.
Gary Stimac, Compaq's former server guru, is another
candidate with a winning track record (although much like
Frankenberg had at HP). And Marengi shows initial signs of
being a communicator.
Not a lot of people can do this job. And probably not a lot of
people want it. And it's ironic. You might think Frankenberg,
always the gentleman, is now damaged goods. I think of him as
a uniquely battle-hardened CEO who has learned lessons most
of us will never know.
What will restore your faith in Novell? Write me at
john_dodge@zd.com. |
