When the first call came in around 7 p.m. Aug. 28, informing me that Bob Frankenberg had just stepped down as chairman, president and CEO of Novell, I was completely surprised by the move.
Why? Because I didn't think it was time for a change? No. It was more that the timing seemed (and still seems) out of whack.Consider the following points.
1. Novell is about to introduce the newest version of what is arguably its second-most successful product - GroupWise, version 5. GroupWise 5.0 will be formally unveiled next week on the 12th at a gala affair in New York City attended my tons of press people and industry bigwigs.
2. Novell is about to introduce the "Green River" version of NetWare, version 4.11, at NetWorld+Interop in Atlanta in two weeks. (For the record, N+I is the largest networking industry trade show.)
3. At N+I, Novell will also unveil its newest offering, IntranetWare, Novell's belated, but smart, first overt effort of positioning products directly at the entire Intranet/Internet marketplace.
4. Novell's third quarter in its fiscal year was its first "real"
profitable quarter since announcing the WPCorp sale last fall.
5. Novell was just one month into its fourth (and generally its most successful) quarter of the fiscal year.
6. Novell had just removed its marketing head, Christine Hughes, and the former head of the WordPerfect division, Jeff Wax-man.
7. Newly named president, Jospeh Marengi was in Europe on the evening of the "resignation" at the board meeting. (Usually if you're going to make a major change in your management structure you want to have all the "new" players in town.) Business or personal? Despite what many pundits and media reports have suggested, I do not believe that Frankenberg was forced out of Novell.
I have had multiple sources suggest that Frankenberg submitted his surprise resignation to the board purely for personal reasons that he intended to keep private.
And given the timing of the resignation, and the reasons listed above, I believe these assertions to be correct and that Novell's board acquiesced to Frankenberg's wishes.
I believe Frankenberg's resignation was simply that: a resignation and not a forced departure.
Whither sales and marketing?
Lost in all the hubbub of Frankenberg's resignation, Marengi's promotion to president and the selection of board member John Young as chairman and acting CEO is one major question: Who's heading sales and marketing? Less than two months ago, Novell had two senior level executives responsible for these two areas: Hughes for marketing and Marengi for sales.
With Hughes' departure, Marengi was tapped by the board to drive both disciplines. And in the month between then and now, initial steps have already been taken to right Novell's marketing ship.
But now that Marengi is president, who is going to head up the sales function? Who is going to head up the marketing function? Some might suggest that for the time being, Marengi can function in all three capacities, and for a time he probably can.
But for an international company with more than $1 billion in annual revenues, that is potentially fighting for its life, Novell needs a full-time president. Additionally, it also needs at least one person to head up combined sales and marketing, if not individuals to head up both disciplines.
The war and not the battle
When studying the craft of war, future generals are taught the important distinction between battles and war.
And it is the wise officer that understands that although a battle may be lost, if his army can continue on, the war may yet be won.
In the high-tech wars, Novell has lost a number of battles lately, but its war is not yet over.
There is something very powerful about having more than 50 million users of your product world-wide. Regardless of the marketing hype coming out of Microsoft - the beast of the Northwest - those 50-plus million seats are not going to disappear overnight.
And that's a big reason Novell is still out there fighting.