BigWorld, this will no doubt get me really flamed, but I do believe that Malcolm should be in charge of IP. He is uniquely qualified to coordinate and translate backshop work into verbiage and get the protection afforded by the patent process.
Over that past couple of years I have reached the conclusion that we need a 'vacuum cleaner salesman type" as either Director of Marketing or even as CEO. I am frequently accussed of attacking Malcolm, but that is not actually the case. I was harder on Dell, for instance, but Dell reached the realization that the job had outgrown his ability and worked out a way to leave where he could still contribute. Unfortunately, that agreement was not honored or our stock would probably be at a much higher multiple.
The lack of meny has always been a major roadblock. In the earlier years Lawrence was able to move enough stock through a couple of helpers to keep the doors open. Unfortunately he was never able to swing the big deal to bring sufficient resources to allow a full fledged frontal assault on the market. Lawrence was outgrown by the job about four to five years ago. If you know the real story behind the Hemco fiasco you will probably agree that he was overwhelmed by the position by then. Of course, Malcolm must also shoulder some of the blame in that cluster flop.
You have no idea how many times Lawrence has told me about the big deal about to come down and then used his seemingly unending talent for shifting blame elsewhere when the deal didn't happen.
I haven't discussed anything with Kurt so I don't know what is happening in that arena.
AI
