As I was wondering around in hot and humid Manhattan last week, and window-shopping at Barnes and Noble on 5th Av, I came across this book shown here on the left, by Sam Wyly, a self-made billionaire from Dallas, Tx. Fresh from the Press, it was piled at B&N among many other recent book editions about management and business. I purchased it in a heartbeat! Although, I have to admit, I had quite mixed feelings about the author at the time of the purchase. At that particular moment, I also could not suspect that I'd read that book at all, almost in heartbeat as it appeared, in the cabin darkness of night flight AA172 to Brussels few days later. Le'me explain...The Author Sam Wyly was, among other things, a co-founder of Sterling Software; a company that I worked for between 1997 to the day the 'Wyly clan' sold us to Computer Associates in March 2000. Le'me tell you: When you get sold to another company it ain't easy. You gotta prove yourself all over... you gotta make new friends, discover the new power insiders to lean on, build everything from scratch. Trust me, I know. I got sold like this THREE times in my career! There's always some positive news in a sale though. You get rid of some folks who used to depress you in the previous company... it's like a fresh start and you get careful not to repeat past mistakes again, if you can... that's something happening as a rule in most takeovers. So not all is that bad...
My work experience at Sterling Software was immense! If that was the only company I had ever worked for (I was there just short of three years or, less than 10% of my working career so far), I'd say it was worth the ride more than anything; in the words of ex-colleague and dear friend Mario Mees, who now works for monstrous Microsoft, "a month's planning session at Sterling was worth a full year MBA at Harvard", even better than that, I'd add. Ninety percent of what I ever learned about best management practices I learned there. Early in my blogging adventures I even started writing stuff about that experience. I don't have to anymore. Sam Wyly done this, way better, in his book shown here.
I haven't known Sam personally at all! He was never there. He was the BoD chairman but even under my worldwide Group President's hat that I carried in the last six months before the sale to CA, I was far too insignificant and remote for him to deal with. He only dealt with Sterling Williams himself, our company CEO. Even the Sterling Software COO, Geno Tolari, my last boss there and a great friend ever since, didn't have much to do with Wyly. Sam was a hidden watcher who eventually decided to get rid of the company and sell it to CA (that was starving for another high profile acquisition at the time). All that before the Internet Bubble burst! In which sell transaction Wyly made a cool 4 Billion green ones for the investor community, the company Directors and (of course) himself and his brother Charles. Bringing the both of them (74 and 75 yrs old respectively, today) closer to the Forbes billion dollar mark they both so much have been fighting for. Entrepreneurship is mostly about money and power, right? Don't let 'em fool you if they claim otherwise.
Many SSW investors (and Directors) got a big smile on their face at the CA announcement. All except most active employees... As the saying went those days, kinda like, ABC (Anyone But CA). Meaning, avoid being acquired by (CA Chairman) Charles Wang and his infamous streetfighters (not all true market rumors though, as I discovered much later... some of my best friends today are among those 'impossible' predators the market rumors had it all about - so, always judge for yourself... never trust a gossip). Anyways...
If you Google 'Sam Wyly' or, even better, read his Wikipedia article, you'll learn much about his character. I believe that he, like anyone else with a human body and mind, has both strengths and weaknesses. There have been in times quite a few controversial articles against the Wyly brothers. And if, God forbid, McPalin wins next November's elections, then, something he did to the McCain campaign in 2000 (in order to help his buddy George W win the Republican Party Presidential Nomination) might come back to haunt him... Like gettin' the SEC or a Giuliani-like DA character up his ass... payback time!
Of course, because of his current 'power', generous philanthropy, and social/business relationships, that he actually earned as a self made entrepreneur, he has much more visibility and impact on the world and the media than any commoner like you and I. Someone who can claim personal acquaintances with Ross Perot and George W. Bush has got to be 'somebody' right? Them big shots wouldn't bother writing testimonials on the back of his book if he was a 'nobody', right? Let's see...
Anyways, I can't verify this for a fact as I never worked side by side with the man, the ways he describes about running his businesses are things I saw and experienced in real. Not always with success but most of the times. And his management philosophy seems the correct one. Not too original and basically it's all about fundamental management integrity, delegation of responsibility and management empowerment, coming out of classic textbooks starting with P. Drucker and some great men's biographies (Walton, Carnegie) but, the thing is, what he writes seems to be working. I saw that at Sterling Software, where, despite many moments of stress and unbearable pressures, eventually turned out the right way.
When I worked there I worshipped Sterling Williams like a semi-God! Reading Wyly's memoirs now, I've got a serious dilemma. How much of that management philosophy was inspired by his personal contribution and how much was Sterling's? Wyly claims in the book most of that was his. Those days, I thought Wyly was a lucky freaktard who didn't do that much other than play golf, screw around in sportswear and make billions watching the rest of us sweat. And that Sterling Williams had to deserve all the credit... Well, I'm not so sure anymore...
PS. To all folks who worked at SSW, this is a must read... take my word for it. And it reads real smooth. Sam (or his ghostwriter) seem to be great storytellers.
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