CPQ doesn't really care about the state of mind of the investors.
I pretty much agree with that and, to take it a step further, they don't care about the dynamics of the marketplace either.
When 5fer took charge the world was rushing to the Internet. The model is clear - less brick and mortar and more Internet.
If you were a CEO with vision and ability, what does this mean? To start with you could form a division that does nothing but Internet development and investments. The first steps are obvious:
1) You would immediately redo your web site by making a copy of DELL, then you would turn to AV.
2) YHOO and others were using the AV engine and threatening to leave if AV remains a competitor. So you form two spin offs. AV and another one that just sells its engine to others. This would be Inktoma.
3) You form a division to investigate all the Internet IPO prospects and invest in those that have real promise or even start some. You could even later spin this off (ie it would be a CMGI clone.
These are changing times and you have to be able to adapt to them and nothing was done along the lines of e-commerce.
Instead, 5fer has gone in the opposite direction.
1) The CPQ web site languished for a year before and real upgrade was made. A team of good programers could have had it running in a month.
2) YHOO and others cut off AV as their engine and 5fer did nothing to get the business back.
3) 5fer decided to freeze the IPO for AV and important people left AV because it was not being spun off.
4) 5fer decided to buy a dying big mainframe business. His competitor, IBM, is going gang busters with the image of being the e-commerce supplier. 5ifer has done nothing along these lines even though the investment to create this image is small. Doesn't CPQ offer the software to make your investment in CPQ hardware interact with the internet? IBM does. If you do, say so.
The bottom line is that it seems 5fer put all his resources in trying to make boxes of all sizes and deliver them to people. You gotta do more than that. You gotta diversify.
I went to the Linux convention and it said it all. CPQ and IBM had booth space next to each other. Each took up the space of about 8 booths. IBM looked sharp, on the ball and really alert to what is going on. They had lots to offer in the way of software (free DB2 for Linux, support web sites for Linux, etc etc). CPQ looked tired, dull and dead. It was a place you did not want to visit.
Something has gotta be done. |
