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Technology Stocks : Novell (NOVL) dirt cheap, good buy? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dieter Koerner who wrote (30972)	4/8/2000 11:40:00 PM
From: Frederick Smart	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

Climbing OUT of the Basement.... >>Hi Scott, >I have been receiving phone calls, and lunch appointments with friends from Novell non-stop for the last month ... it seems that the rate of departure of talent is picking up even faster. Both in engineering and product management, every week I am hearing of more departures ...< Scott do you have any indication why those people are departing? Is this the same reason you are not working for the company any more? Is this because some do not like changes and still have the upper hand? Would you please comment on this? Thank you. Dieter Koerner>> Deiter: Novell is not the ONLY company. This is happening almost UNIVERSALLY. For the massive shift AWAY from companies, toward INDIVIDUALLY-empowered COMMUNITIES has begun. The DOT.COM charade phase was NOT the real thing. Look at the way valuations are being shredded right and left. What Novell and most companies don't seem to understand is that they can completely and totally throw out all the planning, process and procedure books and manuals they've written over even the past 5-20 years. People are gathering in this New Service platform from all around the world. It starts with TRUST and moves to consume the most precious of commodities...personal TIME. Tribes of individuals are relearning the value of TRUST and risk - on their own - not via some company-sponsored 3 day retreat - via email, ICQ, Netmeeting, conference calls, document sharing and collaborative scheduling, etc. Repeat after me: Why do we need "companies"? Why do we need companies? For there is SO much redundancy inside companies. All for what reason? Because they are so fearful and distrusting? You bet. So each of them have to recreate so many of the same wheels. Sure there has been more and more outsourcing, but it's really placed just another unbalanced "company" layer or middleman between the company and the individual. This is what's happening: a totally New and massively empowering melting pot is coalescing around this ONE mind, ONE energy, ONE common service-centric paradigm. New Global Universal Digital Rivers of Service and Trust Energies have been trickling/gathering behind the scenes over the past few years. Now there's a torrent of liquid trust is moving across the light waves. More and more individuals finding their way out of these cold, dark, traditional company "basements". They are going where the "light and energy is." My/our bet is that the best and brightest individuals on the planet want to be part of the critical initial phases of this massive paradigm shift - which is happening RIGHT NOW!! They won't want to be locked up inside a DOT.COM cage spinning their wheels inside a vertical that, by definition, will have - in the end - to go horizontal and be part of this massive, singular ONE connected tapestry of time, trust and energy. The pressure behind organizing and developing from the inside out to please some venture capitalists will lock so many INDIVIDUALS out of doing what really has to be done by everyone going forward - doing the poineering work to evangelize, meet, greet, build relationships, publish, speak, write all to build a strong action, risk and value-based philosophy that forms the underpinning of support that INDIVIDUALS in these future watershed communities can get excited about being part of going forward. Just look around you. There is so much technology without community, without ENERGY. The "build it and they will come" syndrome is still rife out there. Going forward, technology will begin with the mind and map humbly, openly and agressively into community values and energies. Then and only then will INDIVIDUALS and the communities they are part of be able to dictate necessary terms to claim and hold onto their power, control and rights over the data, information and resulting shared knowledge. Anything less is just the same ole, same ole. It'd be like asking England to write the laws and rules for a colonial "free" America. I think we've gotten beyond this. The Industrial Age has been eclipsed. The Information Age was still a company-centric phase. But now in this Service Age INDIVIDUALS are gradually claiming more and more of the power and control. The spirit, and energy and will behind the mindset of SERVICE has to - by definition - be driven by INDIVIDUALS. Service and traditional Business values can't really co-exist for the values conflict. One will place money ahead of time, trust and truth and vis versa. I think we've reached the point where even MONEY and stock options can't lure the best and brightest anymore. For these truths are timeless. And once there's a recognition that the platform and entire direction has changed, these "best and brightest people" will want to be part of the revolution. This IS the IP (Individual Person - internet protocol) Revolution. Again, Novell and all these companies are going to either be arbitraged to death or forced to spin themselves into the arms of these new emerging service platforms of massive light energy. For the energies of traditional companies have been checkmated and eclipsed. Look for the LBO guys to have a field day during this transition for the fear and uncertainty exhibited by these Old Style CEO's will transparently let their collective guard down. It's as if thousands of Wizard of the Old Oz are being exposed at the same time. For how can these guys fathom changing their titles to Chief ENERGY Officer?? Sit back and watch this movie unfold. Even Gates and Balmer aren't immune. I can guarantee one thing, however. We are all going to get to know more and more of our neighbors. We are going to spend more time with our families. People will be spending more of their time on things they really enjoy doing. More and more people will be celebrating life instead of hustling to somehow find a place where they call home. The world isn't flat anymore. When you jump into the River of Life, there's always been a forgiving circle of energy and support. It's just that more people will be understanding and living these truths. Peace. GO!!

To: Dieter Koerner who wrote (30972)	4/9/2000 6:38:00 AM
From: Ghassan I. Ghandour	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

>I have been receiving phone calls, and lunch appointments with friends from Novell non-stop for the last month ... it seems that the rate of departure of talent is picking up even faster. Both in engineering and product management, every week I am hearing of more departures ...< Or, is it because the company is getting prepared for being acquired by one partner with very deep pockets? Just wondering!! Ghassan (Long NOVL)

To: Dieter Koerner who wrote (30972)	4/9/2000 12:40:00 PM
From: Scott C. Lemon	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 42771

Hello Dieter, I can only give my opinion on things ... and I do not mean to "bash" Novell as a company on this front. But I do want to see some changes made ... > Scott do you have any indication why those people are > departing? Most seem to indicate that they have no interest in "wasting" time when so many other opportunities are out there. The consistent theme seems to be that employees feel that in order to succeed, they have to "fight" to demonstrate what is possible ... and they have to spend huge amounts of time working their way through politics. They have to ensure that their ideas do not conflict with the political ambitions of the people around them. They do not see strong "support" from management in pursuing these ideas and innovations. Some management provides support, but it seems rare. If management has some "good" reason for behaving in this way, they fail to educate and explain to the employees why these decisions are made. The employees are treated as though they exist in some artificial, strict hierarchy and are not to ever think of asking why, or expecting an explanation. And even when they have fought through everything to get close to success, their ideas are then "stolen" by the idealess ... and management seems to "endorse" this practice time and time again. > Is this the same reason you are not working for the > company any more? Yes ... I decided that if I was going to "waste" time, then why would I do it caged in an office in Provo? I can "waste" time anywhere ... including on vacations and up in the mountains. ;-) There are far too many opportunities out there in this industry to have fun, and to make lots of money. The things that people often do not understand is that time is your most valuable asset! You might lose a lot of things, but you can always make them back ... if you have enough time. I found that working in an environment where it required huge amounts of time to make any progress just wasn't worth it ... I wasn't having fun. A constant game of three steps forward ... two steps back. Related to the examples I give above, a year ago at Brainshare the project that I was working on, digitalme, was "taken over" by this same management. We had an incredible team of people who had worked together and delivered for Brainshare exactly what we were asked to. Yet the week after Brainshare the project was "taken" from us ... given to some buddies of those in charge ... and although I have asked numerous times, I have never been given any explanation of why this was done! Even at this Brainshare, some of the ex-digitalme engineers came up and asked "What happened? Why did they destroy a good team when we were really starting to roll?" It's not so amazing that buddies of the "old guard" ended up owning something that was starting to get some spotlight ... I realized that I didn't have time to waste playing these stupid childrens games ... I made a commitment to Eric Schmidt that I was going to work to deliver something that met the objectives he provided to us ... and I still feel that obligation. However I will admit that I suck at being politically correct, and I don't feel like wasting time and lining my pockets with shareholders money. > Is this because some do not like changes and still have > the upper hand? Would you please comment on this? Yes and no. I'm sure that the new COO, and all of his friends, are enjoying themselves immensely in this "new Novell" ... but I will say that this "old guard" doesn't have the support of many of the employees. Another consistent message from the people I talk with is "... why the promotion? Didn't Eric and the board recognize where the problem is?" By now, I would have assumed that it was obvious where the "cancer" was inside the company. I do believe that if someone would just break this log-jam, and carve out the cancer, the real employees of Novell would step forward and make this company what it could be! Everything that is needed is in place ... it's just being held back by a few people, in key positions, who seem to be afraid of a future that they don't understand. Scott C. Lemon