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Few companies get a chance at a second life. When John Chen signed on as CEO of Sybase in 1998, the database software vendor was, in Chen's own words, "a very, very dead company." Once a strong competitor to Oracle, Sybase had lost its way, in part because it missed the opportunity to enter the enterprise application market Oracle now leads.
Sybase CEO John Chen
Over the next decade, through the efforts of Chen and his team, Sybase turned around and reinvented itself as an enabler of the "unwired enterprise." Then, in mid-May, enterprise software giant SAP signed a merger agreement with Sybase, citing Sybase's leadership in both mobile and in real-time analytics.
[ Why would SAP buy Sybase? Hint: It's not for the database. ]
Since the merger announcement, Sybase has not granted interviews to the press. But in March, before rumors about the merger began circulating, John Gallant, Chief Content Officer for IDG Enterprise, and Eric Knorr, Editor in Chief of InfoWorld, sat down with Chen for an hour-long chat as part of the IDG Enterprise CEO Interview Series. The interview explored how Chen was able to rescue Sybase from the brink and establish the company as a key mobile enterprise player. The result was a discussion rare in its frankness - one that provides retroactive insight into the real reasons SAP found Sybase so attractive.
Tale of a turnaround
Knorr: You led the company into the mobile space very early. What did you see that other people weren't seeing? All the talk today is about mobility, but it wasn't when you started to drive the company in that direction.
Chen: I knew we were going to get to that. That has a little bit to do with history. Most other CEOs will claim that they're visionary. The fact of the matter is that we backed into it somewhat, and to be really honest, we didn't have another choice. Because in the e-world, we lost it.