(re: A question for Ken – Sierra after move to Coarsegold/Oakhurst) Almost everyone who worked for Sierra in a senior position, in Oakhurst, or Coarsegold, relocated there from another city.
When Roberta and I started Sierra, we had no idea that it was going to be a huge company. We moved to Oakhurst because we wanted to live there. As the company grew, our location became a larger and larger issue.
There are those who would argue that the Oakhurst location helped us. I ultimately decided that we would be better off in Seattle, but it wasn’t an easy decision. The Yosemite area was a very cool place to live, and gave us a degree of isolation from competitors. I used to say that it would be impossible to do anything creative if we were located in the same city as any of our competitors. For years, I was biased against hiring anyone who had worked for a competitor. I wanted a Sierra product to be a SIERRA product. We had our own way of doing things, and I wanted to maintain our individuality.
-Ken W