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- The Accelerator Conundrum
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eric benhamou
Eric Benhamou & the Turnaround of 3Com (Part 12)
SM: Is this when you began to close the gap on Cisco? EB: There was one play that we used which enabled us to close in on Cisco, and we called it Boundary Routing. Cisco was driven to more complex solutions than us. They positioned routing as something of a magic art, very complicated and
Eric Benhamou & the Turnaround of 3Com (Part 11)
SM: Did the market understand your positioning as an integrated networking solution? EB: I think they did. Of course we were coming from behind in routers, and we were behind SynOptics in hubs, and we were behind others in single categories. We started to strengthen our position in all our segments, and this helped because
Eric Benhamou & the Turnaround of 3Com (Part 10)
3Com started growing revenues again in 1992 on the strengths of new products. The company grew about 15 fold in a decade, in terms of revenues, and became profitable again. SM: That was a golden age in networking! EB: Yes, and shareholder value went from the million range to billion range. It was fun, because
Eric Benhamou & the Turnaround of 3Com (Part 9)
SM: One question about your managing the board during that difficult period. What did you learn from that process, and how did the board react positively, negatively, especially looking back today? EB: It was very gutsy on the part of the board to ask me to take the lead on this company. I had never
Eric Benhamou & the Turnaround of 3Com (Part 8)
SM: In general, was the workforce at 3Com more aligned with your vision than to Krause’s? EB: It was a split workforce. We had some computer experts, and we had some networking experts. What I ended up doing was to choose one – we could not do both. We built upon our roots at Bridge,
Eric Benhamou & the Turnaround of 3Com (Part 7)
Eric takes over as CEO of 3Com, and as a first item of business, makes some hardline choices. SM: What catalyzed the CEO change at 3Com? EB: The board realized something needed to be done. In 1989, my two partners at Bridge, Bill Caraco and Judy Estren, left out of frustration. They realized this was
Eric Benhamou & the Turnaround of 3Com (Part 6)
After the merger with 3Com, the company faced some significant internal challenges. There were two opposing business strategies, and clearly only one could be followed. This set the stage for Eric, not yet 35 years old, to become the CEO. SM: Was the 3Com merger when Metcalfe was running it? EB: Bill Krause, Metcalfe was
Eric Benhamou & the Turnaround of 3Com (Part 5)
Here Eric details several significant happenings. Not only does he discuss the development of Bridge and the IPO, but also the birth of networking as a recognized market, as well as the merger with 3Com. SM: Where you running Bridge during the IPO? EB: I was not the CEO, but I was one of the
