Re: Thanks and a few residual questions

Gary,

There were two such events. On the Scott McNelly side, I realized that we
weren't too late to change our approach and take a commercial view on
technology. None of the other companies were thinking our new way at all
plus when someone of the caliber and reputation of McNelly gives you a
general approval and confirmation, as a new guy, that meant a lot. It
inspired me to keep going on a "nontraditional" path. The other big impact
moment was listening and having a brief conversation with John Chambers of
Cisco. It was at the eCommerce Summit in Washington DC and he gave his, "its
a matter of survival" speech. That really hit me and our conversation was
also similar about my new job and Enron's new approach. He gave me a
positive response and also gave me some advice that included an observation
that the incumbent IT people may not have the abilities to help me lead Enron
in the eCommerce world. It was going to take a different kind of
technologist. That moment had the most impact on me of the two. I saw John
again and spoke with him at an Economist conference in Laguna Nigel and told
him of his original impact and I think he appreciated the story. He also was
very nice to give me some time to talk after that speech as well.

I hope that clarified things, good luck with the piece.

Thanks,
mike

"Gary Anthes" <Gary_Anthes@computerworld.com< on 10/09/2000 02:06:52 PM
To: Mike.McConnell@enron.com
cc:
Subject: Re: Thanks and a few residual questions

Hi Mike, just one more:

You said, in describing the Sun breakfast, "I'll never forget this; this had a
huge impact on the way I ran that group for the next year." What did you mean
by
that? Just how did it affect your approach?

Thanks again.

Regards,
Gary Anthes

Gary H. Anthes, Editor at Large
Computerworld (www.computerworld.com)
1331 Pensylvania Ave. NW; Suite 505
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gary_anthes@computerworld.com ganthes@mba1974hbs.edu
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