Scott McNealy at the Cronkite School

Today's event was a special treat for me: Scott McNealy addressed ASU students and faculty, taking questions, offering advice, and as always giving his frank and colorful observations on technology, business, ethics and just about anything else that got caught in the stream-of-consciousness. Scott is widely respected and regarded as one those legendary Silicon Valley personalities who is as controversial as he is successful. The audience was primarily Journalism or MBA students - most of them enrolled in our Digital Media Entrepreneurship courses or projects.  

The McNealy Primer (for our Business and Journalism Students):
For those who may be too young, busy, naive or living in a cave without any access to a network or consumer electronics device, here's what you need to know: Scott McNealy is the Co-Founder and Chairman of Sun Microsystems, a company so brash that the 4 person founding team - with a grand total of 3 years business experience combined - reinvented Unix, took on the largest computer hardware companies in the world by making powerful Workstations, and then took on the microprocessor industry by creating a more powerful microprocessor not by making them more complex - but by making them do simple operations - blindingly fast.  

All of this was done while building a company with nearly $14 Billion in revenues, over 30,000 employees, $3 Billion cash in the bank, and over 20 years has been cash-flow positive despite enduring 3 economic downturns.

Oh, and Sun's mission and motto? "The Network is the Computer". It's important to note this visionary statement was crafted in the 1980's - a lifetime before Netscape, the world wide web, and a decade before Mr. Gore invented the Internet**.

Then, ostensibly out of left field, Sun blurred the lines between operating system and application by inventing something called "Java." If you've taken more than three breaths in your life or left the house for more than an hour, then you have been touched by a product that depends on Java. If Google had Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates reaching for the Maalox, then the Microsoft-Sun saga must've driven them into primal scream therapy.   Java, with "write once run anywhere" threatened to make Windows irrelevant.

Using Java as his primary weapon of choice, Scott McNealy almost single-handedly caused the accelerating Microsoft-Borg- Cube to stop, turn around, and launch a  full scale counter- attack with nearly every weapon in its arsenal - to the point where Microsoft broke the law and elicited a full scale DOJ Anti-Trust investigation, and a separate class action suit driven by the attorney generals in half the United States.  Java was the domino that started a chain reaction that came within inches of breaking Microsoft up into pieces.

When The Borg next tried to assimilate the cable television industry as it did the PC industry, Scott was there waiting with Sun. Microsoft threw $10 Billion and launched an army set on dominating cable television in the US - spawning a high profile matchup between Gates and McNealy that was fodder for magazine headlines for years. Today, the dust has settled, and there is barely one single cable box deployed using Microsoft technology. Instead, the official standard for advance television in North America, Europe and Asia is based on (you guessed it) Java.

Epic personalities and epic battles like these seem to occur only in other times and places, and seem like mythology. Several books have been written about Scott McNealy and these exploits. Check out: High Noon: The Inside Story of Scott McNealy and the Rise of Sun Microsystems

 First Hand Experience

More than ten years ago, I got a surprise call from Sun wanting to hire me. I wasn't flattered; I was confused. There must be some mistake. They were an engineering workstation company. I worked for Disney, the most respected entertainment brand on the planet. I said no. A year later they called back and said that their brand new computer language, microprocessors, and workstations will change media, entertainment - everything. Yeah right. They invited me to see Scott speak, and by the end of his talk all I could say is "when do I start?"

I was lucky enough to work for Sun just in time to celebrate the first 100 days of Java, and the hockey-stick growth of every aspect of technology businesses. Boring for a TV/Entertainment guy. Not when you consider that "Toy Story" - the Disney/Pixar movie that ushered in a renaissance of animated feature films - was created using Sun processors, servers and workstations. Until then, animated films were hand rendered by artists, and took years to produce. Now Disney, Pixar, Dreamworks and others can produce a major animated blockbuster every few months.

Later - I had the honor of working closely with 2 members of the Sun Senior Executive team and directly experienced Scott in action. He's the real thing.

Serving as CEO of Sun for 22 years, Scott McNealy is one of the longest serving high-tech CEOs in history. During this time he ran a sprawling public company while managing and mentoring some of the most talented executives in the world -  and the most brilliant - including John Gage, and co-founders Bill Joy and Andy Bechtolstein, possessing a combined IQ rivaling the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Executives that have worked for Scott went on to become CEOs at some of the most respected public companies in the world. When Ballmer starts tossing office chairs through his window these days you can be sure its because of Google. Eric Schmidt - the CEO behind the whiz kids' and Google's legendary rise to supremacy -  was a 10+ year veteran of Sun Microsystems - rising to CTO during Sun's formative years and Java heyday.

 McNealy at ASU

So when Scott McNealy speaks before a room full of budding MBAs and journalists, what does he talk about? Anything he wants, of course. He started by talking about his current passion for user generated content and digital media - something spot-on relevant to our program at the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship.

Scott then gave some interesting and rare insights as to what it is like to build a $14 Billion company, be CEO of a public company, and be a high profile 'personality'. When journalists write about Scott, the terms you usually here are brash, outspoken, unfiltered, playful and competitive but you rarely hear the word "arrogant".

While his reputation is such that he sometimes seems to "run off at the mouth until he says something controversial and inflammatory", we learned today that most of this is all a deliberate and conscious choice. He knows exactly what he is saying, what he is doing, and the intended effect he wants his words to have.

McNealy talked at length about transparency and ethics, and what journalism looks like from the perspective of the subject, and the chasm sometimes between what gets reported, what really happens. Ethics was an important aspect of his talk, and indeed every aspect of his business and personal life. If there was one message Scott seemed to want to impart to the group - it was about acting ethically in every single thing you do, every day.

Fascinating insights and experiences for both MBAs and journalism students - and for professors too.   Success, innovation, focus, and ethics - if these business and journalism students were meeting, in-person, a successful executive and entrepreneur for the first time - I'm grateful they met Scott McNealy.

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 ** In all fairness, that quip cannot go without a clarification. While I am not his biggest supporter, Al Gore never literally said he invented the Internet. This misquote has been improperly and unfairly attributed to him, and I don't want to proliferate this myth. If any student is reading, the correct answer is that CJ Cornell invented the Internet. Yes, it will be on the mid-term. ; )