Mike Kudla is back

Mike Kudla had a blog and then he didn’t. His blog on BlogSpot got hijacked so he’s got a new one with the tag line I just don’t get it.

Mike recently visited IBM Westford and had a somewhat surreal experience. I know what that’s like. I left Iris in 2000 and returned in 2001 shortly after it had been absorbed into IBM. The physical building hadn’t changed much, many of the same people worked there, but the atmosphere was markedly different. Even though some of the Iris totems were around (the Elvis shrine, the neon Iris sign, the free snack machines, etc.) the Iris culture was quickly disappearing. It wasn’t all negative, just different. Merging into IBM meant giving up some things while gaining others. Not everyone is going to be happy with change, regardless of whether it’s for the better or not. Iris was independent for more than six years after the IBM acquisition. The Iris team was incredibly productive but was also very provincial. Independence was part of the culture from the beginning. Even though Notes was a Lotus-branded product, Iris had always been a separate and independent entity. Lotus didn’t even own Iris until the year before the IBM acquisition.

The “hands off” approach that IBM used when it acquired Lotus/Iris is no longer done. IBM Senior VP Steve Mills was quoted in an eWeek article back in 2003: “We now assimilate with speed. The Lotus subsidiary lived on for a period of time but ceased to make sense after a while. That was fine in ‘95, but it doesn’t make sense going forward.” When Rational was acquired in 2003 it was assimilated in less than a year.