re: Headcount: Fits 'n' StartsMore revenues than half of the companies on that list, strong team, class A backers, cool product, high valuation fundraising. How could they not be on this list?
LR, you are still too focused on carrier type companies. Carrier is dead to most private companies, permanently. The reasons are too many and everyone in these boards knows already so why bother listing them. Sector is dead to startups, save a few like Turin which has $10-15M a quarter (founder issues abound--surprise, surprise, but promising nonetheless). You've pointed out a few winners but beyond the current class of critical mass startups the rest are dead meat and no one's funding these projects going forward. Time to move on.
Time to focus on security, efficiency, appliance type products, stuff that enterprises are buying these days. Otherwise it's more doom and gloom about which core switch company is going out of business this month because their dreams were dashed by the relevation that their "imminent SBC contract worth $250M" has suddenly, inexplicably gone "poof."
re: Headcount: Fits 'n' StartsIs it me or are the executive names mentioned in this LR article, and their new jobs, reminiscent of past NFL hiring practices? The same old "coaches" just a new uniform. No new blood is being introduced to a market that is crying for a shake up in new ideas, management style or focus. The "old boy" network is still churning away and promoting their "friends". Apparently, the movement of execs from one company to another, regardless of the industry, is a very tight-knit and secret society based on clandestine dinners, secret handshakes and whispered promises of reciprocal hiring practices. Highly qualified, people -Black, Female and yes, a few white guys as well - are, in my view, being ignored for the supposedly "safe" hiring of someone who may have a track record of "having done it before". It doesn't seem to matter that those "track records" are, at least over the past few years, looking a bit shakey with little to show for their efforts except expenditures of vast amounts of VC money, bloated executive management roles and corner offices.
This list of the Telecom's Who's Who is beginning to look like the Heidi Fleiss blackbook. But of course, that's only one man's opinion. Signed Unemployed, Disgruntled and PO'd.
re: Headcount: Fits 'n' StartsBrothas and sistas can I get a, amen....?! I feel the pain..!
So true., so true. How does it go?
"There was a crooked man, = CEO And he walked a crooked mile. = IPO He found a crooked stile. = VC Beside a crooked stile, = VC + CEO He bought a crooked cat, = CFO Which caught a crooked mouse, = VP Sales And they all lived together In a little crooked house". = Company YOU work for.
Hah! Telecom house that is.. movie stars, and swimming pools...
re: Headcount: Fits 'n' StartsHas any company had more of a revolving door at the SVP of sales job than Ciena? No job security in that one. Seems like they have a new one every 6-12 months...maybe something else is the problem?
re: Headcount: Fits 'n' StartsCiena's sales churn is a result of having no idea at the top how to build sales oraganization or even what a quality one does. The Linthicum mafia made up of all the insiders don't value sales, understand sales, and keep any executive in the sales arena that knows anything out of the corporate loop and in the dark. You only have to go back to Gary's experiment of promoting the General Counsel (who had NO sales experience)to head of sales to understand where the problem lies. But that sort of leadership is worth millions in bonuses while riding the thing to the ground....
re: Headcount: Fits 'n' StartsGary's experiment in promoting McCarthy led to the fiasco of Ciena continuing to provide ridiculously optimistic revenue guidance into early 2002 even though the pipeline was completely drained by massive spending cuts by carriers.
Heard he is now at Infinera as their VP of EMEA sales. Probably forecasting millions in sales...
re: Headcount: Fits 'n' StartsHere is an incredible statistic: Over half the senior exec team of Ciena are ex-Nortel "lifers"!
Combined, 7 of them have over 75 years of experience at Nortel:
Arthur Smith - SVP Global Ops (11 years) James Collier - SVP Sales (20 years) James Frodsham - GM Metro & Enterprise (10 years) Bob O'Neil - GM Data Networks (2 years) Jim Hjartarson - GM Broadband Access (16 years) Pamela Adams - SVP Core Networks (10 years) Mike Aquino - VP Gov Solutions (8 years)
And half the other senior execs have backgrounds either at Alcatel or Lucent!
This is amazing. So much for Ciena being a dynamic start-up with fresh ideas. More like a re-hash of ex-Nortel big exec types who know how to manage but not how to lead.
Their newest member of the Nortel alum club is Frodsham, whose last claim to fame was closing down Innovance. He joins a list of four general managers of a company scraping along at $70M of quarterly revenues and 11% margins. I guess his Innovance experience will be appropriate to his new job!
LR, you are still too focused on carrier type companies. Carrier is dead to most private companies, permanently. The reasons are too many and everyone in these boards knows already so why bother listing them. Sector is dead to startups, save a few like Turin which has $10-15M a quarter (founder issues abound--surprise, surprise, but promising nonetheless). You've pointed out a few winners but beyond the current class of critical mass startups the rest are dead meat and no one's funding these projects going forward. Time to move on.
Time to focus on security, efficiency, appliance type products, stuff that enterprises are buying these days. Otherwise it's more doom and gloom about which core switch company is going out of business this month because their dreams were dashed by the relevation that their "imminent SBC contract worth $250M" has suddenly, inexplicably gone "poof."