微軟新任董事長(zhǎng)大起底
????2009年,約翰?湯普森從賽門鐵克公司(Symantec)首席執(zhí)行官一職上退下來(lái)之后,他以為自己會(huì)像多數(shù)硅谷領(lǐng)軍人物一樣,投資創(chuàng)業(yè)公司并在幾家公司的董事會(huì)任職。簡(jiǎn)言之,他希望在辛苦工作多年后能平靜度日。 ????然而對(duì)湯普森來(lái)說(shuō),退休后的日子絲毫不清閑。剛剛從賽門鐵克退下來(lái)一年,他就重返江湖,出任商業(yè)技術(shù)創(chuàng)業(yè)公司Virtual Instruments的首席執(zhí)行官。上周初他又擔(dān)當(dāng)了一個(gè)全新的重任,同意出任微軟公司(Microsoft)的董事長(zhǎng)。這將是一個(gè)面臨無(wú)數(shù)挑戰(zhàn)的職位,因?yàn)檫@家公司正努力在新任首席執(zhí)行官薩提亞?納德拉的率領(lǐng)下重振各項(xiàng)業(yè)務(wù)。 ????在納德拉的領(lǐng)導(dǎo)下,湯普森必須快速行動(dòng),作出一些必然令人痛苦的決策。由于微軟多年來(lái)不斷犯錯(cuò),投資者們已變得非常不滿。這些錯(cuò)誤包括早期沒(méi)有認(rèn)識(shí)到智能手機(jī)的重要性——以至于這個(gè)市場(chǎng)現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)被蘋果公司(Apple)和其他公司統(tǒng)治——以及搜索所蘊(yùn)藏的巨大金礦,現(xiàn)在這個(gè)市場(chǎng)也早由谷歌公司(Google)獨(dú)領(lǐng)風(fēng)騷。 ????詹姆斯?索卡斯曾經(jīng)是賽門鐵克的投資銀行家,后來(lái)成了湯普森領(lǐng)導(dǎo)下的企業(yè)發(fā)展部的主管。他說(shuō):“約翰擁有極高的戰(zhàn)略洞察力。他也是我曾共事過(guò)的同事中最具溝通能力的人之一,因?yàn)樗苌朴陬I(lǐng)會(huì)復(fù)雜的技術(shù)信息,把它們變得通俗易懂?!?/p> ????現(xiàn)年64歲的湯普森擁有十分豐富的高層管理經(jīng)驗(yàn)。他在賽門鐵克這家電腦安全公司整整擔(dān)任了10年的首席執(zhí)行官。此前他在IBM公司(IBM)效力了28年——先后任職銷售、營(yíng)銷和軟件開(kāi)發(fā)部門——最后成為北美業(yè)務(wù)部的總經(jīng)理。 ????任職賽門鐵克期間,湯普森必須處理大量和微軟所面臨的困境類似的難題。畢竟這兩家公司的基業(yè)都是消費(fèi)者和企業(yè)軟件。當(dāng)它們的市場(chǎng)開(kāi)始發(fā)生變化時(shí),這兩家公司也都發(fā)現(xiàn)自己早期的成功開(kāi)始受到侵蝕。在為納德拉出謀劃策時(shí),湯普森將能充分吸取這些成敗的教訓(xùn)。而納德拉是首位此前曾在微軟的在線、企業(yè)和云業(yè)務(wù)部門都擔(dān)任過(guò)高管的首席執(zhí)行官。 ????當(dāng)年在加盟賽門鐵克不久后,湯普森就開(kāi)始大刀闊斧地著手改革,推動(dòng)公司的業(yè)務(wù)實(shí)現(xiàn)聚焦。到如今,賽門鐵克業(yè)已成為電腦安全領(lǐng)域響當(dāng)當(dāng)?shù)钠放?。但它有一段時(shí)間業(yè)務(wù)也曾龐雜多樣,既做軟件開(kāi)發(fā)工具,又做存儲(chǔ)客戶聯(lián)系信息的數(shù)據(jù)庫(kù)。他一邊賣掉、關(guān)停了一些配套產(chǎn)品,一邊通過(guò)一系列收購(gòu)及建立一支龐大的銷售團(tuán)隊(duì)來(lái)做大公司的安全業(yè)務(wù)。 ????現(xiàn)在已是投資公司Updata Partners投資人的索卡斯回憶道:“當(dāng)時(shí)他做了不少艱難的決策?,F(xiàn)在看來(lái)這些決策顯然是正確的,但在當(dāng)時(shí)看來(lái),桌面安全前景遠(yuǎn)不像現(xiàn)在所表現(xiàn)出來(lái)的情況那么好?!?/p> ????湯普森任職期間,賽門鐵克的業(yè)務(wù)蒸蒸日上,年收入從他上任時(shí)的6億美元一路增長(zhǎng)到他卸任時(shí)的60億美元。不過(guò)湯普森管理這家公司的過(guò)程也絕非一帆風(fēng)順。實(shí)際上,正是一些困難在很大程度上加速了他的離職。 |
????When John Thompson resigned as Symantec's chief executive in 2009, he figured he'd do like many other retired Silicon Valley leaders: Invest in start-ups and sit on a few corporate boards. In short, he wanted a bit of tranquility after years of hard work. ????Retirement has been anything but tranquil for Thompson, however. Just a year after resigning from Symantec (SYMC), he returned to the grind by becoming chief executive of Virtual Instruments, a business technology start-up. Then earlier this week, he took on a huge new responsibility. Thompson agreed to become Microsoft's chairman, a role that comes with countless challenges as the company tries to reinvigorate its business under new chief executive, Satya Nadella. ????Thompson, with Nadella in the lead, must move quickly and make some inevitably painful decisions. Investors are restive after years of stumbles including the company's failure early on to recognize the importance of smartphones – a market now dominated by Apple, among others – and the financial rewards of search, which Google rules. ????"John has a tremendous level of strategic insight," said James Socas, a former head of corporate development at Symantec under Thompson and, before that, the company's investment banker. "He's also one of the best communicators that I've worked with for his ability to take complicated messages about technology and make them understandable." ????Thompson, 64, can call on decades of executive experience. He served for 10 years as chief executive of Symantec, the computer security company. Prior to that, he spent 28 years at IBM -- in sales, marketing and software development -- before finally serving as general manager of the Americas business unit. ????During his tenure at Symantec, Thompson had to tackle a number of issues that parallel Microsoft's predicament. Both company's roots are in consumer and business software, after all. Both also saw their early success erode when their markets started to change. Thompson will be able to draw on those lessons -- the successes and the failures -- when advising Nadella, a first-time chief executive who previously held top positions in Microsoft's online, business and cloud divisions. ????Shortly after joining Symantec, Thompson started a major overhaul to narrow the company's focus. Today, Symantec is known for computer security. But at the time, it had a sprawling business that included software development tools and databases for keeping customer contact information. He sold off or shut down some of the ancillary products while bulking up the company's security business through a series of acquisitions and by building a huge sales team. ????"He made some tough decisions," said Socas, who is now a venture capitalist with Updata Partners. "It seems obvious now, but at the time, the forecasts for desktop security weren't as good as they turned out to be." ????During Thompson's tenure, Symantec's business ballooned. Annual revenue increased from $600 million when he started to $6 billion when he resigned. But Thompson's reign was hardly trouble free. In fact, by most accounts, some of the difficulties hastened his exit. |
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