When someone gets a new job, most people are happy for that person, and congratulatory greetings abound, but that didn’t happen for John S. Chen.
Instead, his friends laughed at him.
After working in Germany for some time, Chen returned to the United States to become chairman, president and CEO of Sybase Inc., a data management software company. But at that time, in 1998,
the company was in major trouble.
While at a venture capitalist dinner party, he reunited with some old friends who got a great laugh at the news of what their friend was taking on.
“Boy, this guy must be pretty bad!” they joked with Chen.
“He can’t find a decent job, to work for Sybase!
”“Isn’t that company in trouble?”
“They’re dying, right?”
Although the company was sinking fast, Chen was not deterred. He knew he had nothing to lose, so he began a series of plans, all to align with his single goal for his first year as the top dog: Make
money.
“The most obvious thing that can restore confidence is if you make money,” Chen says. “That involved a lot of tough choices one has to make, a lot of unpopular choices.”