Incidentally, someone a while back was wondering how far the
string of profitable quarters extends. To date, Adaptec has
posted 55 profitable quarters in a row. The quarter ended
Sept. 30, '97 was the 25th quarter in a row of consecutive
revenue growth (obviously, that string broke right there).
All in all, pretty remarkable, but it sure doesn't seem to
count for much at the moment, does it?
Jim,
The thing that really bothers me is that this amazing track record
ends at about the time that their CEO departed.
I was very lucky in my professional career to work for a dynamic
small company, and concluded my time there as CTO. The company
designed computer products on behalf of larger companies, and
I was fortunate to meet many senior officers of the big computer
companies. One of the things that surprised me most was how much
influence the CEO of a company has. I do like one of Jack Welch's
favourite one-liner, which encapsulates this perfectly -
"It takes an odd number of executives to successfully run a
company, and three is too many".
My concern is that ADPT's spectacular track record did not happen
by accident. Anyone who was bright enough to orchestrate it, was
also bright enough to know when to get out........
Mark |
