Opinion
How’s this for perspective?
By Larry Hooper
 For many without a long history in the tech industry, these may be the worst times they have faced in business, so it's always good to get a little perspective from those who have been through rough times before. To that end, I had a chance to catch up with Dave Hitz, Founder and Executive Vice President of NetApp and a CRN Hall of Famer, who has been around long enough to remember a downturn or two.
Hitz told me NetApp easily could have been a casualty of the dot-com crash but weathered it to grow into the multibillion-dollar company it is today. "The experience that we had in the tech crash turned out to be very healthy for us in the long run, although it was very hard in 2001," Hitz said. Before that crash, the New York financial community wasn't interested in the money-saving value proposition NetApp offered, he said. "After the crash, it all changed."
The current downturn is creating a similar attitude change, Hitz said. "I do think there are some hints in today's tech world that it is going to happen again. I think we are going to hear CIOs say, 'I am not going to build another data center.' " This downturn will be the catalyst that leads to an even more heated market for data center virtualization and cloud computing, Hitz projected. With that in mind, Hitz added, "Customers are not thinking about grandiose right now. They want to hear about saving some money."
Hitz is currently promoting his new biography, "How to castrate a bull," taglined "Unexpected lessons on risk, growth and success in business." All the proceeds from the book will go to the NetApp Fund.
Rather than write about storage, or the storage industry, in the book, Hitz walks readers through what he calls the three stages of NetApp's growth: the beginnings, the turbulent adolescence and the grown-up company. Each stage offers lessons for people in business. But the most valuable lesson of all can be found right in the title, Hitz said. He learned that lesson while attending Deep Springs College, a 20-student school that mixes studies with serving as a ranch hand.
"Being a person on a ranch when you are not a ranching person forces you to do things you don't know how to do," Hitz said. "It gives you perspective. It puts you in your place. That serves you extremely well in startups and even in large business."
Castrating a bull in particular is a risky thing, Hitz added. "When you jump the fence hoping to cut the balls off a 600-pound bull calf, you really ought to ask a few questions of people who have done this before." |