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CIPS Connections
Internationally Regarded Group Publisher,
Noted Editor and Journalist, Top Ranking Senior Executive
This week, Stephen Ibaraki,
I.S.P., has an exclusive interview with Fritz Nelson. Fritz Nelson, Vice President,
Group Publisher for the Network Computing Enterprise Architecture Group, is
responsible for the overall direction and management of the following media
brands: Network Computing, Network Magazine, Intelligent Enterprise, Secure
Enterprise, Storage Pipeline, and Transform. Previously, Fritz has served as
the reviews editor, the features editor, executive editor, editor, and
editor-in-chief for Network Computing. He wrote a column called Full Nelson, a
satirical look at the seedier side of vendor hype. Prior to joining Network
Computing, Fritz worked with Martin Marietta’s Computing Standards group -- a
team that tested and evaluated technology, and whose objective was to set
corporate computing and networking standards. Fritz was a technical writer for
USBI, a subsidiary of United Technologies that manages parts of the solid rocket
boosters for the space shuttle program. Fritz graduated Magna Cum Laude from the
University of Maryland with a B.S. in journalism. Discussion: Q: Fritz, you have an impressive
and long record of accomplishment as a writer, journalist, senior editor,
publisher, and vice-president. We are fortunate to have you do this
interview—thank you! A: With all of the other
distinguished people you’ve interviewed, I’m honored. Q: What sparked your interest in
computers? A: I couldn’t really pinpoint any
particular circumstance or defining moment. When I left college, computing was
just part of life and it became an interesting industry to learn and write
about. As a journalism guy, getting into
the world of computing in large corporations, I’d pick up the trade journals and
read, and that probably sparked my interest more than anything. From those
journals, I learned, but I also found some of them entertaining, and I realized
that maybe there was some combination of the skills I was learning and the
journalism I was trained for. Q: Do you have any “surprising”
stories to tell from your days at USBI and Martin Marietta? A: I was at USBI (now no longer
around) shortly after the Challenger disaster, and we spent a great deal of time
recovering and getting ready to get back into space. I was fresh out of school,
and my job was to help engineers and program managers write change orders for
the booster rockets. If anyone thinks the language of computing is arcane, just
spend a few months with the space program! Two stories come to mind in
particular. I began working with our PR department as we prepared for the first
flight following Challenger, and we were planning an all-company party in
Huntsville, Alabama to celebrate the launch. One of our tasks was to create a
big banner for the party and we were brainstorming what it should say. In a fit
of gallows humor, one of us (OK, it was me) suggested “Way to go, USBI,” which
could be used in case of success or failure. My all-time favorite story,
however, was a change order we processed close to a launch. There had been a
leakage problem with one of the batteries aboard the boosters. This would have
prevented a launch, so someone somewhere came up with a plan to wrap the battery
with disposable diapers. Martin Marietta (now Lockheed
Martin) was fascinating. So many divisions, so many people, so much going on.
Our group helped move so much Novell NetWare just within our company that we
were given Reseller status. One of the things that still sticks with me to this
day is that we had a company-wide videoconferencing system. I suspect that many
companies had room-based systems, but even so, this was 15 years ago, and we
used this technology relentlessly. One of our favorite things was to ask the
executives of some of the biggest vendor companies to come speak to us, via
videoconference. And they always did – one of the beauties of being such a big
company. We had John Sculley (of Apple at the time), Steve Ballmer, and many
others over the years. There were probably 30 – 40 of us spread out throughout
the company, and we’d get to ask questions. A little known fact about
Lockheed Martin, perhaps, is that, at least in those days, where most of the
company was run on mainframes, there was a small-ish group in Bethesda that had
a business in leasing time-shares on our mainframes. I was fascinated to find
out, for instance, that we ran Burger King’s payroll system. One of the things I still
remember about the technology and product evaluations we would do is that our
company’s purchasing department would do a vendor viability study of all of our
“finalist” companies. We wanted to make sure those we did business with were
financially sound. I find it remarkable that we were doing that back then. We’re
finding that viability, service and support have become key evaluation criteria
today – probably not a big surprise, given the number of companies that have
gone out of business or fallen down on service and support. But the big surprise
is that IT folks are being held accountable for this aspect of the
decision-making process. Q: From your column, Full Nelson,
which story provoked the most controversy? Do you have any funny stories to
share? A: It’s always when I tackled the
big companies, poking fun or challenging them to do better. And the response
came from both sides: either supporters of those companies questioning whether I
was just like all the rest, piling on because they are easy targets, or
detractors thanking me for saying what they so often felt. My column “Here Comes The Sun”
probably was the epitome of this. I ripped into Sun for its long-standing
history of arrogance, which I’d heard from many customers, but which I also
experienced first hand. They would often call to offer a product for review, but
only in exchange for it being on our cover. I really tore into them, and I got
tons of e-mail thanking me for finally saying what so many others had not, for
not always just picking on Microsoft. But I also got quite a few asking whether
I was a Microsoft tool. One of my favorite comments: “When Bill Gates farts,
your breath stinks.” Some of the more nostalgic pieces
also drew a great deal of e-mail. I think people like to take walks down memory
lane. People also seemed to like when I evaluated the marketing lexicon of the
time. And when I wrote, with our Editor at the time, Art Wittmann, a feature on
the CEOs of Lucent, Cisco, Nortel and 3Com, I wrote an accompanying column that
drew a big response. I always love how vacuous these CEOs can be, and so I took
some of their quotes and did my own, um, analysis of what they really meant to
say – which I thought was far more interesting than what they actually said. Finally, anything I ever wrote
about Novell drew massive response. People are just fanatical about Novell, even
to this day. A couple of years ago, I took Novell to task, and I said their
earnings were as flat as Winona Ryder. I got a flurry of e-mail on that one. Oh, one regret probably: I once
said that some useless technology – I can’t remember what it was – was as useful
as dental floss in West Virginia. I still think that’s a pretty funny line, but
it really made some people angry, and because of that, I wish I hadn’t written
it. Q: You have an amazing record of
successes! What are your top three achievements and why? A: I cannot classify anything
I’ve done into an amazing success, and when you look at what so many people have
done in our industry, I’m lucky to have been a fly on the wall, at best. Q: Which three “prior” positions
provided the greatest challenges and lessons? What were these lessons? A: Columnist -- For some people
it might be easy to have an opinion on things. In fact, when I read columns in
any publication, I am floored by the lack of originality and quality. I’m not
sure I ever did it any better than anybody else, but I sure as hell made damn
sure I did it with originality in both thought and execution. If you’re going to
take on a challenge like writing a column, you can’t just put thought to paper –
it’s not enough, and people can get that anywhere. Go that extra step, put
yourself into it, and make a statement. From editor-in-chief to publisher
-- Moving from being focused on content to being responsible for the overall
business was a big leap for me, and one I almost didn’t make. There was so much
I didn’t know. What I learned, however, is that just like anything I’d ever
done, I wasn’t alone. I have had the most remarkable people to work with over
the years. Technical Writer for USBI -- The
challenge was simple: there wasn’t that much to do. Anyone who wishes for an
easy, cushy job is fooling themselves. I’ll never want a job where you just make
yourself busy; it’s got to be meaningful. Q: Can you describe your current
work with your various media brands? A: I have two primary roles.
First, I am the publisher of each of five stand-alone media platforms (by which
I mean print magazines and associated web, newsletters and events): Network
Computing, Network Magazine, Intelligent Enterprise, Secure Enterprise and
Transform. This also includes a six-time supplement, called Storage Pipeline,
which runs across a couple of those magazines. In the publisher capacity, I’m
responsible for each of the business entities, which includes the product
(content), sales and marketing. Because I have more of a content background, I
probably get more heavily involved in the editorial processes than many
publishers – in fact, the editors occasionally ask me to write an article or
two. Second, I serve as a vice president and group publisher for those
platforms, and how they fit into the overall scheme and business of our company,
CMP Media. Q: What are the major strengths
of your company? A: CMP Media is a big company
with many focused and nimble parts that act as business entities targeting
specific market sectors. It’s the best of all worlds, really. We have the
credibility of being a big, successful media company with a profitable,
well-capitalized parent company (United Business Media). Yet we are the only
media company with expertise and leading brands in the channel (CRN,
VARBusiness), electronics or OEM (EETimes), gaming and software development
markets (Dr. Dobbs), not to mention, of course, the enterprise/end-user business
technology market that Network Computing and InformationWeek are in, for
example. We also have an incredibly successful health-care publishing division
within CMP. Each group within CMP is very
focused on its particular audience segment and subject matter, so we can compete
with niche publishers on that basis if need be, but more important we can be the
authoritative voice of information in those markets. But we all also work
together, so we can offer our advertisers any customer set they want, depending
on what they’re trying to accomplish and how they’re going to market. We do that
not just by knowing each other and working well together (which we do), but
because we’ve also centralized things like audience development (readers) and
our web business, two very big keys to our success. Having a single, unified
audience database allows us to help our advertising customers understand their
customers better, and how they can reach them through our various media
platforms. Techweb, our overarching web
brand, has also been centralized, which allows our reader customers a single
point of entry into our network of web platforms, but also consistency across
those platforms. In other words, our strength is
in our depth in each market, and our breadth across all of those markets. Q: Where do you see yourself and
your company in five years? A: I always think that five years
is too far out to really understand and make predictions on – maybe that’s
short-sighted of me, but even at the fast-paced clip of the technology industry,
five years seems like an eternity. Five years ago, I was an editor and hadn’t
given any thought to becoming a publisher. However, I think it’s becoming
clearer that the publishing landscape will change in interesting ways over time.
Hopefully we’ve all put notions of the elimination of paper out of our heads for
the time being. But I’ve personally seen a change in how people use different
media formats, and certainly the web has changed how we do business. It’s uncertain how this will
happen, but I think it’s fairly easy to see that information needs are being
served on a more customized basis, and that trend will continue. In fact, there
will be a radical change eventually in that these customized information needs
are being served today selectively by readers – that is, they go where they need
to on our web sites, and bounce from topic to topic and site to site at their
whim. Once we start to understand that behavior better, the possibilities are
endless. For example, today we talk to our
readers constantly, and we build editorial calendars that seem to fit with what
we’ve interpreted as our readers’ informational needs. We have no way of knowing
how much of an issue anybody reads – polls tell us a few things, but it’s never
exact. Online, you know where people are, where they go, what’s popular, what’s
useless. That’s a bit overstated, of course, because sometimes good content may
simply be too well hidden, but the point is that if you do things right, you’ll
only ever have to produce the information people want. You can try new things,
but you’ll get your instant feedback. More important, you can begin to
create more personalized information or versions of your content. The technology
is already there, but nobody has done it right, yet. We still think in terms of
“broadcast.” Print is really a broadcast to a defined audience. Our media
websites are reader-selected broadcasts. Ultimately, we want to deliver just the
right information to just the right reader. Of course, for an advertiser,
that also has amazing appeal. Today, with targeted information vehicles like
electronic newsletters and webcasts, we’re already seeing advertisers ask for
less reach, and better targeting. What I’ve just described is the ultimate in
doing that. We’ve been experimenting with that in a special e-mail newsletter we
do on security threats – subscribers have been allowed to sign up for the
portions of the content (based on what operating system platforms they run). We also think that because
there’s so much you can do differently online, that web-based publishing will
change the way we do print publishing. For instance, we can build and encourage
far better reader-interaction mechanisms online than in print. We began a
project in 2003 to experiment with these concepts, where we actually build
articles online, piece-by-piece, depending on reader input and feedback on how
we’re evaluating technology. Thus we’re able to shape that content better
according to the needs of our readers, but we also get a whole bunch of content
we would never have had in some cases. Q: From your remarkable career,
what are your top ten tips? A: I’ve found a few things
helpful just by watching others I admire, and some other things helpful by
screwing up and learning the hard way. But here goes: 1) Surround yourself with great
people and you will not fail. Then . . . 2) . . . realize it’s them, not
you. 3) You spend probably half your
day or more doing your job. If it isn’t fun, get the hell out. 4) A different spin on that last
one: have a sense of humor, for goodness sake. You’re excused if you’re saving
lives, but even then . . . 5) There are leaders who compel
people to follow, and those who command. Be the former. Respect is harder to
earn than fear, of course, but its affect is more far-reaching and
longer-lasting, not to mention just a better way of living. I can’t stand if
someone is afraid of me – I find it insulting. 6) If you find success at any
level (a project, a career milestone, a profit, whatever), stop for a moment and
bask in it. Hell, soak in it! The next thing will still be there, but too often
we all fall into the trap of building to build, rather than building to
achieve. 7) Know that the person you just
dismissed or treated a little rottenly will someday be in a position to do the
same to you. For example, personally, I’ve been the pursue-ee (when I was an
editor) and the pursue-er (as the publisher) and it’s frightening how often the
tables have turned and I look up to find that person I may have treated a bit
too cavalierly years ago. 8 ) Look outside of your industry
and you will find ideas you can modify as your own. As a columnist, I had to
find my own voice, but I needed to learn from others. Because I’m responsible
for a business unit, I love to see the metrics someone in, say, the airline
industry uses, or manufacturing. 9) Constantly evolve and
innovate, no matter what. If you aren’t doing that, it’s probably time to move
onto something else. 10) Really do care about your
subjects – if it’s a customer, if it’s someone you’re interviewing for an
article, whatever – don’t just listen to say you’ve done it. Q: What experiences continue to
“amaze” you? A: At the risk of coming off a
cynic, I am constantly baffled by the ability of technology marketers to shroud
the realities of their technology with goofy and empty terminology and jargon.
There’s nothing like the truth to build credibility. Sure, there’s a value
proposition to communicate: sometimes it’s got to be more than just a switch or
a CRM product – it enables business or provides strategic advantage or enables
the management of the entire life cycle of the information or helps optimize
your business processes. But damn! What is it? That’s important too. On a more positive note, I’m
blown away by the ingenuity of people in this industry. Just when you think
everything’s been invented, there’s something new, something better. I am amazed that often-times
technology comes full circle. Web Services? Same idea as distributed
applications. Utility computing and grid? Very similar in concept to
time-sharing. Wireless vendors are going through many of the machinations and
evolution seen by the wired Ethernet industry years ago. I am always amazed at the daring
of people to go start something new, and the passion they bring to these
endeavors in the face of great risk and uncertainty. I was amazed when I once asked
Cisco CEO John Chambers if he knew any good West Virginia jokes (that’s where he
was born and raised, and it’s kind of a border joke thing, since I spent many of
my formative years in Maryland) that he went on for 10 minutes about how West
Virginia was like a small business! Yet I am equally amazed at what a kind,
caring, person he is . . . without fail, it seems. Q: Do you have any additional
humorous stories to share? A: Well, there is this one. Way
way back, a PR person had a wild sexual escapade with an editor of another
publication. I know that because she sent the details of that not to her friend,
as she thought she had, but to our entire editorial team! I’ll never forget
that. I have others I can’t tell. Q: What are the five most
important IT trends to watch, and please provide some recommendations? A: 1) Utility Computing -- It
seems we’ve embraced this trend already, but there are still a few technologies
challenges, mostly in the area of network management. In the sense that we can
deliver IT as a service, this is useful. 2) Wireless -- Though we all
obsess about this because it has a high cool factor, I truly think wireless
technology will rule the day. The question is when. I think we’ll look back 20
years from now with little understanding of why it all took so long. 3) Outsourcing -- Probably little
debate here – all of our research tells us that this is just a way of life now.
But what our readers are finding is that there’s just as much work in managing
the outsourcer relationship, and that some things just don’t make sense to let
go of. The challenge will continue to be figuring out the right way to do
this. 4) Performance Management --
Everything from the management of operational performance to financial
performance to IT performance. We have become a business society infatuated with
process and performance improvement, and the measurement of improvements . 5) A rapid congealing of
enterprise content management technologies and strategies. There is so much
unstructured data, and we’re beginning to be incredibly specialized in how we
provide access to and delivery of that critical asset. This affects so many
industries, from insurance (claims processing) to financial institutions (loan
and mortgage and investment processing) to the government record keeping to
simply anyone doing business on the web. I didn’t mention Linux and
Security on purpose. Because . . . . partly because they’ve been hyped enough,
but also because I think these are just part of the fabric now. A trend isn’t a
trend when it’s taken hold and taken for granted. You could argue that various
aspects of Linux deployment and security technology have a long way to go before
they have wide-spread penetration and acceptance and maturity – I wouldn’t
disagree. But I think we’re well on our way, and these issues (especially
security) are just a part of daily IT life. Q: What are the five greatest
challenges facing businesses today? What are their solutions? A: In no particular order: 1) Customer Privacy -- As our
ability to reach customers, suppliers and other partners evolves, we cannot lose
control, either as businesses ensuring a customer is really a customer, but also
as businesses protecting customer data and privacy rights. 2) In the short term, getting
more out of what you have – that infrastructure might be creaky, you may have
30% of the manpower you once had, you may have had to make sacrifices that have
reduced quality somewhere. We’ve learned our most recent lessons on extravagance
and blind optimism. So even with a positive economic outlook, we all know we’ve
got to make due, and in many cases continue to get more out of the resources we
have. 3) Maximizing Productivity --
Competition is so fierce and unrelenting. In many industries, innovation lasts a
nano-second. Productivity improvement must become part of the culture. 4) Ethics, Compliance, Regulation
– Customers come in the form of employees, buying customers, shareholders.
Business owners must please them all. Part of that is really deciding what kind
of business you are – now, with recent legislation and the wake of so much
scandal, there’s teeth behind needing to be better corporate citizens. Suddenly
we are all scrutinizing everything we do with a fine-tooth comb. 5) Growth -- Where will it come
from? This isn’t new, but I think we’re all tired of looking at ways to
re-structure our businesses and get more out of existing resources and making
do. I think by now we’d all rather grow. But growth won’t just come, we’ve got
to go find it, and often that means in new places, by taking different
approaches. Q: Who are the winners and losers
in the next five years? A: - I think Sun loses unless it
can adapt; or re-invent itself as Apple has. - I think Dell continues to win.
Nobody has come close to approaching its business model. - I think Microsoft continues to
win, but so does Linux. I think they can co-exist and both grow. Microsoft will
simply have to grow in different ways, and they’ve proven effective at that
already. - I think Novell loses, because
although their Linux play is compelling, they have paid little to no attention
on their loyal customer base. I want them to win, but they drive me crazy. - I think end-users win. Despite
my earlier diatribe about e-mail, personal productivity tools are rapidly
improving. - I think for a while,
information consumers will lose as often as they win. When was the last time you
needed to go to the library? I never go, because it’s all there on the web. But
because it’s so easy to be an information publisher on the web, anyone can do it
– and so anyone does! I sometimes don’t trust the medium and the message . .
.and I suspect I’m not alone. - EMC wins. I didn’t think so for
the longest time, but they’ve climbed down from the perch of arrogance. They
have flexible pricing. They are forming partnerships. Their recent acquisitions
(Legato and Documentum) show tremendous foresight about the relationship between
data and storage. - I want a company like Symantec
to win, but I haven’t seen anything that would suggest it’s possible. But I
think they are in the best position to be the comprehensive security solution
provider. It’s theirs to lose and win. - Cisco will win, but I think at
some point they’ve got to innovate in new markets. Hell, maybe just once to
remind people they can do it and re-establish that credibility. The
not-so-fast-but-just-right-follower approach has been brilliant, but I sense a
growing lack of weariness about Cisco as a company. Q: Any predications about the
economy and future IT spending? A: I don’t know enough to predict
the direction of our economy, though I certainly feel positively about it after
a few tough years. I also believe that optimism and pessimism can feed the fire
either way – I think we sank into a recession so quickly because everyone just
believed at once that the economy was starting to fail, and we all stopped
spending. A self-fulfilling prophesy to some extent. But I also think the
reverse can happen. I think it is happening, but we’re all just kind of
reluctant to say so out loud! Q: What kind of computer setup do
you have? A: I have an IBM Thinkpad that I
use on the road, in the office and at home. I try to connect wirelessly wherever
I go, but that’s not always possible. I’m fairly practical in this regard, in
that I don’t really need much more than that – I don’t carry any fancy hand-held
(though I’ve tried them) or phone . . . just sort of your basic company issue.
One thing I’ve learned in becoming more of a publisher is that there’s far more
value in human contact – years behind the screen made me forget that. I also happen to find e-mail
distracting. I like that it can be done on my time, at my behest. But I also
think it’s too intrusive. Although it’s an invaluable tool, sometimes I just
wish it would go away. I think many of us create our priorities around what
other people are telling us in their electronic communications. It’s a
double-edged sword. Q: If you were doing this
interview, what three questions would you ask of someone in your position and
what would be your answers? A: You know, there are some
questions I’d ask. In fact, these are questions I have asked others, in slightly
different ways. Q1: Who would win in a fight
between you and your rival publisher? A1: I’m a lover, not a
fighter. Q2: Why aren’t there more women
in IT? A2: Probably for the same reasons
there aren’t more women in lots of professions. One of our most prolific and
respected writers is Lori MacVittie, and she is a technologist with
extraordinary insights and capability. I think it’s somewhat incumbent on people
like Lori to serve as role models and encourage young women to embrace
technology. I think our high schools, which are creating more IT curriculum than
ever, need to encourage this as well. Q3: Have you ever been offered a
bribe? A3: That’s not a very polite
question! Q: Fritz, your in-depth insights
are of great value to our audience. Thank you for doing this interview! A: My pleasure.
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