I don't have any scientific proof of this, but it strikes me that open-source CEOs are different. Not just because some sport ponytails (Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz), or some speak with a light Southern drawl (Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst), or even that some swear in Italian (Funambol CEO Fabrizio Capobianco).
No, what really makes them different, at least as compared to their enterprise software counterparts, is their cutting-edge adoption of technology.
In this they're no different (and probably a bit behind) the Web 2.0 crowd, but compared to an HP, IBM, or SAP CEO, the CEOs of open-source companies set new standards for connectedness and communication transparency. Perhaps it's the relative youth of open-source CEOs, but perhaps it's also a love of technology that stems from having to live so close to source code in an open-source company.
I first thought of this when I received notice that Whitehurst is following me on Twitter. I can't imagine Steve Ballmer following anyone on Twitter. Then I thought to how actively Schwartz blogs, providing useful information on Sun and its place in the larger enterprise computing ecosystem.
It also reminded me that I get text messages as often as emails from Whitehurst, and the same used to be true of Marten Mickos, former CEO of MySQL, as well as others (except Capobianco at Funambol, because his company does email sync, so he's not a big SMS user :-).
Enterprises should take note. I think company leadership has a material impact on the kind of technology that gets created within a technology vendor. If your vendor's CEO is stuck in the Stone Ages of technology, perhaps its products are, too?
This can only be taken so far, of course, but I wonder if there's something to it....
Shaun Connolly, formerly an executive with JBoss/Red Hat, offers some interesting counsel to his former employer. In Shaun's view, Red Hat needs to "think big" if it wants to "lead big," and rigorously fight complacency:
...Red Hat needs to realize that past success does not guarantee future dominance. Red Hat needs to improve its ability to grow into new areas. It needs to make its ability to expand its footprint a strategic weapon.
Focusing purely on business as usual may yield some solid results over the coming year, but will ultimately result in decreased momentum...and the crowning of a new open source big dog.
This is what Jason Maynard used to say, and it's what some among us have been asking Red Hat to do: Lead. Red Hat's response to this is often, "We already are." Sort of.
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Mozilla picked its COO, John Lilly, to take the helm of Mozilla as its CEO. I don't know John but trust Mitchell's judgment and assume this was a good move. Even so, it makes me wonder if the field of applicants was so thin that Mozilla had no choice but to look inside for its next chief executive.
After all, Mozilla spent months looking for a CEO executive director [See update below]. I received emails from its board members on several occasions as they scoured the industry for referrals to good people who could take the job. Evidently the board never found the right person outside the organization.
Is the talent pool for open source really that thin?
... Read moreThis blog isn't a political one. I don't talk US or other national politics here. But I really liked Lawrence Lindsey's op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal this past week, wherein he asks the question, "What [Should] Americans Want in a President." Lindsay suggests that what we really need in a leader is not a pedigree so much as an indication that the candidate knows how to deal with real life:
As president, there is a lot to learn both factually and about the process of governing. Beginning on day one, he or she will have to confront a bureaucracy and a media establishment that has its own agenda, to hire expert advisers and administrators on a whole host of foreign and domestic policy issues, and to structure the whole operation in a way that carries out the will of the people. Our job as voters should be to select someone who will (1) know what he or she doesn't know, (2) get up to speed quickly, and (3) avoid making serious mistakes in the meantime....
There are...three...questions about a candidate's character that are likely to shed some light on whether that candidate will do well in the on-the-job training school of the Oval Office. These questions have nothing to do with party or ideology[:]
... Read more
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