lørdag den 15. august 2009

Jack Dangermond’s Digital Mapping Lays It All Out


Hvad ville verden være uden GIS og hvad ville GIS være uden ESRI ... For slet ikke at tale om hvad ville ESRI være uden Jack ...
/Sik


What would the world be without GIS and what would GIS be without ESRI ... Not to mention what ESRI would have been without Jack ...
/Sik


Quote

By DONNA HOWELL



Dangermond's endeavor started as a nonprofit institute. When it made more sense to turn the work into a regular business, he kept his service ideals.

"Someone once told me be interested, not interesting — that really clicked for me," Dangermond told IBD. He found that working with people on crucial matters was "a lot more success-focused" than just trying to address one's own needs.

Redlands, Calif.-based ESRI began with $1,100. It now has annual revenue of $1.2 billion from 300,000 customers, he says. The private firm has turned a profit for 40 years.

"We've never borrowed money," he said, conceding that this meant the company grew more slowly than it might have. "We had to be very, very, very conservative with money. ...It drove careful decision making. We were never at the (beck) of outside shareholders or banks. What that means is we could focus on our users and employees."

Dangermond, 63, goes against the grain on another front: He eschews incentives such as sales commissions. "People want to do the right thing; they want to be purposeful in their life," he said. "Throwing financial thresholds and goals — my experience in running at least my kind of organization is that it robs people of the culture of doing great things."

Growing up as the son of an immigrant plant-nursery owner in Redlands, he learned the value of building a business.

His father "only got a sixth-grade education, started as a gardener and realized that to get his kids through college he would have to start some kind of business," he said. "I learned ... the principles of never borrowing money, treating your employees right, those sorts of things."

1 kommentar:

  1. Hi Sik, although I very much appreciate your blog and read it frequently, I do find it rather ESRI-centric. Not a lot news about MapInfo, Intergraph or Smallworld is there?
    Jack D. has meant a lot to ESRI obviously, but be careful not to make too much of a person cult out of him.
    regs. /ulrik

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