Everyone's whining about Mark B, Sandy, Duggan, Savinay, Shannon, etc ..... But you're barking at the wrong tree. It's the board that everybody should be pi---d at. They are the ones who enabled this mess, fostered it and encouraged it until such point where it became counter-productive and too legally risky to keep Mark B in charge. Yes, all the above people contributed in no small part to this mess, but the board is the source of all evil. They are the ones who should have been fired a long time ago by investors, if said investors truly cared about this company growing. Breaking news, it's not meant to, never was. It is (was) a cash-cow and nothing else. The acquire and trim strategy was not born with Mark B. It was always the brainchild of Jenkins, Sadler and Fowlie. This is how OpenText grew since the beginning. So ask yourself what's going to change with Mark B gone? Not much. A new CEO, maybe a new ELT, a trimmed down OT but deep down you can't turn a tow truck into a ferrari, not matter how much visionary or smart you think you are on topics like AI and information management (yes, looking at you Tom J). Once OT 2.0 is more or less in a functioning order with a balance sheet that's not threatening to cut its jugular, the good old habits will come back. That said by the time that's done, the world will have changed dramatically and the amount of catch-up OT will have to do will be massive even compared to their situation today.
9 replies (most recent on top)
@e8 , have to agree. Sad but true.
I mean, if you received truckloads of money for being wrong all the time would you change? It's not even like this is these a--hole's day job. This is gravy money. This is money frosting on a money cake.
ELT is not getting away with it. It is not just The Board. It's both the Board and the ELT. The combination is a disaster. No visionaries just follow the status quo and the remunerations.
@ba+1, true - a full 360 degrees
Give Paul Duggan a chance and we’ll turn the company around in 6 months.
Nothing has changed except for the lack of disturbing emails from MB.
100% agree. I still question the selection of Savinay as CTO, unless it is just for “optics” until the new ELT is put into place.
@OP,
I completely agree and have expressed those sentiments to anyone who will listen 😀
The Board is the ultimate enabler here and they knew (and we-ponized) Mark's narcissistic iron fisted approach, in hopes that it would work (it had the opposite effect).
I have always wondered why no Activist Firm ever appeared on the scene given the dismal performance over 10 years!
Indeed. I notice in Tom J time while acquiring spicer, documentum, trimming staff was not the key, and integration of product are more focused.