We just finished the SMI Leadership Conference today in Santa Clara. I've been at Sun since 1990 and an executive here since 1994 - I haven't been really counting, but I believe this is the 22nd leadership conference i've been to. That gives me some perspective to look back from, in order to look forward.
Over the years the meetings have really taken two basic forms - back pats or butt kicks. In both cases usually deserved. I'm not saying this to diminish the need for the meetings, or the value of the alignment and networking that takes place at them - but with time they tend to blur a bit.
Only three of the 22 meetings really stand out for me, even if the exact dates of the meetings don't.
The first one was the meeting where Scott McNealy told us all that we were not going to follow the herd and move to Windows. We were doubling down on our commitment to Solaris and would compete head on with what seemed to be an unstoppable force. If Sun had been a democracy we would have done what our competitors were in the process of doing - and we would have stopped innovating. The majority of the leadership team thought this was a mistake - but Scott's was the only vote that mattered. Good thing. Not only did that singular decision save the company but in retrospect provided choice and forced the adoption of open standards for the developing public internet. While many of Scott's leaders in that meeting disagreed, we committed. I truly believe this was one of the pivotal moments in the the history of the computing industry.
The second meeting that really sticks was the retirement meeting for some of the key leaders that brought us through this growth period and enabled us to be the "dot in dot-com". Shoemaker. Lehman. Hambly. Zander. This was pretty emotional for all of us - Larry Hambly was my boss, he gave me my first VP shot, and I learned a ton from him - and it felt like we were just trying to put the best face possible on a tough, but understandable, situation. Scott asked us all to re-up, and these guys had all earned the right to move on to the next step in their lives.
The third memorable meeting just ended. This meeting is not going to blend into the rest. My kids know I tear up in sentimental movies and part of this meeting was like that. Hearing Crawford Beveridge and Jonathan speak not only about what Scott meant to the industry but to them, and their careers - well... i'm just glad I was there (read
Jonathan's blog entry to get a feel for it).
If the story ended there, it would be a great testimonial to Scott (which it was). But the story just starts there. Unlike the previous transition meeting, this was a new beginning. Jonathan's already earned the respect of his team - all of us. The transparency the financial analysts heard on the earnings call was there in the meeting. We have a ton of work to do - with a great team, healthy growing market, and incredible set of products and services to do it with. Unlike last time, this wasn't spin.
I grew up running track. And perhaps the only thing I enjoy better than watching a relay race is being a part of a relay race. Watching a runner leave everything they have on the track and hand off to a teammate just as strong, just as fit, just as capable, but fresh - and watching that person take the baton and explode out of the passing lane at full speed, in full stride - there's nothing like it.
Nice handoff, Scott. Watch us run!
After being prodded to start a blog (in particular, about Services - an important part of Sun's present and future as the network that is the computer continues to grow in size, complexity, and importance to the planet). I suspect a lot of people do exactly what I did - get excited about it, start blogging, get a few entries in and realize that if you don't have the extrovert gene (for you Myers-Briggs fans i'm an ISTP) blogging is pretty hard, and you slow to a crawl.
I made the added mistake of prodding Mike Harding into moving his internal blog to the outside world. Mike is both prolific and interesting and both raised the bar on me and gave me a subtle kick in the pants for going dark.
So it's back on the airwaves for me, hopefully more consistently. Posted by jaylittlepage ( Apr 26 2006, 07:16:27 PM MDT ) Permalink
