Gary,

There were two such events.  On the Scott McNelly side, I realized that we 
weren't too late to change our approach and take a commercial view on 
technology.  None of the other companies were thinking our new way at all 
plus when someone of the caliber and reputation of McNelly gives you a 
general approval and confirmation, as a new guy, that meant a lot.  It 
inspired me to keep going on a "nontraditional" path.  The other big  impact 
moment was listening and having a brief conversation with John Chambers of 
Cisco.  It was at the eCommerce Summit in Washington DC and he gave his, "its 
a matter of survival" speech.  That really hit me and our conversation was 
also similar about my new job and Enron's new approach.  He gave me a 
positive response and also gave me some advice that included an observation 
that the incumbent IT people may not have the abilities to help me lead Enron 
in the eCommerce world.  It was going to take a different kind of 
technologist.  That moment had the most impact on me of the two.   I saw John 
again and spoke with him at an Economist  conference in Laguna Nigel and told 
him of his original impact and I think he appreciated the story.  He also was 
very nice to give me some time to talk after that speech as well.

I hope that clarified things,  good luck with the piece.

Thanks,
mike 




"Gary Anthes" <Gary_Anthes@computerworld.com> on 10/09/2000 02:06:52 PM
To: Mike.McConnell@enron.com
cc:  
Subject: Re: Thanks and a few residual questions




Hi Mike, just one more:

You said, in describing the Sun breakfast, "I'll never forget this; this had a
huge impact on the way I ran that group for the next year." What did you mean 
by
that? Just how did it affect your approach?

Thanks again.

Regards,
Gary Anthes

Gary H. Anthes, Editor at Large
Computerworld  (www.computerworld.com)
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