New leaders within IBM software group

January 12 2010

A few minutes ago, Steve Mills announced some changes to the organizational structure of IBM Software Group.  On the one hand, how we run the organization is a relatively internally-focused set of decisions; on the other hand, it is important for the community around Lotus to know what changes are happening.  So, as with Ambuj, Mike, and Bob before, I'm writing an as-it-happens blog entry to capture the moment -- just before Lotusphere, as has also happened before -- and we'll enjoy talking more about this in the next few days.

Taking this from the top down, IBM Software will now have two focus areas -- a solutions group, lead by Mike Rhodin (yes, the former Lotus GM), and a middleware group, lead by Robert LeBlanc (who has been running IBM software sales).  Worldwide sales for IBM Software will now be headed up by Bob Picciano.  The new Lotus General Manager will be Alistair Rennie, who you all know from his previous positions running our development organization, ISSL, and Lotus marketing; Lotus will be part of the solutions group under Rhodin.

I am sure this comes as a shock to the Lotus community on several levels.  Honestly, even with Bob as my 2nd line manager, it does to me as well.  But you all have seen this movie before -- IBM makes executive changes frequently in order to innovate, focus on client success, and align for the future.  We've even done it the week before Lotusphere in the past, more than once.

A few words about Alistair.  I have had the privilege of being on the inside track of the plans for Lotusphere 2010 moreso than in the past, and Alistair has been driving the vision component of what you'll hear in/from Orlando next week.  Alistair is, by all accounts, one of the smartest people you'll ever meet (and I'm not just sucking up to my new 2nd line manager).  He has an incredible ability to see the big picture and yet understand all the details.  Given that he has been through several of the senior executive roles within Lotus, he's also bringing a wealth of market understanding, community relationships, and organizational support into his new role.  You are all going to be very impressed, starting today and into next week.

I've been watching the immediate reactions to this news on Twitter, and most are about Bob Picciano's move.  For someone who came into Lotus at the top, with no prior connection to the brand, Bob has done an incredible job immersing himself in the business, the marketplace, and most importantly, the community over the last two years.  Substantial positive change has taken place for the Lotus brand in that period, even during tough economic times and fierce competitive pressures.  As I said in my year in review, when you look at 2009, the Lotus brand team took more actions that were aligned with community feedback and direction than I have seen in a long time -- and simultaneously, we've built an innovation stream that is going to catapult us into mindshare leadership in the market.  Bob's "legacy" as Lotus GM can't just be measured by the last 24 months, but also by the wave we are going to ride into Lotusphere next week.  You'll see what I mean soon.  Meanwhile, for the first time, the sales executive for IBM software overall has Lotus yellow in his blood, and that can only be a good thing for the entire market.

Change is good, and a constant at IBM.  It is sudden, it is unexpected, it causes upheaval.  On the other hand, with change comes opportunity -- opportunity to set the next step in a vision, to innovate, to make new decisions and challenge old ones.  For any one of us on the IBM executive team, we expect change at any time, and the best IBM executives know to react, move on, and keep driving.  

As if I wasn't excited enough about Lotusphere already, now I'm on the edge of my seat, and can't wait to get to Orlando.  I know that the same will hold for many of you.  

Ed Brill Highland Park, IL USA Category:  People  Add/View Comments [35]

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  1. 1  Darren Duke http://blog.darrenduke.net | 1/12/2010 10:33:07 AM

    All change is not good. For this, only time will tell. I wish both success, but color me a bit skeptical. For the first time in years it seems IBM finally gets Lotus (and that took a non-Lotii to do it). *carpet swiftly pulled out from under*

  1. 2  Scott Hooks http://experts.gbs.com | 1/12/2010 10:37:28 AM

    Sounds good for IBM Software AND Lotus, and all the press will only be a catalyst for attention to Lotusphere, but I understand why many are concerned about "losing" Bob. Having him AND Alistair was a great one-two punch.

  1. 3  Nathan T. Freeman http://nathan.lotus911.com | 1/12/2010 10:48:16 AM

    I'm so glad IBM had the sense to promote Alistair to GM. While I hate to see Bob go, there is no better choice to take the reigns for Lotus. Congratulations to everyone involved in the move!

    Here's hoping that the SWG re-org will help clarify things too.

  1. 4  Alan Lepofsky http://www.alanlepofsky.net | 1/12/2010 10:51:19 AM

    As part of the Strategy team, I worked with Alistair before leaving IBM. He's going to be a great GM, how could he not be, he's Canadian. Are you allowed to say who is taking over Development?

  1. 5  Andrew Pollack http://www.thenorth.com/apblog | 1/12/2010 10:51:34 AM

    Bob P. is a good guy, and I hope he meets with great success. Having him in a top sales role for Lotus is a good thing, and his personal skills will help in the constant give and take between sales, marketing, development, and management when it comes to setting priorities. I'll miss Bob in his role because he's good for us, but also because I'm less likely to interact with him as he moves on.

    Moving Lotus under solutions is not something I'm happy about, particularly since "Products" is now even more obviously focused on Websphere under LeBlanc, and this looks more and more to me as a continued devaluation of the core products. Further, I've never seen a Lotus specific services group that I could speak positively about. Lotus Consulting?

    In terms of reporting structure, I've heard good things about Alistair Rennie, particularly from those who've worked for him. I consider that a very good sign. On the other hand, I've made no secret that I didn't consider Mike R. good for Lotus when he was the GM, and can't think of any significant decision or product direction on which I agreed with him. I truly hope that changes, and will give him the chance to prove me wrong. It's happened before.

    The best things I could see happening here would involve Bob P. eventually taking over for Steve Mills, for Mike R. to be too busy with adminisphere stuff to get in Alistair R.'s way, and ultimately for the core products to get the attention they deserve.

  1. 6  Darren Duke http://blog.darrenduke.net | 1/12/2010 10:53:45 AM

    @5, "Adminisphere". now that made me chortle.

  1. 7  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 1/12/2010 10:57:52 AM

    @4 allowed? Hasn't been announced yet.

  1. 8  Keith Brooks http://www.vanessabrooks.com | 1/12/2010 11:09:31 AM

    Really sorry to see Bob move on. But Alistair coming from within is something that is needed as well, so excellent news going into LS10.

  1. 9  Volker Weber http://vowe.net/about | 1/12/2010 11:13:56 AM

    Ed, your boss would be qualified. And could make room for yourself. :-)

  1. 10  Andrew Pollack http://www.thenorth.com/apblog | 1/12/2010 11:16:50 AM

    I think I'd encourage everyone to take two minutes to re-read this:

    { Link }

  1. 11  Bob Picciano http://www.lotus.com | 1/12/2010 11:22:06 AM

    I will move to my new role knowing full well that Lotus is in the best of hands with Alistair and the team. We have been able to make great progress on things and it has really been a collaborative team effort. I'm proud of the team that Mike Rhodin built originally and the one that I will now leave for Alistair to lead. I know he will do a fantastic job and he has great support from across all of IBM to make things successful. He is a great IBM leader, a sincere friend, and a true champion for Lotus and WebSphere Portal.

    I want to express my enormous gratitude to all of you who took the time to share your thoughts on how we could make Lotus and IBM WebSphere Portal better. We listened carefully and I'm proud of the progress our community has made, and will continue to make. There have been tremendous successes and there are also many, many bright things on the horizon for this community... And we're still intently focused on listening and delivering.

    I am not going off to some far and distant place. I'm getting the enormous privilege to lead and work with the best Software team in the industry in a role that is closest to the client and our partners. I will always remain passionate about the importance of Collaboration and what it can offer to help transform and empower people to drive better business outcomes. I hope to continue to work with all of you in my new role as well. I'm also grateful to IBM for these opportunities and will bring all of my passion to the table, but now on a broader IBM portfolio.

    So thank you again for welcoming me and for all of your leadership. I look forward to seeing you all at Lotusphere!

  1. 12  Alan Dalziel  | 1/12/2010 11:31:58 AM

    Corry to hear Bob is moving on, but as had been said before I believe that Alistair is the right person for the job. I look forward to seeing what the future brings.

    @10 Did you notice that site is running on Domino?

  1. 13  Paul Mooney http://www.pmooney.net | 1/12/2010 11:41:47 AM

    @Bob P.

    You ability to communicate, reason with and understand the market, communities and realities were, in my opinion your greatest asset. I wish you well in the new position, but am sorry to see you go.

  1. 14  Julian Woodward http://blog.woowar.com | 1/12/2010 11:46:24 AM

    And now I've lost my bet that the next Lotus GM would be David Tennant ;-)

    Interesting and far-reaching news, certainly. Bob - I'm very excited to see what you can bring to your new wider remit, although I imagine that many others would agree with me when I say that I had hoped (against probability) you might be in the GM position for another year or two. However, I'm looking forward to seeing Alistair step into his new role: having a home-grown Lotus GM does seem the right thing to do at this point, and he is very highly regarded.

    Andrew @5 raises some very valid concerns about the way that the group will now be structured, and about the place that Lotus has in that group. Largely I share his concerns, although in mitigation we'd probably all be complaining loudly if Lotus had been clumsily and erroneously lumped into "middleware" as it has been before, so I'm tentatively optimistic (is that possible) about the new hierarchy.

    This news has certainly piqued my interest as to what the OGS will reveal.

    See you in - good grief - a very few days!

  1. 15  Alistair Rennie http://www.lotus.com | 1/12/2010 11:47:32 AM

    I want to join the whole community in congratulating Bob on his new role - its a critical one and I know my friend will be fantastic. I also know that he will still bleed yellow - and I have a video of him doing karaoke last year singing "I'm a Lotus man" that I am not deleting any time soon !

    I am also humbled by the responsibility of leading Lotus. We have made tremendous progress on all fronts from technology to Lotus Knows. The role of the community is more important than ever and you have my commitment to keep the channel as wide open as Bob has.

    We have an amazing set of content for Lotusphere. See you in Orlando !

  1. 16  jimmy bracco http://www.lotus911.com | 1/12/2010 12:01:17 PM

    Alistair, congrats on the new role! Im sure you will succeed as you have always done in your past roles. Likewise to my friend Bob, as I know the closer he gets to the top, the better for us all!!

    see you all in Orlando

  1. 17  Stuart McIntyre http://blog.collaborationmatters.com | 1/12/2010 12:14:17 PM

    Very very sad to see you move on, Bob. I had hoped you would stay with Lotus for as long as five years to continue the start you'd made. However, you've done a fabulous job for Lotus - thank you for all your hard work over the past 18 months or so. Congratulations on the new role - SWG Sales is in good hands.

    Alistair - many congratulations too on your new position. This sure makes Lotusphere 2010 an even more mouthwatering proposition!

  1. 18  John Vaughan http://jonvon.net | 1/12/2010 12:41:58 PM

    Bob's openness to the community and Lotus's execution concerning so much of what he heard will truly be missed. It is great to hear Alistair say that he wishes for Lotus to remain just as open. Clearly this is Bob's legacy, at least it is in my mind. It's not a small thing.

    I'm looking forward to the future!

  1. 19  Richard Schwartz http://www.poweroftheschwartz.com | 1/12/2010 12:52:29 PM

    First of all, congratulations to Bob, Alistair, et al.

    Secondly, I think we know from history that the organizational structure of IBM Software Group is of secondary importance to the people in the organizational structure and their understanding of the role and capabilities of Lotus. So, having the two most recent Lotus GMs in such visible senior roles in the organization seems to me like a Very Good Thing.

    Thirdly, I want to say that I think this is one of the best articles you've ever posted on this blog, Ed. I've been reading you for a long time, as have so many of us, and your normal standard is very high... but this one really gets top marks in all respects: timeliness, relevance, honesty, clarity, tone and style. This is about good as corporate blogging can get. Actually, no.... not just corporate blogging. It's about as good as corporate communications can get. And like you, Ed, I'm not just sucking up. Not just ;-)

    -rich

  1. 20  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 1/12/2010 1:33:10 PM

    @19 Thanks, Rich, those comments are much appreciated (especially considering this really *wasn't* on my radar until about 9:03 AM today!)

  1. 21  Kenny Smith http://blog.strongbackconsulting.com | 1/12/2010 2:08:47 PM

    As a business partner, I certainly appreciate the efforts of Bob. Lotus for way too long has been beaten over the head with Redmond's bogus and inaccurate marketing, and Lotus rarely pulled its head out of the sand to see who it was that was killing them. Now we have products that we are PROUD to work with, and much better marketing, which helps make selling it easier as well. IBM's done a good job of "softening the target" for us partners, but could do better. I sincerely hope that IBM's Lotus Marketing continues to improve and raise the awareness out there - a trend that truly started under Bob Picciano. Bob, thank you and good luck!

  1. 22  Tripp Black http://www.mindwatering.com | 1/12/2010 2:33:39 PM

    I remember some voicing doubts when it was chosen for an "outsider" to take the GM "stage" when Bob was chosen. I am not on the inside enough to comment on this transition either. Although, obviously Andrew and some seem to be. I do feel however, that service makes up a lot.

    However, I can say that the current "administration" has done a very good job addressing the image of how it communicates with us, the Lotus community. It has taken great strides to find out what we think and change things: everything from the download filenames on the Lotus Passport site to the best marketing at airports and the like since R5 Superhuman, to supporting OpenNTF in a huge way, to the Notes Design blog asking what we want every week with some part of Notes or Sametime.

    This blog is a huge piece of that. Thank you, Ed.

    To the new "administration", I can only say, keep up the change and improvement - they are service and culture centric. From the outside, it's good. Just like product features will make us renew our Passport, so does service and the "client touch".

  1. 23  Henning Heinz  | 1/12/2010 5:19:16 PM

    Ok, for all the positive stuff here. No personal offense and I know too little about IBM and am aware that IBM has been doing this for a very long time (so it is not unusual). Still I would prefer if IBM would keep their key positions a bit longer.

    Nonetheless I wish both success in their new positions and that you all will have a great Lotusphere.

  1. 24  Marky Goldstein  | 1/12/2010 6:17:18 PM

    What IBM's Software division really needs is a CTO / Chief Architect that brings something like the Eclipse vision to the server side. I think Erich Gamma would be a fit.

  1. 25  Andrew Pollack http://www.thenorth.com/apblog | 1/12/2010 7:52:20 PM

    @24 Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Bill Hume's team has done bangup work on the server for years. EVERY version of the server is better than the one before. The very LAST thing it needs is a grand new plan.

  1. 26  Nick Halliwell http://www.comware.net | 1/12/2010 10:15:26 PM

    I know that I am in a minority here, but changing the leader after just 2 years is not good, especially when its generally regarded he has done a good job.

    I would ask you all to think back 30 years (if you are old enough), when the local bank manager would most likely be in his job for 10+ years. The upside being that there were a much lower number of loan defaults as people borrowed money from someone they knew not just a faceless corporation as is the case now.

    People doing a job for just 2 years IS NOT GOOD, for anyone. It can take a long time to understand a product range, the people in the division and the market, you have just achieved this and then get moved on, before you have had time for your best work.

    I know that the modern way is this, but I for 1 do not believe that the modern way is always the best way. The world we live in now is a much worse place than it was 30 years ago, yes we have made dramatic improvements in many things.

    However we have global warming, this will hurt our children, we have certain diseases like cancer galloping out of control also diabetes, due to modern life and the wish for instant results. This quest for change is not good.

    Whilst I congratulate all concerned, I would wish that people stop for just a minute and really digest is this the best way of achieving the objective.

  1. 27  Nathan T. Freeman http://nathan.lotus911.com | 1/12/2010 10:21:44 PM

    @26 "The world we live in now is a much worse place than it was 30 years ago"

    Yeah, I sure do miss the constant looming threat of nuclear holocaust. :-/

    @25 - Isn't Bill Hume responsible for PM on both the server and the client?

  1. 28  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 1/12/2010 10:57:39 PM

    @27/25 - Bill leads Domino, Sandesh leads Notes.

  1. 29  Nathan T. Freeman http://nathan.lotus911.com | 1/12/2010 11:28:29 PM

    @28 I stand corrected.

  1. 30  Marky Goldstein  | 1/13/2010 8:31:44 AM

    In 5 years we should be able to have something like a "next generation" WebSphere Application server, a single one for a small company, that runs a coherent, modular, flexible and easy to install and maintain multi application web 2.0 (3.0) environment that is as easy to manage as Domino, but is built on a modern architecture. Currently we are not yet there, but more important is the target. To get there, IBM must move into the position of being a modern, young company that attracts those engineers that currently join Google. This is a major change in where we want to go and how we make it heard.

  1. 31  Timothy Briley  | 1/13/2010 8:34:44 AM

    @26 - I'm pretty sure that University of Tennessee football fans are agreeing with you this morning:

    { Link }

    ;)

  1. 32  David  | 1/13/2010 12:19:56 PM

    With no disrespect meant to Alistair, I was hoping Urban Meyer would step in while he takes a break from football and do for Lotus what he has done for the Gators.

    I can see the headlines:

    "Lotus Notes: Software National Champions"

  1. 33  Alan Lepofsky http://www.alanlepofsky.net | 1/13/2010 12:45:20 PM

    @30 see Project Zero { Link }

    "Delivering the best of agile Web 2.0 with PHP scripting, REST and Dojo in an integrated runtime and tooling package: IBM WebSphere sMash"

  1. 34  Diego Visentin  | 1/17/2010 7:06:55 PM

    @33 sMash/ProjectZero is an awesome product but IMO the current licensing (aka "price") has stopped its appeal