After about four months as interim CEO, working closely with Bob Komin, the management team, and the board, we’ve decided we are ready to start the search for a new CEO. I’ll be leaving day-to-day management of the company and continuing in my role on the board, including helping in the search to find a great CEO. I will also be continuing my work with my new company, LoveMachine. Bob will lead Linden Lab while we conduct the search. It’s been an intense few months of transition, and we all feel like we are in a better place now, with a clearer sense of direction and more focus, and are ready to bring someone new into the mix as a leader.
So sez Philip Rosedale today. I find this news interesting on two levels. Firstly, as Ciaran and others point out, it’s not surprising. Philip made it clear his return was an interim thing following the departure (voluntarily or otherwise) of one Mark “Target” Kingdon. Nor is it a surprise that Philip is “returning” to LoveMachine – the latter has been his first love for a goodly while, and one in some respects cannot fault him for wanting to “get back” to it.
And yet…the timing of the move is a little odd. In the general scheme of things, “interim” CEOs are brought in / step in to oversee a transitional period in a company – and it is very odd to see one depart when the transition is less than 50% done – and with a new CEO yet to be found, leave alone recruited, then it is more than fair to say the job is less than 50% done.
Indeed, it is also fair to say that the departure of an interim CEO during a transitional process can usually be taken as an indication that the CEO and the Board have had a difference of opinion and have reached an impasse of some form. Now, I’ve never been entirely sure that Philip’s original “departure” from the day-to-day running of Linden Research was as rosy as was portrayed at the time, coming as it did at the time when other Board members were becoming ever more belligerent towards the user base as a whole (vis-a-vis Kapor’s “step aside” speech at SL5B). And while you can accuse Philip of many things, he’s never lost his respect for the SL user community as a whole; as such, his attitude could be said to be in sharp contrast of that of other board members at the time – and this contrast might have encouraged his “departure” from the CEO role. Could it be that the very same contrast has come up again, forcing his “premature” departure from the interim role?
Or could the reason be a lot simpler to explain: that he has in fact already “found” the next CEO of Linden Lab in the form of Bob Komin – but the Board have yet to accept / appreciate this?
Lets face it, Bob Komin has been effectively running the company alongside Rosedale since the latter “returned” so dramatically. It was Komin (apparently) that spearheaded the staff cuts and the realignment of much of LL’s satellite business (SLE, etc.). He’s be brought out of the relative shadows for in-world meetings, and his name has been extensively linked with things like the “back to basics” campaign as much as Rosedale has hitched his own name to that particular wagon.
Now Komin is moving from a position of co-pilot alongside Rosedale to actually piloting the company on a day-to-day basis. Given this, I can’t help but wonder if he is not being given a chance (by Rosedale himself) to demonstrate to the Board that not only does he have the wherewithal to make the hard choices and drive through extensive cuts – he can also lead the company as a whole, managerially as well as fiscally.
Let’s face it; bringing-in a CEO from outside is fraught with risk – as the Kingdon Years demonstrate. Second Life – let alone the quirky nature of Linden Lab – is not the easiest thing for one to get one’s business head around; so bringing anyone in from outside is a massive gamble. This is where I differ in view to Ciaran and others: the risks in bringing-in someone from outside, to me, are far greater than the risks inherent in having someone like Komin take the helm “from within”, so to speak, full-time.
Right now, LL doesn’t need more upheaval. It needs a period of steady, considered management progress and stability. This is more likely to come from within, where the egos involved have already gone through the arc of putting down a stamp of authority on matters, than it is by bringing in a “big gun” (assuming one can even be found and hired) from outside who is going to put their need to exercise their own stamp and brand of leadership on things ahead of what actually needs to be done.
For that reason, I’m hoping that Philip’s oddly timed departure from the CEO seat is at least in part because they have a CEO-in-waiting in the form of Komin; that this move is, in fact, a canny means of allowing Komin to demonstrate this is fact to the Board, and the “search” will result in a further announcement in, say, a month, that he has been appointed to the role full-time.
Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld 