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Technology Stocks : Ascend Communications (ASND) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: gbh who wrote (48257)	6/8/1998 12:57:00 AM
From: Darren	Respond to of 61433

I think they are smart enough to realize they must be one of the bigs to survive, long term. This doesn't equate to failure, and depending on who acquires them, maybe or maybe not retirement. Failure is definitely a relative term. To a corporate suit like Jim Manzi, selling Lotus to IBM was a windfall; a reason he would probably define himself as a great businessman. But to an entrepreneur like Mitch Kapor, it was probably a failure. Of course, he wasn't directly involved at the company at the time, but the company was his creation. My favorite definition of the evolution of a high-tech company comes from a book by Robert X. Cringley (pseudoname); the title escapes me. He defines three "layers" of management at a typical high-tech company. First, the commandos; the entrepreneurs who will the company and the company's products to market at any and all cost. Then, the army, the corporate managers who turn a start-up into a billion dollar operation. Finally, the police, who create a bureaucracy so entrenched that nothing will change until the market forces it... What does this have to do with ASND? If a commando sells, he/she will usually deem it a failure. If a manager sells, he/she will deem it a success and often get rich at the expense of external shareholders. If the police sell, it was probably too late. To any and all who can answer, using my "over-simplified" and somewhat lame definition of evolutionary management, where would you say these guys fit in? Also, by definition, it is incredibly rare for a commando to evolve past being a commando. Two commandos that immediately come to mind are Gates and Chambers. One that hasn't been able to make the change, but is arguably the best commando of our time is Jobs, who squeezed the Mac out of a billion dollar company. It could be argued that AAPL would have never gotten out of the 80's without the Mac... You get the drill...