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EDS Silent On New CEO's IT Consulting Past

Posted by timothy on from the rubber-chicken-circuit dept.

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."

5 of 114 comments (clear)

  1. Another proof by niom · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    --
    -- Repeat with me: "There is no right to profits".
    1. Re:Another proof by Rinikusu · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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.

      --
      If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
  2. ITS A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE by Syncroswitch · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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...

  3. Couldn't be worse than Dick by Ars-Fartsica · · Score: 4, Insightful
    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.

  4. Re:A better idea... by Rob.Mathers · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

    --

    My other sig is funny!