Independent
After Hong Kong came Boston — EMC’s Global Services CTO Office: diligence on acquisitions, integration plans, the strategy end of the business. Good school, no regrets. This year I came home to Pittsburgh and went independent — Aderitas Group, my own name on the door.
The market I am selling into now is not the one from 2006. Nobody buys servers for fun anymore. Companies rent software by the seat and computing by the hour, and the cloud won the argument while I was on an airplane. The data center I used to sell is now a line item somebody else operates.
The work that suits me turns out to be interim and advisory: walk into a business unit that is underperforming, find the actual problem — it is rarely the one in the first meeting — fix the operating rhythm, and hand back something that runs.
People ask what the compensation package is like, working for yourself. It is this: my calendar belongs to me. After a decade of other people’s priorities, that is worth more than the bonus plan.