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Enron Mail |
Gary,
Thanks for the email. Here is my attempt to type out a response. I hope it helps. 1. It was a matrix organization. The IT personnel reported into the Global Tech. group but we did that for communication and consistency purposes rather than simply control. They attended business unit staff meetings and the BU had a great influence in the review process and gave constant feedback. It was vitally important for the "customer" to be happy and that the IT person completed the projects from the BU. When it came to the review process itself, GT ranked all the employees and peers but the business unit had the greatest influence on where the person actually ranked and was rated. 2. When Enron Net Works was formed, nothing really changed on the day to day working of the IT world. IT (Global Technology) was folded into the newly created 5th business unit at Enron. Remember Global Technology had more that IT alone. We had an eCommerce commercial group, a principal investments group and was developing eCommerce or Technology origination roles developing around the world. Philippe Bibi is the CTO for Enron and Enron Net Works. He is in the office of the chairman of ENW with Greg Whalley, CEO and Louise Kitchen, the newly appointed COO. Both LK and GW are non IT people. There are many VPs on the next level that are IT executives. 3. In a nut shell, Scott grinned when I told him of my 2 weeks experience and title as CEO with Enron's goal of becoming the largest B2B player in the world. He chuckled and said something like, "That sounds like Enron, it always looks at things differently. He then stated that my CEO title and Enron's approach was very unusual but that it would be more common place soon, as this was the way of the future and Enron was the first to recognize it and change its culture". 4. When i used the word cannibalize, I meant that if we didn't change the business ourselves, than our competition would do this for us. For example, we were the leading trader of natural gas in the US by far but we initiated EnronOnline and completely changed the way we traded natural gas and did it for free. Thus we cannibalized our own successful business even when it was going great. We are looking at all of our businesses for changes like that. Gary, I hoped that helped. Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any other questions. Mike "Gary Anthes" <Gary_Anthes@computerworld.com< on 10/06/2000 04:18:40 PM To: Mike McConnell <mike.mcconnell@enron.com< cc: Subject: Thanks and a few residual questions Hello Mike, Thanks for sending me those presentation slides. They are good background. And thanks so much for meeting with Julia and me this week. It was most interesting and helpful. I'm confused on a couple of points, so would you mind answering a few more questions? 1. You said that after Enron created the Global Technology group, you "seeded people out into the business units, and the way we did that is we had those people be totally accountable both to us and to the business unit head." So, at that point it was a sort of matrix organization, with IT people dispersed thoughout the business units but at the same time accountable to a central IT organization for things such as standards, is that correct? 2. Then, this spring when Net Works was formed, did those 1,500 IT people essentially leave the business units to join a more traditional IT organization? Roughly how many non-IT people, and of what types, are part of Net Works? Two of the three top managers in Net Works are non-IT (from trading), correct? Does any given IT person now still live in a matrix world with responsibilities to IT and to a business unit? 3. For some reason, my recorder messed up and I couldn't decipher what you said about Scott McNealy's reaction to your background, etc. at the breakfast. Could you repeat that? 4. You said: "We had to cannibalize our own businesses. So what I think you'll see five years from now is that the IT world will look totally different." What did you mean by "cannibalize our own business"?. Thanks again. Regards, Gary Anthes Gary H. Anthes, Editor at Large Computerworld (www.computerworld.com) 1331 Pensylvania Ave. NW; Suite 505 Washington, D.C. 20004 gary_anthes@computerworld.com ganthes@mba1974hbs.edu 202-347-0134 (voice) 202-347-2365 (fax)
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