RE: [Leica] RE:Ebay

["Kit McChesney | Acmefoto" <kitmc@acmefoto.com>]

Austin--

Are we having fun yet? ;-)

All points well-taken. We all have our opinions. And some of us are very
tenacious about them! In bringing up Whitman, I was trying to make a
teency-weenie point. Tis all.

Can you upload some of those pastries to the group? Maybe it's time for tea!

All in good fun. Take care.

Kit

- -----Original Message-----
From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
[mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Austin
Franklin
Sent: Tuesday, February 04, 2003 9:30 PM
To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
Subject: RE: [Leica] RE:Ebay


Kit,

> With all due respect, I don't believe a "cupcake" could have
> managed to make
> Ebay a success.

BTW, my term "cupcake" was in no way reflective of gender, it was simply a
convenient pastry I thought of.  I like pastry.  And, BTW, I do make my own.

> It ain't so easy to run a business (ever tried?)

I do now and do very well at it and have been doing so for many years.

eBay WAS a success BEFORE Meg Whitman became involved, and, in my opinion,
would have continued to be even without her involvement.  In fact, I fault
her considerably for (apparently, and as she runs the place, it's on her
shoulders) not understanding the technical difficulties the company was
having for YEARS after she "took over".  Technically (as far as running a
data center), eBay was basically incompetent.  They were down many times per
day, had immense technical difficulties with updating their systems (they
apparently never heard of using test systems to test out their systems
before putting them on-line, fault tolerance and redundancy), and there was
no excuse for it but lack of experience and qualified personnel.  It was a
problem that had been solved many many times over by many many
companies...but not eBay.  They FINALLY (apparently) hired some decent
technical people, and were able to turn things around about two years ago,
and they have been doing well since then.

But it was VERY painful dealing with eBay for her first three years of
tenure.  It was far easier before.  In fact, up until one to two years ago,
it was typical for sellers to put in their auction "if eBay goes down within
two hours of auction close, we reserve the right to not honor the high
bid"...etc.

> and the
> business model that Ebay has developed is quite different from what its
> original founder envisioned, or practiced. And that model, one of
> providing
> information (and that is what Ebay does), is what has allowed it
> to grow and
> be successful.

I don't have any idea why you believe it is any different today than it was
before Meg's involvement.  Some things are different, for sure, as any
President of a company has some influence, but as far as general
business...I honestly don't see the difference, and I've been dealing with
eBay since before it was eBay.  I believe it has evolved as it (and any site
of it's ilk) should have, mostly, BTW, from user feedback, not from vision
within the company.

> I believe Ms. Meg Whitman was the driving force behind that
> very successful part of the plan.

What part of the plan are you referring to?

> Anyway, I was trying to make a point with a spot of humor. The
> LUG seems to
> be very male-oriented and focused, if not a bit on the sexist
> side at times

Absolutely.

> And pul-eez! Even if you don't like Bill Gates, I think it would be a far
> stretch to say that a cupcake could run Microsoft,

No, a cupcake could not scheme nearly as well as Gates has.  Some people
actually believe Gates invented the Internet, but Al Gore set us straight on
who was responsible for that ;-)

> or run Ebay.

As I said, that one I dispute.

> Good lord,
> man, give people credit for the considerable intelligence they
> have! You may
> not like them, but give 'em credit! <grin>

I do, believe me...no, I take that back.  I wouldn't give him any
credit...he already has enough of my money.  But I don't believe Meg Whitman
deserves much of any from my experience with eBay.  I've also read
interviews with her, and simply put, I just don't like her.  There are quite
a few business women whom I do respect very much so, and have worked with
some very high quality business women, and typically look forward to it, as
I believe women have a different perspective than men and I appreciate that
difference...well, most of the time ;-)

Regards,

Austin

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