Before this post begins some thoughts that have been circulating in my mind are going to be commented on. I held this from posting for a few days because sometimes I write stuff and for various reasons never post it. Will this be counterproductive to what I wish to achieve? Do I really know enough about the situation to put my opinion out there and not look stupid? Recently I had to reconsider my hubris towards John Fox because it is darned hard to get at the truth many times. When you have a blog and people know you do and you say it like you see it some doors open and others close. At times you have to ask why is this person even speaking to me and what is their agenda? Will I be stepping on toes I should not be or causing more problems than solving?
There are some in upper SE/Siemens management I trust to tell me within reason what is going on. There are times though that this is accompanied with admonitions not to speak about it so I don’t. But at least this kind of information allows me to concentrate on things that are not being worked on and bypass things that the public may think are not being worked on but I know they are. Publicity and Marketing is a kind of never-never land for me with Siemens and SE. There are changes but it is SO glacial. Some very good and concerned individuals fight the good fight and each little increment of forced change for the better takes more effort than can be imagined. That these things have to be fought for boggles my mind since all it would do would be to increase sales which in my silly little world is a good thing. I take my hat off to two individuals in particular, you know who you are, and I am thankful for their works in the trenches. At least I am seeing ads and mentions of SE fairly regularly now although at a subdued level. And there is a philosophical change in how SE is to be marketed which I see evidence of in realty but can’t talk about yet.
It seems as though campaigns are thought up and then nearly still-born and quickly fade away and the sounds of numerous crickets takes center stage again. No consistency and no long-term planning. The very idea of a consistent themed multi-year campaign to pursue a goal is an alien concept. So I think long and hard about who to blame for this. The SE guys are under the auspices of Siemens so therefore the true root of the problems is with Siemens corporate and not SE. Just like it was when SE was under UGS. I know some long time employees and some relatively new ones that have great ideas that never see the light of day. So rather than trying to figure out exactly who and where the problems stem from I have made a decision. The people at the very top of Marketing and Publicity and Social Media by the positions they hold are the ones I am going to blame from now on.
This is on their watch and a few scenarios come to mind. First is that they are perfect examples of the Peter Principle. Second is that they know things are not right but to chicken to fight or don’t know how to fight for what is right. The third is that they are a part of corporate culture that thrives on meetings that never go anywhere and never produce much except the time of the next meeting. I sometimes wonder if their idea of productivity is measured by the sheer number of meetings an individual or department can create and not on actual worthwhile results.For example the idea of having an equivalent of the SW CWSE for SE users has come up again. So it gets talked to death and extraordinarily stupid objections like won’t we be liable if we certify someone and they screw up are tossed up. Quite frankly my opinion is that these types of objections are merely justifications for doing nothing from people who don’t want to be bothered with having to do something. There are always tons of reasons for why we can’t do something and never ones on how to make it happen. This I have personally witnessed. And then of course we get to have many more meetings to discuss all the ramifications of these objections. These people could not piss in a pot without a meeting. Fact is there are so many certifications out there that the idea that this was even brought up boggles my mind and certifications are an indication of ability not a guarantee and they have to know this. This third category is by far the worst and it is the one I fear has entrenched itself. I conclude therefore that the three individuals mentioned below by virtue of their positions are the chief contributors to or enablers continuing the problem.
I sincerely hope that someone in authority over them thinks about what this trio and more importantly what this corporate mindset they represent has cost Siemens in the last three or four years since Dassault has begun self-immolation of SW. Gentleman, if you read this can you dispute the minimum lost potential numbers I bring up below? Further do you think in this day and time you could have used this extra $125,000,000.00+ somewhere like perhaps on your balance sheet? Your own people are stabbing you in the back.
On to the post as written on 1-29-14
Heading into this SWW 2014 convention provides opportunity for those with the ability to plan ahead. Sadly this does not appear to be the case with some companies and so I have some questions for David “Moe” Taylor, Chris “Curly” Kelley and Jeff “Larry” Nercesian, Siemens Publicity, Marketing and Social Media wonks and covert agents of SMOTHER. What sort of plans if any have you made to capitalize on this marvelous opportunity Dassault has given you once again? Do you intend as the heavyweight Siemens PR Marketing and Publicity tag team champions to win once again by just not showing up to defend the belt? How many years has it been now since Dassault has decided to initiate their self destruct program and you refusing to take advantage of it? I count three years of golden opportunities that can’t be recaptured and were pretty much wasted. Do you have somewhere in your cloistered little world views any desire to be victorious or do you intend to just sit on your rears and do nothing again? Perhaps Siemens could just fire you all and come out ahead. Heaven only knows that as far as I am concerned not having your three spots filled with the caliber of talent you seem to deliver would be more beneficial than having cash sucking pot holes in the way of progress on the road to victory for yet another year and squandered opportunity.
I am glad you asked, since I know you really care about my opinion, just what got Dave wound up again today. Well check this out.
Then read this if your collective Attention Deficit Disorders will let you get through the whole article.
http://solidsmack.com/cad-design-news/need-know-solidworks-mechanical-conceptual-future-solidworks/
How is it that Autodesk has all those yummy ads there at just the right time? Some people can evidently figure out there are some opportunities here. Now read all the comments and count how many different programs are mentioned as of 1-29 at 10:43 PM. How is it that Solid Edge is not counted in this number?
I probably will never talk in quite these hostile terms again about marketing and publicity for Siemens but today I am mad. You long-term grossly incompetent individuals appear to once again have a greater desire for familiar failure you have grown accustomed to as long-term employees than a desire to achieve victory over your competitors. Hey wait a minute, you do realize that Dassault IS your competitor don’t you??
And you Mr Kelley have today a post about Wanna. Mr esteemed Senior Director of Online Marketing and Customer Advocacy Kelly I am trying to figure out what wanna really means in your world. Don’t wanna win, don’t wanna do my job, do wanna get my paycheck. Could you please tell me why once again after years of this nonsense and considering your position the apparent policy is to pursue failure once again? Is it because you wanna it this way?
All three of you by your job titles are failures as far as I am concerned. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that SE should have tens of thousands of additional subscribers if people like you just did what you were paid to do competently. Are you holdovers from the esteemed school of Bruce Boes Marketing theories? I am beginning to wonder if instead you were the clowns that thought up that whole Velocity mess. And I don’t want to hear any self exonerating defense offered about rules and regulations and finger-pointing bleats about why things can’t be done. I heard enough of that garbage from that scared of his own shadow Cubical Guy in Huntsville. He might not be in a position to correct things BUT the three of you are. If you have the intelligence to discern that things are not right and you do not fight to make it right you are on the side of WRONG. I am not sure you three even realize this though and I struggle to try to fathom just what goes through your minds and just what you think is proper and sufficient to capably fullfill your job requirements.
By my math you all are in large part responsible for the loss to Siemens of way over $100,000,000.00 in sales volume. Figure $5,000.00 as a nice even round number that is not the cheapest but certainly far from the most expensive seat of SE times 20,000 yields 100M. Now add to this one years maintenance of say 20,000 x $1,250.00 brings the total to $125,000,000.00 lost sales your incompetence has contributed to Siemens bottom line. And of course we are not getting into any ancillary sales that typically would accompany this. Lets say that 5000 SE users decide to get Camworks. Retail on my particular flavor was $13,500.00 and would be pretty typical. I come up with a grand total of $125,000,000.00 that your Marketing and Publicity and Social media has cost Siemens and some part of an additional $67,500,000.00 from Camworks and you Larry, Curly and Moe by your titles are right square in the positions that have caused this abject failure to produce. Yes I know that technically Camworks is not a Siemens product but you benefit through association financially I just don’t know how much. The few times I have brought this up with Siemens people I am dissed with HEY that’s not OUR product. Are you people to stupid to see the community of aps connection and to dumb to see how it has benefited Solid Works over the years? CAMWorks is guilty of poor marketing too but I tend to think this may be because they stretched a little past their limit to produce CW4SE and they can’t do much right now. This clearly is not Siemens problem.
I think it is worthwhile to put these numbers out there. They are not fantasy numbers and I think it is worthwhile to quantify the damage you have helped to create. I wanna see something happen this year besides another last-minute frenzy to get half-baked short-lived crap done for the University and then the rest of the year slides into oblivion AGAIN.
Let me ask you three something. Do you think that the apathetic user base and community just might stem in part from no expectations of worthwhile things from you guys? We users in general love the software itself but outside of that you give us nothing to rally around or be proud of. Where users have been shown something real like the University they have responded. Somehow I have to think this was taken out of your hands and that is why it works. And you bring this loser attitude to sales and marketing and we see how well that has worked. Way to go wannabes. There, another kind of wanna.
PS, by the way since you may not grok this I will fill you in on something. This extra 125M+ was the icing on the cake that you all helped Siemens to lose because there were no additional developmental costs involved here. Just an ad and promotion budget you either would not fight for or were too incompetent to demonstrate the value of or unable to develop a cogent strategy for marketing SE.
Wannabes, another kind of wanna for sure.
Machined Audio Horn Lens 