[Am-info] papows resigns

[Mike Stephen]

>Paul Rickard wrote:
>
>>     According to news reports, Lotus CEO Jeff Papows has handed in his
>>resignation, effective February 1. You may recall earlier this year it
>>was uncovered that most qualifications listed on his resume were trumped
>>up or outright false, and at the time he was accused of being a Microsoft
>>mole/saboteur who had been screwing Lotus up for several years (Lotus
>>employees I've heard from hate him more than Gates). Just thought this
>>was interesting, even if it is somewhat off topic.. (Just call it a break
>>from bundling, if you will)
>
>Well, he *did* gripe about Microsoft in front of the Senate Judiciary 
>committee.  Even if he did screw up the company, I don't seem him 
>being a Microsoft mole.  Sometimes I wonder if this is a symptom of 
>smart people staying away from companies that are in Microsoft's 
>crosshairs (looking at Microsoft's other competition in this area, I 
>can't say Cowpland is any better than Papows).



 Papows was holding Lotus back. Now that he is gone, they can move forward. Too bad he was not dismissed when he 
stated thus: By Cara Cunningham

InfoWorld Electric Posted at 11:25 AM PT, Jun 24, 1996 CAMBRIDGE, Mass. 

While Lotus is following IBM's lead in working with Netscape, one area in which Lotus flatly refuses to take IBM 
orders is in implementing the OpenDoc standard. Microsoft's similar ActiveX technology is vastly superior, Papows 
said, and Lotus holds no hope for this competing component document specification's future. "I hate to say it, 
but Microsoft has done a wonderful job with OLE 2. We're very ActiveX- and Java-centric, and we're not doing a 
thing with OpenDoc," he said. "It's important to IBM, but we don't think it will matter; we've agreed to disagree 
[with IBM]." 


--------- My reply..... 


Please submit this note to Mr Papows regarding his statement of Monday 24th June 1996, as quoted in Infoworld. I 
find his statements to be reprehensible and destructive to many in the ISV ranks who have toiled for the past 
three years to finally gain some respect in the popular press regarding OpenDoc. In one fell swoop Mr Papows has 
tubed all the efforts to date. The real point of my dissatisfaction is the fact that Lotus will see no gain from 
this statement and the only effect this will have is to upset many other small independent software vendors. The 
only possible explanation is a requirement of Mr Papows to see his name in the press. At the detriment of both 
his parent company IBM and all others who are diligently working to give the computer industry a new open 
standard. This can only be seen as vandalism at its worst. If Mr Papows had any concern for anyone other than 
himself, he would have said nothing. No one would have been offended. His remarks did more than embarass Lotus, 
they also embarassed IBM. However IBM has enough money and resources that it will have little overall effect. IBM 
can and will suffer potential millions of dollars of losses that may be indirectly associated with this 
statement. However the real crime here is the potential destruction of many unassociated ISV's that will suffer 
as a result of this silly example of Papows bravado. Many other people on the net are very upset with Mr Papows, 
and as a result, there are many people wondering why this man still has a job.... I would like to add my name to 
that list as well. There are many others who would be quite capable of fulfilling the role he fills at Lotus. I 
suggest that Mr Papows be sent packing ASAP!!! 
                  
>From the Desk of Mike Stephen


>From the Desk of Mike Stephen