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

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (36571)	5/22/2001 10:31:29 AM
From: Paul Fiondella	Respond to of 42771

" It blows me away that I have not been able to communicate internally what seems so obvious to me." Yes but what does that say about context and process? Every company has a corporate culture (which is both positive and negative) and a series of obstacles which are bureaucratic in nature, to the acceptance of any ideas. Context: The best companies provide a context in which ideas can develop. There needs to be a team. The team needs to have individuals with different skills, including individuals with political skills and networking skills. A single individual cannot carry the load. Ayn Rand thinking doesn't work. The biggest enemy of team building is failure to recognize the need for diversity rather than sameness --- in other words you cannot form your team on the basis of "he/she is one of us". You have to look at the component skills necessary to the success of any team first. Novell Context: Besides rarely recruiting new blood from outside the company mindset, what I have observed about Novell over the years is that internally it lacks the political thinkers necessary to gain acceptance of an idea. This is particularly evident to me when I look at the box that Microsoft has put the company in externally with regard to Novell's public image. Nobody at Novell in PR knows how to punch through that box! So I imagine internally the same lack of political thinking -- no slot on the team for this skill set. Process: If a company is disorganized as to process then good ideas will find dead ends rather than expression. Process is a function of good management. If ideas cannot be communicated (and I don't mean accepted) effectively it is because management hasn't done its job of insuring that there is a process in place for getting those ideas around. Novell Process: What does the CTO of this company do?