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September 21, 2004 | Comments: (0)
Woody's words to live by (or Carly shows up)
Before he became fodder for the tabloids, Woody Allen used to say some pretty profound things. One of those words of wisdom was: "Ninety percent of life is just showing up." Sounds simple, but the truth is, it is far from it.
Last week, I showed up for Hewlett-Packard's StorageWorks user and reseller meeting in Houston. HP's storage group had taken it on the chin lately with less than stellar results. As a result, there was a little Missouri in the air. In other words, some users wanted HP to show them a little something. One user told me he wanted to see if HP could bring some of the same innovation to storage that he used to see out of Compaq.
The opening ceremonies were full of plenty of the typical rah-rah typical of these types of events. But the event did include Carly Fiorina, HP's sometimes embattled CEO. She spoke clearly and talked as if she happened down to the storage labs at HP one day and they told her about HP's Grid plans and she said, "Let's do it."
A little later, HP officials showed a clip from Crocodile Dundee. It was the scene when thugs attempt to rob Dundee with a small switchblade and Dundee says the words, "That's not a knife. This is a knife," as he wields a large Bowie-like blade. That, HP officials said, was their best illustration of how much better one of their products is than that of a competitor. Obviously, there was plenty of bragging, which is pretty easy to do when you're throwing your own party.
I spoke to several users and resellers last week and plenty were jazzed about the new technology. But one fact stood out for them more than any other: the fact that Fiorina showed up. That, more than jazzy new technology or future roadmaps, seemed to reassure many of the users and resellers. Proof, once again, that Woody Allen used to be more the wise man than the fool.
- Bob Francis (bob_francis@infoworld.com)
Posted by Jack McCarthy on September 21, 2004 04:34 PM
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