AOL hired John McKinley from Merrill Lynch as their new CTO this week.
If it was possible to read the unspoken subtext of some of the prepared statements made by McKinley, and by Joe Ripp, AOL’s Vice Chairman, would additional meanings would be revealed? As a former AOLer, let me speculate on what the subtexts of the prepared statements might be.
McKinley:”What struck me most was the renewed passion within the AOL organization. There is an energy and a spirit of innovation that, coupled with AOL’s historical competencies, make it an exciting place to be.”
What this might really mean: “They’re desperate for a guy like me. This place is so screwed up, I can have a huge impact.”
Ripp:”John has an extraordinary reputation as a strategic thinker and has an intuitive grasp of how new and existing technologies can address the needs of the consumer. In addition, John has helped some of the largest companies in the world implement ambitious technological efforts while maintaining strong fiscal discipline.”
What this might really mean: “Given how bad our numbers look to the rest of AOLTW, we can’t have the extraordinary spending on the product side we’ve allowed this year as we’ve cut $100MM from other parts of the organization. We need to rein them in now.”
AOL hired John McKinley from Merrill Lynch as their new CTO this week.
If it was possible to read the unspoken subtext of some of the prepared statements made by McKinley, and by Joe Ripp, AOL’s Vice Chairman, would additional meanings would be revealed? As a former AOLer, let me speculate on what the subtexts of the prepared statements might be.
McKinley:”What struck me most was the renewed passion within the AOL organization. There is an energy and a spirit of innovation that, coupled with AOL’s historical competencies, make it an exciting place to be.”
What this might really mean: “They’re desperate for a guy like me. This place is so screwed up, I can have a huge impact.”
Ripp:”John has an extraordinary reputation as a strategic thinker and has an intuitive grasp of how new and existing technologies can address the needs of the consumer. In addition, John has helped some of the largest companies in the world implement ambitious technological efforts while maintaining strong fiscal discipline.”
What this might really mean: “Given how bad our numbers look to the rest of AOLTW, we can’t have the extraordinary spending on the product side we’ve allowed this year as we’ve cut $100MM from other parts of the organization. We need to rein them in now.”