Thompson, John W. 1949–

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John W. Thompson 1949–

Corporate executive

Reaching the age of 50 is often a major milestone in a person’s life and career, and that was certainly true for corporate executive John W. Thompson. He had spent his entire career in business working for a single employer, industry giant, IBM. In the 28 years with them, he had risen steadily through the management ranks from his entry level position as a salesperson. With each new position, the number of employees and the size of the budget he managed increased, until by 1993, Thompson was one of the senior executives with the company. His name had even been mentioned in print sources as a potential candidate for the company’s top position.

Yet, despite his bedrock solid standing at IBM, Thompson left IBM to take on a new position. On April 14, 1999, only 10 days before his 50th birthday, Symantec Corporation, a California software company, announced that Thompson had accepted an offer to become its new president and chief executive officer (CEO). Within two weeks, Thompson moved to California and began his reign at Symantec.

A Chance to Take Charge

Symantec is based in Cupertino, California, part of an area so crowded with software companies, microchip manufacturers, and Internet startups that it is known worldwide as Silicon Valley. In the fast-paced computer industry, Symantec, which began in 1983, had senior status as a company. However, despite its experience and its solid niche as a manufacturer of antivirus and utility software, the company was not thriving. It was facing intense competition, and, while the company was healthy financially, its performance was sluggish. New investors were not being attracted to the company. The company had been under the leadership of the same CEO since its founding, software pioneer Gordon Eubanks, but Eubanks was resigning to head a new software startup company.

At the same time that Symantec was looking for new energy, Thompson was laying down a strong track record in his position as general manager of IBM’s Americas unit, a division with $37 billion in annual sales and 30,000 employees. In the two years he had been in this position, a major leadership position within the IBM corporate structure, Thompson had greatly increased the area’s profitability, and both employee morale and customer satisfaction in his division had reached record levels. His name was mentioned sometimes

At a Glance…

Born at Fort Dix, New Jersey (where his father was stationed) April 24, 1949, son of John H. Thompson and Eunice Thompson; married Sandi Thompson; children: John E., Ayanna Thompson Prather, Education: Received his undergraduate degree in business from Florida A & M University, 1971; masters degree in management sciences from MIT’ s Sloan School of Management, 1982.

Career: Began working as a sales representative for IBM in Florida in 1971, became an IBM branch office manager in Atlanta, 1975-79; transferred to IBM in Boston as regional administrative assistant and later as regional marketing director, 1980-84; moved to IBM-headquarters in White Plains to become assistant to the chief executive officer and the chairman, 1984; became director of IBM’s Midwest operations, 1990; named head of marketing for IBM’s U.S. operations, 1993; appointed general manager of IBM’s personal-software products, 1994-98; named general manager of IBM Americas, 1997-99; president, chief executive officer, and chairman of the board for Symantec Corp, 1999-.

Member: Board of directors for NiSORCE (Northern Indiana Public Services Company), headed the fundraiser for Teach for America in the Bay area, member of the board of directors for Fortune Brands, Inc; former chair of the Florida A & M Industry Cluster; served on the Illinois Governor’s Human Resource Advisory Council.

Addresses: Office— Symantec, 20330 Stevens Creek Boulevard, Cupertino, CA 95014.

as a possible eventual successor to IBM’s chief, Louis Gerstner.

Despite his successes, Thompson wanted a chance to be the person at the helm. As he approached 50, he found himself scanning the horizon for a new position, one where he would be the one ultimately responsible for whether a company succeeded or failed—in his terms, a place to practice his craft. The ideal company for him to head, he determined, would be a software company, so that he could put his knowledge about building sales and marketing to good use. The company would be an established company, not a start-up. Thompson felt that his greatest successes had been in taking leadership of an ailing division at IBM and turning it into a healthy enterprise. He saw himself as “more of a remodeler than a manager of new construction.”

When he was approached by Symantec’s board members with an offer, it met his requirements precisely. By the time the discussions were over, Symantec had also agreed to make Thompson not only president and CEO but also the chair of the board of directors. He was without a doubt going to be the guy in charge.

One of Thompson’s first moves at Symantec was to focus the company’s objectives on one area, that of Internet security. Symantec, the manufacturer of such popular consumer software titles as Norton’s Disk Doctor, was already involved in utility software for consumers, but it was involved in other areas as well. Thompson set a single unifying goal for the company, to become the leading company in the world in Internet security technology.

There are two areas of Internet security. One area, content security, involves protecting individuals and companies from attacks on information that is on their computers or moving through company networks. Anti-virus software, software that inoculates networks against attacks by computer viruses, and e-mail scanning software, programs that screen information being shared via e-mail, are examples of utilities of this type. A second area of Internet security is operational security, which involves setting up computer systems in ways that will protect them from potential harm.

Thompson took several steps his first year to ratchet up Symantec’s emphasis on Internet security. He moved to sell off some company divisions that were not security-related and to acquire three smaller companies that were already focused on Internet security, he sank more resources into growing the sections of the company that produced Internet security solutions for corporate customers and that developed new content security products, and he increased the company’s international business operations.

His timing was perfect. In 1999 and 2000, companies and individual computers users alike had been alerted to risks to their computers by dire warnings of Y2K computer system breakdowns as clocks rolled from 1999 to 2000 on New Year’s Eve. Aggressive e-mail worms and viruses, like the Melissa and I Love You viruses wreaked havoc with company networks by automatically sending e-mails to everyone in a user’s e-mail address book and clogging company networks. And in spring of 2000, hackers using a fairly simple program clogged major Internet sites Yahoo.com and Amazon.com for hours. Other devices besides computers and computer networks proved to be vulnerable as well. Mobile telephones in Spain and Microsoft’s TV-based Internet browser were also disrupted by worms and viruses. All of these threats helped increase the appeal of a market strategy centered on Internet security solutions. Thompson’s decision to increase the emphasis at Symantec on corporate security solutions was especially fruitful: by the end of his first year as CEO, the corporate segment of the company’s revenues had increased from 30% to 46%. His moves made Symantec more attractive to investors, who saw the corporate market as more profitable than the consumer market. During Thompson’s first year, the value of a share of Symantec’s stock increased from $13 a share to around $70 a share and revenues rose between 22% and 40% each quarter.

By the end of his first year “practicing his craft,” Thompson was leading Symantec confidently and assertively, using the abilities that he had developed and practiced through his education and in his long career at IBM. An army brat, Thompson was born in 1949 on the military base at Fort Dix, New Jersey where his father was stationed. After a few more military transfers, the family settled in the West Palm Beach area of Florida about the time that Thompson was ready to start school. Thompson went to Lincoln High school (later renamed Kennedy High). He was, according to his own account, a hellion in high school, but managed to learn how to play the clarinet well enough to be offered a scholarship to Lincoln University in Missouri. When he got there, he learned to his dismay that a stipulation of the scholarship was that he had to major in music, an idea that did not appeal to him. So, he transferred to Florida A & M University, influenced by an accounting professor who was also a family friend, and he became a business major, graduating in 1971. IBM was recruiting sales representatives on campus, and he accepted a job offer from them, figuring that his gift of gab along with his business degree would make sales a good choice.

At IBM in Florida, not only was he the only African American in the office, he also stood out because of his large moustache and even larger Afro, a marked departure from the conservative IBM style of dress. His attitude was that his competence was more relevant than his conformity. As he became more experienced, however, he realized that sometimes he could be beaten out of a sale by someone who was equally competent and who conformed as well. So he adopted a mainstream professional appearance and has never looked back.

His sales career with IBM lead to his first management position, managing an IBM sales office in Atlanta. By 1980, he had moved to Boston as administrative assistant to the regional manager, and three years later he was director of marketing for the region. IBM sent him to MIT’s Sloan School of Management for an intensive 12 month MBA program designed especially for mid-career executives. By 1984, he had moved to IBM headquarters in White Plains where he worked in the chairman’s office as an assistant, an experience he describes as akin to getting a second master’s in business administration with a concentration on IBM.

From this point, each position he was given at IBM involved greater responsibility, a larger budget, and a bigger pool of employees to manage. His positions in the next decade and a half included director of IBM’s Midwest operations, head of marketing for all IBM’s U.S. business, general manager of IBM’s personal software products, and director of and general manager of IBM Americas. In terms of shaping his leadership strategy, probably the most significant of these appointments was as director of Midwest operations, an assignment he was given in 1990 during a period when IBM was in a slump and undergoing a major corporate shakeup. At that time, IBM’s Midwest sales force were all “jacks of all trades.” He reorganized them into teams, with each team specializing in one specific area of customer need. Because they got to concentrate on one area, the teams became more proficient at their jobs and did a better job of serving customers. Customer satisfaction increased and so did the morale of the sales force.

The strategies that Thompson used at IBM are evident at Symantec: listen to the customers and align the company’s mission with their needs, hire a talented work force, make sure that every employee knows the company’s mission, and provide leadership in the area that is the company’s focus. In his view, companies that both respond well to their customers and provide leadership are the ones that survive and thrive in a competitive marketplace. As Symantec continues to break new grounds in Internet security, both the computer industry and the business field will play close attention to John Thompson.