We now [by going private] have the ability and flexibility to behave in a less predictable manner. We can now have an element of surprise and be first to market. — Bob Beauchamp, CEO, BMC Software, and Kia Behnia, CTO, BMC Software
The first electronic communication technology to be adopted widespread was the telegraph. It lasted a long, long time. Then came the telephone and in 10 years, the telegraph went away. That industry lasted DECADES with a few players dominating and taking all the money. Then the cell phone happened. Then Apple happened. Now kids don’t even know how to use the telephone application on their mobile device. 100 years of electronic communication, with 98% of the innovation occurring in the last 5. Crazy how slow moving markets become insanely frenetic “eventually. — Steve Duplessie, founder and senior analyst, ESG
We will continue to develop innovative software products and related cloud services in pursuit of becoming number one. — Safra Catz, president and CFO, Oracle (upon news that Oracle is now the #2 software company in the world)
Products tend to be closed systems; analytics are open systems. So you have to have this transparency with the customer, and the data has to be in place, and that’s uncomfortable for us. We grew up in the industrial world where it’s basically ‘we have 200 patents on every CT and you can’t touch it.’ You have to get your team ready for that. We never made real progress here until we brought people in from outside GE. One of my lessons learned is the importance of really good people who have different insight into how this world really works. — Jeff Immelt, CEO, General Electric