The 2005 IT Year In Quotes

PCM2 writes "InfoWorld is carrying a news story that sums up the year in quotes from IT executives. Lots of fun stuff to be had here, including former WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers: 'I know what I don't know, and to this day I don't know technology and I don't know accounting and finance.' Also: 'We have so many rivals it's frightening. The week after next I will meet Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and I will [shake hands and]look down and see if I still have a hand.' - Sony's Stringer"

Comments

Rare to get such honesty these days.

[otavo]

"In our flash business, we had an awful quarter. ... It makes me puke to lose US$39 million." -- Hector Ruiz, chairman, president and CEO of Advanced Micro Devices Inc., clearly not a happy man. is my fav.

It is rare to get such honesty these days.


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Intentional Web Initiative

Re:Rare to get such honesty these days.

[rampant mac]

"In our flash business, we had an awful quarter. ... It makes me puke to lose US$39 million." -- Hector Ruiz, chairman, president and CEO of Advanced Micro Devices Inc., clearly not a happy man. is my fav.

It is rare to get such honesty these days."

That's not honesty. That's a CEO kissing ass, hoping the board won't fire him. An honest CEO would explain in detail why that division lost so much money, why it was his fault, and how he would rectify the issue.

Long Memories

[kmactane]

"One of the most frustrating things that happens occasionally is you go into a client and they'll regale you with tales of atrocities and you say, 'When did this happen?' and they say 'Oh, 1993 or 94, I forget when' -- there's such a long tail to the memories of some of our clients." -- [CA CEO John] Swainson laying out the challenges he and his team face in trying to rebuild shattered customer confidence in the company formerly known as Computer Associates, now rebranded just plain CA. (Oct. 12.)

Swainson's not kidding, there. Especially when a company does something really boneheaded, people don't forget, and they don't even forgive. (I think maybe people feel like forgiveness is for other humans, not for corporations.)

I was on the phone with a recruiter earlier today, and mention of Claria (formerly Gator) came up. He said that it was really difficult to place people there. There were the occasional ones who just didn't recognize the name, but at least half his potential hires went "Claria? They're the people who used to be Gator! I'm not working there! Don't even send them my résumé."

Note that these are people who are out of work, too. Some missteps are just so bad, you can never recover from them. Associating yourself with sleazy and excruciatingly annoying marketing methods is one of them. (Only time will tell if putting rootkits on your customers' computers is another.)

Re:Long Memories

[IvanTheViking]

I think rootkits from the Music Industry are going to probably become the touchiest subject so far when it comes to "bundled" malacious software. Granted, as you pointed out time will only tell on these products, but one must also recall why people will still purchase the product even if the name is slandered in their minds:Monopoly on access to the music they desire.

Sure, an average ./ 'er will say "F'em , I'll just P2P my way to aural pleasure", but if you think about Joe Consumer, he/she will probably still purchase the legal CD as they are now be trained into avoiding downloading music at all costs. ClearChannel will still do its part too in pumping RIAA music and only RIAA music onto the airwaves ensuring the average person will be addicted to it like crack, keeping the sales going, even if the entire industry is tarnished.


How this turns out should be an amusing tale to tell the kids, either in "The day artists went indie/label free" or "The day we lost our freedoms and live in a censored, scrutinized world" (food for thought)

Re:Long Memories

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually I was in a Royal Bank the other day and it was suggested that I open an account. I told the teller that I had once had an account with them and that they lost my business 20 years ago. A bank gets one shot per lifetime: there are many more banks than I will ever have bank accounts. Large companies with long term relationships like Royal Bank and CA need to keep this in mind: once you've lost a customer, they are not coming back--ever. For consumer products companies, the effect is less severe. I can't, for example, say that I will never buy a Sony product again only that I would never buy a Sony product where the cost is such that the decision is non-trivial (for example, I might buy their low-end headphones but never a TV).

Re:What the hell is this?

[Turn-X Alphonse]

It's Slashdot man, try to calm down a touch. I've had comments so insightful they could see the future modded troll and comments I wrote when pissed off at people modded +5 insightful. It depends who has mod points on the given day(after all if we're all getting them some days idiots must get them too).

Look on the bright side at least you didn't have a topic go from +5 insightful to -1 insightful (damn over rated), like I have several times. I'm starting to wonder if I have made a few enemies modding me down when I get a high rated comment.

Just remember idiots go for the easy mods and if they don't have anyone to lead them (notice it's always +5 -1 or just the default 1/2 when things are modded), they'll mod up the first thing they think is even remotely correct/funny (waste of mod points alert)/they agree with.

Welcome to Slashdot, where the ???? always stands for get minions/followers

Re:What do you know?

[AuMatar]

CEOs set the strategy for the company. If they don't know technology, how can they decide where they should move their products? If they don't know finance, how can they know wether to lay off, hire more, buy or not buy this or that company, etc? They don't need to have phds in MechE, EE, CS, etc, but they need a working knowledge of the filds the company works in.

Re:"Screw the nano."

[IvanTheViking]

Ditto.

I have an 80GB Neuros for a reason : Discographies on the go.

Pick a band, aim the car and drive off.


640 songs? My archaic laptop has more than that on it, and I use it once a month.

Re:A contender from Sony

[keithmo]

The first time I read that quote, I thought "most people don't know what malignant melanoma is, so why should they care about it?"