In this blog I look beyond the obvious and try to find out why people and companies do what they do - and what it means for the rest of us. 
Just got back from speaking at Xiotech’s kick-off out in Vegas. Â If ever a company has proven my theorem that marketing matters, it’s them. Â They are a “tweener” – they live in a world where they are much smaller than the big guys, and much bigger than the small guys. Â Some would call it IT purgatory.
Xiotech has been successful, floundered, been given new life, floundered, and now looks like it’s got a legitimate shot again. They were a successful startup, acquired by Seagate for piles of money, left to flounder inside of Seagate, successfully spun back out of Seagate (which, in all fairness, was at least partially my fault – I loved them and told Ed Glassmeyer of Oak Investements he should use his connections and pull it out of Seagate – and hell if he didn’t), they floundered around for five years (with very, very, crappy marketing), only to have a new lease on life. Â (Sorry for the run on sentence. Â That was bad, even for me.)
The new regime, consisting of Alan Atkinson (Wysdm, Storage Networks, Goldman) at the top, is loaded up with fresh, intelligent talent – which gives me hope that, combined with what looks like really good stuff architecturally, we’ll have another contender from the great state of Minnesota on our hands.
As someone who speaks at tons of annual company events in the space (Emulex this week – at least it will be warm!), I can honestly tell you that the buzz factor was impressive. Â Sometimes it just takes a new person to stir things up – something Alan has absolutely been doing in his short tenure, to breath new life into a company. Â Plus, I dare say, they will impress with a new commitment to correct past marketing sins and make sure they are in the right fights saying the right things to the right markets – and that alone seemed enough to get the sales force fired up.
Good luck my frozen friends, I’ll be watching!
P.S. stayed at Caesars and yes, found every single thing from “The Hangover”, and yes, had a hangover for a while, and yes, was glad to leave.
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[...] the buzz factor was impressive” …that’s Steve Duplessie writing in his blog “THE BIGGER TRUTH”  talking about the recently-concluded XIOTECH national sales meeting…thanks [...]
Steve, I agree about the tremendous amount of buzz at the event as well as your assessment of the new team that Alan Atkinson has brought into the company. I thought your presentation was excellent. Not only was it right on the mark but it was also and humorous and engaging. Thanks again for coming!