Host: I’m fascinated by the fact that you spent 12 years at HP. And HP was known to have, of course, the HP way, a very very strong culture. How has that affected your running of a company like Aruba, that's a small company that's very quickly growing. Does that culture translate easily, or not...
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Host: When you were a student, and here you were a biology student, and a physics student, what do you wish you had learned when you were in school, or gotten exposed to, that would have helped you as you’re in your position now? Dominic Orr: First I have to think about how I was like when I wa...
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Host: So how do you manage your work-life balance when you’re trying to go so quickly and accomplish so much? And has that changed? Has it changed over time? Dominic Orr: First of all, I want to have a disclaimer. I'm not a perfect example of this work-life balance thing. And second of all, I r...
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Host: You are the CEO. Who do you turn to for advice and guidance when you end up with a really challenging situation? Dominic Orr: Do I need to worry about my install base? Well, first of all, I have a very strong board of directors. And I actually pick, within the board of directors, two gent...
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Host: Now, one of the interesting things about Aruba is that you have decided to come head to head with some very big giants in the industry, such as Cisco. Now, how does a small company have the confidence and the strategy to go against a big giant like that? Dominic Orr: We do day to day, fro...
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I would say, if you ask a lot of people who’ve gone through the Ph.D. thing and then in management, they would say, "Well, it trained me in my analytical capability to question and so on." That is true, but it is very generic. You can go through a lot of other routes to gain that analytical.. F...
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Okay, the first question, if I understand it is: Is it, in general, a hopeful case that because the incumbents are so busy with the inertia, that is, keeping the success, that the small company should rightfully have a hope to get a crack in some of the business that they either architecturally,...
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I’ve done this twice, once in 1999, and once in 2007, eight years apart. First of all, I'd like to comment on the dramatic environment between when I took Alteon public, and Aruba. In 1999, the mood was so vibrant, right? And then you always go for this IPO roadshow, you go into Boston and Fide...
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The question is a little bit more detailed explanation of how the HP way can be applied in the startup environment, and of all the HP way values, what tend to work, and what, not as well. They do three-day seminars on subjects like that. And for me, I just focused.. I think if you get t...
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I would say that one surprising thing is that people really — when they are very powerful and very experienced, it’s amazing how hard it is to change, in terms of the reactions and behavior. That is one thing that I learned over time. The other thing has to do with my management s...
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I would say there’s one pattern that I see that is different, domestic in the US, particularly in the Silicon Valley, compared to the rest of the world. And then I would like to perhaps highlight some similarities. I think that there is more similarity than there is difference. The majo...
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So the issue of whether pre-public and post-public, what are the trade-offs. The trade-off is very simple. When you are competing with large giants, respectable ones, for that matter, as we are, your credibility is very important, because you’re going to go in, and you're going to offer...
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