Fud Buster Friday #24 - Lotus GM's don't get it

NOTE: Edited per Ed Brill's comments.

Actually this one is true prior to April 2008, for quite some time we have, um, hung on, with a few GM's(General Manager's) IBM threw at us.
It's been a while since we had one that really even got mentioned by anyone for doing, well, anything, not just for the Lotus brand but the greater Lotus world or seeming to care about it all, in a way beyond IBM's coffers. For that matter, who ever talked to some of them aside from when they were on their ceremonial Lotusphere tour, if you even knew what they looked like.
This does not diminish the work the previous 3 gentleman have done, some of which led us to where the Lotus brand is today so thanks does go to them for their subtle but helpful steps.

But combined, I don't think they would equal what anyone who was at LOLA (I wasn't) or Lotusphere(I was) or the press/analyst dinner(I was) or anywhere Bob Picciano may have gone or visited, felt after talking with him or seeing him in Kimonos not just one time or one night but TWICE!! And this attitude now permeates across the company it seems, every session I attended, including the Beat the Developers one was interposed with rants, kicks or slingings at competitors products or lack of them.

What more could I or you ask for?

When was the last time in your organization you not only saw your boss, the GM(or in your own companies case, your CEO), and most, if not all, of the executive team in a bar together and then his doing Karaoke?

"I'm a Lotus Man" will ring throughout the year to those of us privileged to be there at the time, and someone, I am sure, is holding the video for ransom.

Everyone not only wanted to sing it with him, I'd imagine most wanted to be on stage with him to do it too. Shame it didn't make it to the closing session, although he did reference it.

And that, my dear readers is leadership which is rare to find these days, especially from an organization the size of IBM. On top of it all, Bob really wants to help you and I and all of the Lotus Software Group change the world view of the Lotus brand and if it happens to hurt Microsoft or other competitors along the way, he wouldn't want it any other way.

In fact if it doesn't happen, maybe we can get Bob to stay for another few years because Rome wasn't built in a day, although it only takes 1 day to start migrating users off Exchange.

So if you keep hearing the Lotus brand is dead or they don't get it, call IBM, ask for Lotus, then ask for Bob, he probably would answer the phone if available. It's that important, to him, and the greater company. And even if he wouldn't, I imagine the gatekeepers will form a moat, he will certainly want to know about it.