EDS Silent On New CEO's IT Consulting Past

theodp writes "Slate reports on the press release issued by IT consulting giant EDS to announce new CEO Michael H. Jordan that curiously doesn't show Jordan to have any experience in the IT consulting field. In the late '90s, Jordan helped create IT consulting firm Luminant, took it public, and served as chairman of its board for 21 months. Luminant raised $80+ million from its IPO and paid $422 million to buy businesses as part of its pure-play roll-up strategy before filing Chapter 11 and having its assets sold for a mere $3 million. Slashdot readers may remember Luminant as the wacky workplace of My Fake Job, in which an ex-"Late Night" writer described 17 days he spent faking a job at the dot-com."

Comments

Another proof

[niom]

That a high profile failure is better than a low profile success, at least in the management world. I can't understand it, but then again I'm just a lowly engineer.

Re:Another proof

[Rinikusu]

A prominent CEO was once asked what makes a great CEO:
"Good decisions, boy, Good decisions," he answered.
Asked how one learns to make good decisions, he answered:
"Bad decisions, boy, Bad decisions."

The key is learning from the mistakes of the past and not repeating them. And I don't know about you, but if I were to do a collosal fuck-up, I'd be more certain to be extra-careful and mindful the next time a similar situation arose.

Re:Another proof

[Billly Gates]

Speaking of learning from fuck-ups if you got fired from a job would you put that as an asset on your resume? Or do you think it would HR or the interviewer would look at this is an asset or a potiental liability?

If you did no one would hire you or it would count agaisnt you when being interviewed. You really have to show the interviewer that you learned from your mistakes or you were just not good for that particular position.

Mysteriously CEO's are not subjected to this stigma even though regular workers are. One worker fucking up will only do minor damage but a CEO fucking up could ruin thousands of jobs and millions in wealth!

It should be the other way around if anything. Yes we learn from our mistakes but why should I trust Mr. Smith as a new CEO if he got canned? I do not care if he learned from his mistakes. I would not let him work here if I were part of the board of directors. If this is how it works on poen level jobs then it should also work this way on executive positions.

My theory is that networking as well as psychology (group association theory) plays a more important role.

ITS A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE

[Syncroswitch]

You dont need IT experiance to lead or start in that position, your not doing the grunt work in a firm that size. you hire experts to handle the IT and consulting part. His job was to assemble the crew, and steer the ship (into the rocks...). It dosent seem to me to need to be listed as IT consulting background. rather as executive experiance. the skills you need there are sneakiness, a lack of morals, and an absence of ethics classes. I think he has already demonstrated those skills quite well. I wish him good luck, as I make a note to keep his connections out of my portfolio...

A better idea...

[ajuda]

Rather than spending millions on 1 guy who doesn't know much about technology, wouldn't the company be better off hiring a few hundred low to mid level tech people? No wonder all these companies are going bankrupt.

Re:A better idea...

[Rob.Mathers]

While on the surface your idea sounds alright, it's really not a good one. A company with 100 employees but no leader will fail. You need to have a good CEO and management for a company to achieve anything. It's like waging a war (perhaps not the best analogy given world events, but nevermind). You have all sorts of low level officers to make tactical decisions, but you still need generals planning the whole thing in order to have a cohesive strategy.
Sure, a few tech people can get the work done, but they probably can't oversee the entire company and set up a solid business plan.

Couldn't be worse than Dick

[Ars-Fartsica]

The previous CEO was gutting the business, gutting employee moral, and gutting the share price.

Lou Gerstner wasn't a tech guy either and he saved IBM.

Re:Wrong

[DaedalusHKX]

Actually you are mistaken. I worked for a state government in VA, for the educational branch. I hate to dissapoint you (actually it is my pleasure but the political bullshit must be obeyed).

The IT department there was quite enlightened, sadly the site managements were all in varied degree of ignorance and it was THEY, not the IT director that made the first AND final decisions regarding to IT. Hell they even had priviledge to cut you off in the middle of a budget opinion meeting to demand you return to the site to reboot a server. Then they bitched that their computer related budget got cut again... well DUH!

So whether the REAL IT crew is brilliant or stupid... getting to work with a brilliant site manager or having their rights to screw your priorities rescinded, you CANNOT win, site managers only care about being as cheap as possible and cutting every corner. When that is done... things fail, supplies are in short demand, and YOU get the bad review for "not solving all the problems adequately."

Period.

Maybe you live in the one cubicle world where the ignorant pricks don't rule absolute... but if you have ANY government work... be prepared to SUFFER if you are managed by suits or uniforms. They only care about the bottom line and well they should.

I've said my piece and vented my anger at upper and lower management.

-DaedalusHKX

Re:Simply More Evidence

[hhawk]

I don' think that one needs to have IT exp. as Lou proves, BUT the point here is the left a key fact off his resume.

Four words for you.

[dsk052]

THE OLD BOY NETWORK

Re:I wish EDS luck.

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think Tesla can spin any faster. He's spinning every time the media rewrites history making Edison out to be some sort of national hero and great innovator.