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A Tale of Two CEOs

John Obeto

One of the more interesting books I read at grammar school was “A Tale Of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens.

Excellent, excellent book.

I am going to borrow a paraphrase of that book’s title to describe this blog, naming it “A Tale Of Two CEOs”.

A Tale of Two CEOs
In August of 2012, after a very public beta period that lasted about 18 months, Microsoft released the [then] latest version of its desktop operating system, Windows 8.

Building on the touch functionality Microsoft had been seeding into its Oss since the late unlamented Microsoft Windows XP for Pen Computing – yes, the dimwit in charge of naming Microsoft products needs to be horsewhipped! – through Windows 7, Windows 8 possessed a brand new Start menu which took the place of the old Start button.

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What Acer CEO J.T. Wang did
Almost immediately, Acer CEO J.T. Wang went on a tear, and started denigrating the new operating system, and the accompanying new Microsoft Surface hardware.

I saw through his nonsense and tweeted this. (Pardon my typo. It was late at night, and I was tired.

Later in the day, I read another whine from him, and tweeted thusly:

It was as if Wang was unaware all along that Microsoft was working on a new, touch-enabled version of Windows, or more incredulously, that he was unaware that Microsoft was getting into the tablet space.

Yet, Mr. Want did not stop there.

In November, I responded to a tweet:

As you can see, I was adamant that Acer stop making comments, and build good systems.

Finally, in January, I tweeted the following in response to more words on the subject from Wang,

Basically, I felt – no, I knew – that all his complaining was to hide the fact that he was caught flatfooted, and still didn’t have a plan for Windows 8x, and for turning the fortunes of his firm around.

What Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanging saw
Opportunity.

That’s what he saw!

The contrasting behavior by Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing could not be starker!

Yang told people that Lenovo accepted the challenge delivered by Microsoft on hardware, and he was sure his company would rise to the occasion.

He also intimated that while the touchiness of Windows 8 posed challenges, Lenovo would solve that as well.

His company did rise to the occasion. They created and delivered several nice and well-made touch-based PCs and tablets over the next several months that it is not any surprise that they are now the global #1 in personal computing.

The Aftermath
A couple of weeks ago, Lenovo released their current earnings and financial report. Everything was up: sales, profits, market share, customer goodwill, and good vibes.

A couple of days ago, Acer released J.T. Wang as CEO.

There you go.

As to their cities, Acer is headquartered in New Taipei City, Taiwan, while Lenovo’s headquarters is in Beijing, China.

© 2002 – 2013, John Obeto for Blackground Media Unlimited

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