Re: More IBM firings

Neil wrote:
Ross Mauri's recent letter included a very unfortunate word in describing
"i".
He called it "strategic".
Today being November 11th I hope you all remember your history lessons,
including what that designation means to IBM products and initiatives.


Neil -

I hate that word (almost as much as I hate the word "paradigm").

My former business partner (he and I each owned the same percentage of
company stock) used the word "strategic" a few too many times...

(Behind my back,) he deemed me not "strategic" to the company's future and
conspired to get the minority owners to vote me out and fire me, by
promising huge pay raises to each of them along with a promise to let each
of them buy portions of my stock once I was fired and my stock bought back
by the company.

When one of them let slip what was going on behind my back, I stayed up all
night and wrote an 8-page manifesto describing what I had done that was
/good/ for the company, and what my partner had done that was /bad/ for the
company (including a fixed-bid contract along with a failed software project
that together caused the company to /lose/ $500,000.00).

We met the next day for lunch (minus my partner), and in the first minute of
the discussion we instead decided to fire /him/, not me!

- sjl