From a business perspective, the problem is that so many of these corporations grew so quickly; some genius took a brilliant idea to the venture capitalists, and two years later they had a multimillion-dollar business, but no real knowledge of basic management systems, personnel, and so on. I have said consistently that this isn't a security problem, it's a management problem. Management never sets the standards.
People never pay attention to cops like me, pounding the table and denouncing sin and that kind of stuff. But I think it is just good business sense that the industry has to wake up. We're particularly concerned because it spills over into our community. The young people see this negative role model. So much money. So much success. So much surface glamour. They're the new golden people.
"It's a world I used to envy, but now I feel a part of it." -- Ann Eis
Ann Eis, age 46, left a job in a personnel office in St. Albens, England, about 12 years ago, to emigrate to America. After she married, she settled with her husband in Sunnyvale, where she worked as a drugstore clerk before taking a position at Apple Computer Inc.
When I worked in a drugstore, I had quite a few people from Apple that brought in their little cards for prescriptions. I'd say, "Oh, gosh, how wonderful, Apple. I wonder what kind of degree you have to have to get into there?"
One day, I was helping this little lady that I knew so well and she said, "Oh, my daughter works at Apple, and I'd love for you to have an interview there." I got the job. I love it, and I've been here ever since.
Apple moves very fast; they have to keep the wheels turning. I worked at the de Havilland Aircraft factory in England. After that, this is really exhilarating.
They recognize your abilities here. If you want to get on, they give you every chance. You've got classes you can attend. I take books home and study. And I have an Apple IIe at home; I write lots of letters on it, and my husband, who is very good with accounts and things like that, likes to use it, too.
I think everybody is equal at Apple. You don't have to say "Yes, sir" or "No, sir," and nobody tries to give you an inferiority complex. They make me feel super here. I work more or less on my own.
I think even in the 18 months I've been here, I've seen ideas become little departments that have grown into big departments. There are some very brilliant people here. And those people talk to me, they come up and say, "Hello, Ann, how are things?" I see people talking in the lobby that are just incredibly brilliant.It is a world I used to envy, but now I feel part of it.
"If the receptionist isn't pleasant, if people look like they're just dragging their feet, you know the company isn't going to make it." -- Kirsten Olsen
Kirsten Olsen is a Santa Clara-based stockbroker and investment banker specializing in emerging growth companies.
When I research a company, I look for people I really like, and I look for a certain atmosphere when I walk in. If it isn't there, I won't recommend it. If the receptionist is not pleasant and buoyant, if the rest of the people in the company look like they're just dragging their feet, you know that the company's not going to make it. That is especially true with new companies, because they can be made or broken on just a few people.
I also believe that you have to go around and talk to suppliers and customers and everybody else that deals with this company, even the shipping clerk. I've been a secretary, I've been a shipping clerk, I've been a telephone operator, all those things. I know how it feels to have worked in those kinds of positions, and I know they can make or break a company. If you don't have a nice atmosphere for people to work in, why should they work?
"There is a terrible California bigotry, a belief that technology only comes out of California, not from the Midwest, not from Kansas City, of all places." -- David Allen
David Allen, 37 years old, was a classic techno-kid. A born tinkerer, he was playing with crystal radio sets on the living room floor by the time he was 12 and working as a microcomputer engineer by the time he entered college. Born in Kansas City, Mo., he didn't head out to Silicon Valley. Instead, he stayed home to found Tallgrass Technologies Corp., which has grown to an industry leader with $60 million in sales and more than 400 employees over the past four-and-a-half years.
When I started Tallgrass, we originally missed the mark a little bit. We were going after a controller segment of the industry, but we wound up making complete subsystems. The controller was so unorthodox that nobody was willing to touch it, so we wound up becoming our own customer and using it in our own product. We talked to several companies, including Zenith, which had recently bought Heathkit, and the reaction we got was that we were nobodies out of nowhere. You know, Kansas City is not exactly the high-tech capital of the world, and Tallgrass was a complete unknown, and Dave Allen was a complete unknown. It was just not appreciated. It was not the conventional way of doing things. A lot of people said later that the design we came up with could only have been done in the Midwest, where there wasn't this surplus of conventional wisdom like in California, where everything is done pretty much the same way, over and over and over again.
The name Tallgrass was chosen to clearly distinguish us from the typical California company. There is a terrible California bigotry, a belief that technology only comes out of California, not from the Midwest, not from Kansas City, of all places. I resolved that if I ever started my own company, I didn't want to have one of these Computer Innovations Inc. or High Tech Inc., typical California names. It was going to be something more like Apple, something that had nothing to do with technology. Also, I wanted a name that sounded Midwest. For a while, the name was going to be Prairie Technologies. But at the last minute, I switched over to Tallgrass; you can get a better logo with that.
