One person's perspective about the Wave disaster and whether it has at last ended:
We can argue SKS's motives and madness for the next century. All that was really required, was to see and hear him set a deadline, miss it, never explain---and then go on to make a new deadline for the same topic (break-even, big deals, etc.).
After a dozen or so of these, even the dim could see there was no value in listening to SKS, or in parsing anything he said because of the inaccuracy, unreliability and probably pure mendacity.
It is results that count and SKS never really got satisfactory results beyond a handful of contracts, i.e., Dell--not in more than 10 years. What was really instructive, was when someone cornered SKS and asked about past missed deadlines, the orders in hand, etc. What was forthcoming, was a spew of non-relevancy, mixed in equal parts with rambling, incoherent thoughts and outright lies that made no sense whatsoever and contained nothing in the way of explanation.
On the rare occasion when he did explain (Thai floods causing the lack of sales of Wave-equipped SEDs) it was far from the truth of the matter. In that instance, when the floods receded and new factories were re-built, SEDs with Wave products inside were still just as missing as before the rains came.
So....one would think things would be different now, right? No. The same people who got the Wave story so wrong for so long are still leading the debate elsewhere, still filtering for "positiveness," rather than Mr. Colbert's "truthiness."
The same kinds of minds who invented the category "past facts" as a creation that could 'disappear' huge gaps in logic about Wave--are still orchestrating and manipulating what they believe to be Wave's rosy future.
The sad and bleak truth is SKS took so much from the company, that when he was finally fired, there is precious little for the new man to work with. Nevertheless, he has rolled up his sleeves and is giving it a good try.
But recapturing the 98% + losses under the SKS regime? I don't think it possible, unless something completely unforeseen occurs--again, not bloody likely.
Just initiating discipline and accountability is going to help. But that very help is going to inflame the imaginations of those who said Wave would be bigger than MS, Google, Intel, IBM, etc., combined. In other words, in the face of past disastrous results, any tiny future results will be inflated at the speed of light to instant LearJets and Vegas champagne again.
I think it will be a long time before Wave even begins to operate as a real company, rather than one selling future paper pipe dreams in return for nearly half a billion in cash.
In other words, for the hard-core believers, not much will have changed, IMO. Wave may have a future, but it will be a tortuous one, trying to claw back from the long and draining excesses of the previous mgt.
For those who count results rather than promises, I just don't think Wave in the near future is going to give us much to cheer about. Solms said half a year. I think that is way too charitable. Maybe he meant before we could see signs of a turn around.
In addition to the squandering of hundreds of millions and the personal pillaging and profiteering, there is the extremely bad reputation of Wave with its poses and pretensions working against it until there is a roadway built with successes, instead of unexplained serial failures.
All those fatuous press releases that drew in investors who thought Wave was on its way, the IBM-Intel PRs come to mind, along with the DoCoMo, memo of understanding and almost all of the other non-revenue bearing press releases Wave waved about--all of that will operate against any momentum and progress in the near future. People will be cynical about Wave for a long time, because the scam and the lies about imminent fabulous engagement went on for so long.
From my perspective, Wave is faced with the equivalent of climbing Nanga Parbat's Rupal Flank--a sheer 15,000 ft. cliff face, without equipment or experience. Yes, it is a bleak future I see, because we carry the heavy chains of the past with us. We will pay a long time for the mismanagement and lies coming from Wave over more than a decade.
Best wishes to all who still have hope and who persevere. I hope the dreams come true, even though I can't see how they possibly can.
Blue
