THE WELCH COMPANY
440 Davis Court #1602
San Francisco, CA 94111-2496
415 781 5700


S U M M A R Y


DIARY: January 20, 1995 02:53 PM Friday; Rod Welch

Received call from John re status of SDS review by IBM.

1...Summary/Objective


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CONTACTS 
0201 - IBM PC Software Development        914 766 1400 fax or 800...
020101 - Mr. John Prial; Manager Workgroup Sector Marketing =914 766 1327
020102 - Work Group Solutions Marketing =914 766 9147 fax

SUBJECTS
SDS Marketing, Developing Leads, Industry Contacts
Support for Product Development, IBM
Locate Decision Maker
Demonstrations
Bumbling Comedy of Errors, Guess Gossip

0807 -    ..
0808 - Summary/Objective
0809 -
080901 - Follow up ref SDS 19 0000, ref SDS 18 0000.
080902 -
080903 - Reviewed background developed on 950118. ref SDS 18 0730
080904 -
080905 - John said he has not seen the letter, ref DIP 6, for the meeting at
080906 - COMDEX on 941114, ref SDS 8 2473, submitted on 941122. ref SDS 11 9604
080907 -
080908 - John has not been involved in any discussions with Dick or Ralph on
080909 - this matter, since COMDEX.  He spoke to Ralph after they got back from
080910 - COMDEX in November, and Ralph indicated Dick and the whole team was
080911 - impressed with SDS, and they planned to follow up.  That is the last
080912 - he has heard about it.
080913 - ..
080914 - John suggested asking Dick for a written explanation of IBM's
080915 - evaluation in light of results at the COMDEX meeting. ref SDS 8 2213
080916 -
080917 - I explained having sent Dick the same letter 3 times, and there is no
080918 - evidence that he has seen it. ref SDS 12 0740
080919 -
080920 - John feels Dick is conscientious about his management practice, and
080921 - will respond when time permits.  He said things have been very hectic
080922 - at IBM, so it is hard to find time to think.  I mentioned Henry
080923 - Kissinger's lament about "Alice in Wonderland" management. see review
080924 - on 940609, ref SDS 3 4238
080925 -
080926 - John said it feels like that sometimes at IBM, and probabaly at a lot
080927 - of other big organizations adjusting to new realities.  He said the
080928 - organization chart is continually changing.  Dick could have been
080929 - re-assigned, left the firm, the project may have been closed down, or
080930 - been transferred to another department, or bought by another firm.
080931 - John feels organizational and personal issues crowd out planning and
080932 - follow up.  Everything is more or less LIFO, the last the thing the
080933 - boss says to do, the last phone call, or letter, fax or email gets the
080934 - attention, because it is hard to track action items that pile up so
080935 - fast.  As people leave and new players arrive, it takes more time to
080936 - get things done.
080937 -
080938 -      [On 970910 executives have no time to think. ref SDS 22 3479
080939 - ..
080940 - I asked if IBM's traditional practice of keeping records of
080941 - daily work in a bound notebook, doesn't help new people pickup what
080942 - needs to be done?
080943 -
080944 - John said there isn't enough time.  They tried using Lotus Notes,
080945 - because IBM was marketing it, but that didn't work.  He indicated LN
080946 - doesn't organize anything, so you can't find information when it is
080947 - needed.  He feels LN may actually help, but there isn't enough time
080948 - for anybody to use it.
080949 -
080950 -      [On 951010 IBM purchased LN for $4B and is selling LN as the
080951 -      "solution" for productivity, ref SDS 21 8552, but is not actually
080952 -      using it. ref SDS 21 7366
080953 -
080954 - I initiated this effort on 931117, ref SDS 1 , because IBM's people
080955 - continually lost letters and needed help tracking information. See for
080956 - example on 940120. ref SDS 2 0980  Here we are 12 short months later,
080957 - having waded through mountains of top notch managers, and now much
080958 - closer to the top, find, the problem is worse.
080959 -
080960 - John suggested keep writing and calling to remind Dick about this. He
080961 - feels if Dick is still working the issue, he will eventually respond.
080962 -
080963 -
080964 -
080965 -  ..
0810 -
0811 -
0812 - 2104 prepared letter to Dick
0813 -
081301 - Prepared letter to Dick, ref DIT 1 0001 with links to the record.  The
081302 - Post Script, ref DIT 1 U69O, links to the recent report from PG&E
081303 - received on 9501110. see, ref SDS 16 9482
081304 -
081305 -    [On 950202 called to follow up. ref SDS 20 9504]
081306 -
081307 -
081308 -
081309 -
081310 -
081311 -
081312 -
081313 -
081314 -
081315 -
Distribution. . . . See "CONTACTS"