Patrick:
I wouldn’t say that my decision to leave was 100% due to what was happening in the software business, but it was certainly a major ‘straw on the camels back’. There were other factors: 1) Running Sierra was a 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, job for nearly 20 years. I needed some time off. 2) My NetMarket spin-off group had produced a product that was being slowly taken over by corporate. It was going from being a small R&D project to a strategic effort for the company. My ability to work fast and be creative was being impeded as the project was gaining visibility within the company. And, 3) I had a meeting with Kirk and Walter towards the end, to discuss strategic moves I thought CUC should be making in the shopping space. I had hoped there was a way I could have a material impact on CUC’s shopping business, but the pace large companies move at is way different than the culture I had created at Sierra. It was apparent that I was a fish out of water, and it was time to move on. Sierra wasn’t a small company. We had nearly 1,000 employees — but, CUC had many times this, and an ingrained way of doing things. I tend to move at internet speed, and that doesn’t always work in a large company.
-Ken W
Quote:
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‘I felt that the smart move would have been to put me in charge of the software business, and was confused when I wasn’t asked. Instead CUC moved one of their corporate vice presidents, with no experience in software, into the leadership position, and I left the company completely. ‘
So then your decision of leaving was based entirely on the move to put an inexperienced person in charge of software? I would not blame you if that was the case….