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Technology Stocks : ORTEL -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brian K. Winchell who wrote (582)	11/27/1999 5:58:00 AM
From: MAX404	Respond to of 659

From the report (thanks!) on the CC: Q: Ownership in Tellium? Participating in follow-on financing? A: Current is 18%. They're currently involved in another round. We havne't talked to them. We can't discuss details. 1) Is ORTL going to be diluted out of this holding? 2) True that ORTL has 18% (or what, see question 1) of Tellium, but what % of ORTL "value" does that represent. Anyone want to take a stab at that? Thanks to all. MAX

To: Brian K. Winchell who wrote (582)	11/27/1999 12:25:00 PM
From: pat mudge	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 659

Brian --- The folks at Fiberoptics Online are correct. Ortel hasn't grown with the sector and consequently did a massive management overhaul, beginning with the chairman of the board all the way down the list. I believe the analysts following the company are pleased with the speed of change as witnessed by their responses on the conference call. In today's Investor's Business Daily, there's an article on Chris Turner's book, "All Hat and No Cattle," in which she discusses corporate complacency and "what it takes to be a real 'change agent.'" Q: You write about differences between Folgers and Starbucks. What can other companies learn from those differences? A: They thought differently about the same subject: Folgers thought of coffee as a commodity; Starbucks, as latte, espresso and an experience. Folgers missed a huge opportunity. They couldn't get outside of their own belief system. They didn't challenge their own assumptions about the marketplace. This is typical behavior. Organizations, over time, become very self-referential. They select data that supports their worldview. <<<< I should stop here, but what she says is so applicable to Ortel, I'll quote a bit more. Q: You don't seem to like Ross Perot's engineering metaphors for breaking down companies to study them. Why not? A: Mechanistic mindsets lead us to believe organizations are predictable. Anyone who has dealt with organizations knows they constantly surprise. That's because they are complex, dynamic, adaptive natural systems --- more like the weather than machines. Mechanistic thinking was what H.L. Mencken was describing when he said, "For every problem there is one solution which is simple, neat and wrong." Believing that companies are machines leads us to tinkering with the parts, searching for the simple fix. Mechanistic thinking is at the heart of our addiction to reorganization. We think that by rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, we'll make things better. Understanding organizations as natural systems leads to a whole new consciousness. You begin to understand why all those mechanistic approaches don't work. It opens you up to new world possibilities. >>>> I think Ortel's gone way beyond rearranging deck chairs. And while the results are not guaranteed, early indications show they're headed in the right direction. I'm not betting the farm, but I'm certainly not going to turn my back on what I see as a better than even chance of a good return. Based on the IBES upgrades, I think it's safe to say we could see some positive public comments in the weeks ahead. Pat