3. VERITAS – A Story of Strategic Transformation 1982 – 1993
Hardware to Software OEM business
1982 – 1988: Tolerant Systems
$50 M startup in the high availability fault tolerant systems business,
(Tandem built with microprocessors and Unix)
1989 – 1993: Tolerant Veritas the OEM company
Revenue $0 – $10 M
“Restarted” from Tolerant Systems (200 12 employees)
Established industry standard file and disk management software for
Unix
Novel OEM Business Model
Closed 60 OEM agreements and became industry standard
IPO in 1993, $64M market cap post money
However, the business as constituted would likely top out at
~ $50M / Yr…
Copyright M. Leslie 4
4. VERITAS – A Story of Strategic Transformation 1994 – 2000
Emergence as the leader in Storage Management Software
Revenue: $15 M – $1.2 B
Established Strategy for TRANSFORMATION in 1994
Additional System Products to sell to OEMs
Build EU products to sell to OEM’s customers and restructure OEM
agreements: Reseller (Revenue Center)+ OEM (Cost Center)
Acquire Backup Business and Direct Channel
Enter NT Market
1995: Acquired High Availability Failover Business (Strategy
Element 1)
Copyright M. Leslie 5
5. VERITAS – A Story of Strategic Transformation 1994 – 2000
Emergence as the leader in Storage Management Software
1997: Acquired Open Vision
Veritas and OV each had trailing revenues of $36M (shed ~ $15M of OV
products)
Acquired Direct and high-end Reseller Channel (Strategy Element 2)
Entered Backup / Recovery business (Strategy Element 3)
1999: Acquired Seagate Software and entered NT market (strategy
element 4)
2000: $1.2 B revenue, F 1000 company
Copyright M. Leslie 6
6. VERITAS – A Story of Strategic Transformation 2001 +
Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda…
2001: Hired new CEO
Revenue of $1.5 B – growth in revenue and profit in nuclear winter of
bursting tech bubble
Next Strategy for company:
Acquire VMware (2003)
Acquire Red Hat, Jboss, MySQL, etc., to build the complete server
stack to compete with Microsoft
Unfortunately…
Copyright M. Leslie 7
8. Copyright: Mark Leslie 2007
Great Businesses
Great Product / Great Market / Perfect Time
Rich in DEFENSIBLE and SUSTAINABLE BARRIERS to ENTRY
Intellectual property
Network Effect
Unique business models
Other
Yields:
High growth
High market share
High gross margins
High profits
High stock multiples
Market consolidation
…And the Rich Get Richer
9
9. Copyright: Mark Leslie 2007
Software is a Great Business
Making money in high-tech is all about getting paid for your IP
The better (and more unique) the IP, the more valuable
In the hardware business the IP is embodied and delivered in the
form of a “machine”
The business of making and shipping machines is error prone, which
can sap the profit from the business
In the software business you just deliver the IP – sometimes in the
form of bits transmitted over the ether…
At Veritas
At the extreme delivered a $1.50 CD in exchange for $20 million
Raised a total of $20 M including IPO, and ended with > 2.0 B in cash
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10. Copyright: Mark Leslie 2007
The More Grandiose the Plan,
the Less Likely to Succeed
Tolerant Systems, Go Computing, General Magic, WebVan and
Zaplet were “grand plans”
… and so many others
But many of the great companies started out with small goals and
very little capital, and became “overnight successes”
…after many years
Like HP, Dell, Apple, Oracle, Microsoft, Veritas, Ebay, Google,
VMware
… and so few others
11
11. Transformation – The Signature of
Great Companies
Copyright M. Leslie 12
BankruptcyStartup
Decline
Peak
Growth
time
12. Transformation – The Signature of
Great Companies
Copyright M. Leslie 13
Startup
time
Transformation
Transformation
13. Transformation – The Signature of
Great Companies (or NOT)
Apple
Cisco
GE
HP
Intel
Microsoft
Oracle
Sun Microsystems
Copyright M. Leslie 14
Chrysler
Computer Vision
Mainframe BUNCH
companies
Digital Equipment /
minicomputer companies
GM
Silicon Graphics
Sun Microsystems
15. Be a Steward, Not a Proprietor
T H E F I R S T P R I N C I P L E of leadership
Proprietorship is about “ME”
…and what you can do for me today
Stewardship is about “US”
…and what we can build together for the future
Copyright: Mark Leslie 2007 16
16. Copyright M. Leslie 17
Be Visible, Be Invisible
Be Visible
There is a large part of leadership which is public (and mostly obvious)
MBWA
Many and varied public meetings
Be exceptionally accessible
Be Invisible
The real work of leadership is behind the scenes, OFTEN ALONE
Leadership is creating an environment where:
You attract the best and the brightest people
…who can independently apply their intellect judgment and energy
…to advance the vision and goals of the organization
…and achieve a personal sense of accomplishment in their work
It is NOT “management”, which is accomplishing complex tasks through
others.
17. Copyright M. Leslie 18
“Glamorous” is the Opposite of
Leadership
Don’t get confused -- It is not about “ME”
A Leader must always think of others and put them first
You can be a comrade to your followers, but you can never be
one of them
When you are doing the “glamorous things”, you are just doing
your job on this team
Warning of Danger:
GLAMOUR IS VERY SEDUCTIVE…
18. Copyright M. Leslie 19
If You Are Loyal to One, You Are
Loyal to None
A leader must be loyal to the mission above all else
A leader is responsible for the well being of ALL of his
people
A leader is the keeper of fairness and equity in the
organization
19. Copyright M. Leslie 20
The Further You Are from a Problem
the Less You Know About It
Trust those on the front lines – they really do know more than those
“back home”.
The first line manager knows less about the specifics, and THE
NEXT manager knows even less.
When you get to the top you don’t really know anything about
anything anymore!
You trade situational knowledge for judgment, experience and
perspective
20. Copyright M. Leslie 21
The Higher Up you Get, the Fewer
Decisions You Should Make
Everyone “offers” you the decision
What is the impact of the decision
Have they thought about it?
Are they, more or less, in the right quadrant?
What is the downside?
Allowing others to make decisions has real meaning to them, and
develops their judgment and maturity
21. Copyright M. Leslie 22
The More Power You Give Away,
the More You Have
You empower individuals by giving them
Knowledge;
Authority; and,
An acceptable margin of execution error
“What I know that you don’t know makes me more powerful than
you.”
A leader has the power to level this playing field!!!
And diminish politicization of the organization
Empowered individuals will be loyal to the company and loyal to the
leadership
A loyal empowered workforce is a force multiplier for the leader
22. Copyright M. Leslie 23
Know Thyself
We all want to know everything, and be best at everything
It is a hallmark of great leaders that they know their own
Strengths (the easy part) and
Weaknesses (the hard part)
Likes
Dislikes
Augment your weaknesses with other people’s strengths
If possible find others to do the things you don’t like
Check to see if your self-assessment is shared by others
23. Copyright M. Leslie 24
Trust and You Will Be Trusted
The first level of trust is based on the “fair play” that is visibly
exercised
Great leadership comes from a deep sense of trust between the
leader and the led
As a leader, you MUST take the first step, you must trust first!
You may occasionally get disappointed, but the payoff is greater than
the cost
24. Copyright M. Leslie 25
Listen to Everyone, but Trust your
Own Judgment
Each business is complex and unique
There are no formulas, fads and gurus with quick and easy answers
Be genuinely open, listen constructively and learn
Hold your opinions in abeyance while you collect information – this is
counterintuitive to all we have learned. It is very hard to do!
At the end of the day, trust your own judgment
“If something does not seem to make sense…
…it most probably isn’t sensible”
25. Copyright M. Leslie 26
Confront the Issues Directly,
But be Thoughtful, Gracious and Caring
There are many tough things that you need to do
Firing one of your executives who is a friend
Negotiate hard deal
Go after a competitor
Reduce your work force
But you can do all things with caring and grace
Treat each and every person (and company) you meet with dignity and
respect
And…, you never know when you will run into them again…
26. Copyright M. Leslie 27
The Truth, the Whole Truth, and
Nothing but the Truth…
A key job of leaders is to “Fix Broken Stuff”
If you do not know what is broken, you can’t fix it
Everyone wants to tell you what they think you want to hear…
… in a way that will make them look good…
You must find a way to convince people that you need to know the
truth…
…and you must always “Honor the Messenger”
27. Copyright M. Leslie 28
There is Life after Death
In the course of events there WILL BE black days
…days so black that all you will see is despair
Everyone will be looking at you!
Communicate candidly and directly
Be calm and show them a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel, but
not false hope
Focus on the things that you can do to make a difference
Overcoming adversity together forges teamwork and trust
Dark days are “leadership opportunities”
When things are great, remind people that there will be dark days
again
28. Only Those Who Are Both Paranoid
and Courageous Will Survive
Every Idea has a finite lifetime
You never know where and how the world might change – it’s just a
matter of time
It is all about Strategic Transformation
Do it early rather than late.
You may have to put your whole company at risk in order to save it
You need the courage to stay the course in spite of many who tell you
otherwise
It is the critical differentiator – it is what makes
Great Companies Great
Copyright M. Leslie 29
29. Copyright M. Leslie 30
There is No Finish Line…
Building a great company is like building a cathedral
Those who start it hopefully will not see its completion
Each accomplishment is a prelude to the next challenge
The IPO is not a “harvest”, simply one step on the long
road
30. Copyright M. Leslie 31
Values and Culture make it
worthwhile
We spend more time “at work” than any other single activity in our life
The outcome of our efforts is not always predictable so the quality of
the daily experience is important
Values and culture define the character of the company
Values and culture permit us to do our work with integrity, and to
conduct business in a civilized and honest environment
Values and culture help the organization to recruit the best, the
brightest, and the principled
Values and culture do NOT sap the competitive capability
31. Copyright M. Leslie 32
We All Have to Make Choices
Each time we make a decision, we leave a “road untaken” – we can
never know what “could have been…”
Success in anything requires:
COMMITMENT
FOCUS
INTENSITY
ENDURANCE
Whatever success we achieve, we will by definition sacrifice other
dimensions of life’s opportunities
34. Copyright M. Leslie 35
it is regret for the things we did not
do that is inconsolable.
Sidney J. Harris (1917–86)
Regret for the things we did can be
tempered by time;
35. Copyright M. Leslie 36
The Story of Veritas
And Some Things I Learned…
mleslie@leslieventures.com
