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- The Accelerator Conundrum
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Turning Around LeapFrog: CEO Jeff Katz (Part 5)
SM: How did LeapFrog miss the Internet? JK: This is an interesting question, one that I used to ask a lot. The company was, in 2001, very active with a product called MindStation which was a dial up hub where customers would subscribe and get learning applets from LeapFrog. It was a flop because it
Pioneering Video Conferencing: Polycom CEO Bob Hagerty (Part 6)
SM: What was your response to the customer demands? We created a suite of solutions. We bought Accord Networks which we felt was the best multipoint conferencing network. Then we had the endpoints in the multipoint. From within we built an IT application called GMS, which allowed us to run all of the equipment. We
Turning Around LeapFrog: CEO Jeff Katz (Part 4)
SM: While you were doing Orbitz, did you already join the board of LeapFrog? JK: No, I joined the board in April of 2005. SM: How did they find you? JK: Leapfrog had been in the process of restructuring its board of directors, moving from insider directors to independent directors. They were looking for somebody
Pioneering Video Conferencing: Polycom CEO Bob Hagerty (Part 5)
SM: You do serve the mid market, extensively. BH: We do. Below the strategic’s we have global accounts. Our solution is better than being somewhere in person, and that is a nice mantra. You want people to be productive when they are not in the same place. That is fundamentally our market. You have to
Turning Around LeapFrog: CEO Jeff Katz (Part 3)
SM: Was Saber under American Airlines or on its own? JK: Saber, by that time, was a public company. It was not controlled by American Airlines anymore. The Chief Financial officer at United had the idea that the airline industry needed to form its own competitor to Travelocity and Saber, otherwise the industry would be
Pioneering Video Conferencing: Polycom CEO Bob Hagerty (Part 4)
SM: What were some of the major milestones in building the company from $37 Million to $682 Million a year? BH: Founding the company, what Brian and Jeff did was important. They had a great creative design. That is not the exact design we introduced, but close. You would know if you saw the original
Pioneering Video Conferencing: Polycom CEO Bob Hagerty (Part 3)
SM: Sounds like an early version of WebEx! BH: It was a little different since WebEx is sharing files on a PC and this was displaying it in a conference room. WebEx was also a lot more successful than we were with that device. The audio conferencing grew and the company was profitable. SM: You
Turning Around LeapFrog: CEO Jeff Katz (Part 2)
SM: The Airlines had huge optimization problems. JK: They really did. In fact, there was a huge optimization problem on every front; how to set capital, prices, routes, seats, everything. I joined American Airlines in 1980, and over the course of 17 years at American Airlines I got sucked from one role to the next.
