The Art & Business Of Grieving
There is no harm in giving oneself time to grieve over a setback, be it social, financial or professional. As a matter of fact, healthy grieving is highly recommended by the majority of experts around the world, as the best way to either get back on the horse or (in some cases) realize that horse-riding is not your thing & so it is time to look for a new life goal.
Case in point: Mrs. Clinton seems to have taken her (second) failure to become U.S. President rather oddly. According to the international media, she believes that had the US Presidential Election been held on October 27 (or was it October 25?), she would have won. The latest official reply from the White House, explaining yet again that elections are run according to set rules, even though very easy to understand, has apparently fallen on deaf ears. Just for the record, the sports metaphor used in the latest White House statement was remarkably effective & intelligent; it could be quite useful to some in Pakistan who regularly try to use sports metaphors in their political speeches, & generally wind up sounding pathetic instead of confident. In effect, it is assumed that Mrs. Clinton’s therapist is responsible for this counter-productive approach to grieving.
But ineffective methods of grieving are not just harmful to the patient, they can have negative effects on many outside parties as well. The unnecessarily-lengthy media debate on whether or not the Democratic National Committee (DNC) computers were hacked & by whom – questions that, according to the media, cannot be answered satisfactorily because the official investigative authorities were not allowed to examine the allegedly hacked technology at the correct time – has seemingly had a negative effect on the computer industry.
Take Google: Ever since the twin setbacks of the huge fine levied in Italy & the embarrassing phishing scam globally, have been announced, Alphabet Inc Class A shares on the NASDAQ have begun sliding. IBM is fairing yet worse; its Common Stock on the NYSE has crashed nearly 2.5% in the most recent trading session, with the news that it could not deliver on a promise made to shareholders, followed by Mr. Warren Buffett leading the “Abandon Ship” movement. I would have mentioned Microsoft too, but in all fairness, I don’t think the Windows 10 disaster has much to do with anything other than the fact that Microsoft programmers are just a shadow of what they used to be; it might be a good idea for Mr. Bill Gates to hold off on further Developing World rickshaw rides & try to save the company that made him famous…& I say that with a great deal of affection.
But, there are some companies that could really cash in to the current state-of-affairs. They belong to an obscure sub-field of programming known as “Disaster Recovery Software”. Laying aside the dramatically-ominous label, these companies provide back-up & security software to computers that are unsecured or compromised. Given below is a list of the most well-known brands (courtesy Wikipedia):
1. Acronis International GmbH
Founded: 2003
Founder: Serguei Beloussov, Max Tsypliaev, Ilya Zubarev, Stanislav Protassov
Headquarters: Switzerland
Number of locations: 18
Area served: Worldwide
Key people: Serguei Beloussov (CEO)
Number of employees: 700 (2015)
2. Actifio
Founded: 2009
Headquarters: Massachusetts, United States
Key people: Ash Ashutosh (Founder & CEO)
3. Asigra, Inc.
Founded: 1986
Founder: David Farajun
Headquarters: Canada
Area served: Worldwide
Key people: David Farajun (CEO), Eran Farajun (Executive Vice President)
4. Axcient, Inc.
Founded: 2006
Headquarters: California, United States
Key people: Justin Moore (CEO)
Number of employees: 150
5. Barracuda Networks
Founded: 2003
Founder: Dean Drako, Michael Perone, Zach Levow
Headquarters: California, United States
Key people: BJ Jenkins, (CEO), Michael Perone (CMO), Zach Levow (CTO)
Number of employees: 1000-5000
6. Commvault
Founded: 1996
Headquarters: New Jersey, United States
Area served: Worldwide
Key people: N. Robert Hammer (Chairman, CEO & President), Al Bunte(COO)
Revenue: $595.1 million (FY2016)
Number of employees: 2,379 (FY2016)
7. FalconStor Software
Founded: 2000
Headquarters: New York, United States
Key people: Gary Quinn (President & CEO), Alan Komet (Executive Vice President)
8. Unitrends Corporation
Founded: 1989
Headquarters: Massachusetts, United States
Key people: Paul Brady (CEO), Mark Campbell (CTO)
9. Veeam Software
Founded: 2006
Founder: Ratmir Timashev, Andrei Baronov
Headquarters: Switzerland
Area served: Worldwide
Key people: William H. Largent (CEO), Peter McKay (COO)
Revenue: US$607.4 million (2016)
Number of employees: 2000+ (2015)
10. VMware Inc.
Founded: October 26, 1998
Founder: Diane Greene, Mendel Rosenblum, Scott Devine, Ellen Wang, Edouard Bugnion
Headquarters: California, United States
Key people: Michael Dell (Chairman), Pat Gelsinger (CEO)
Revenue: US$6.035 billion (2014)
Operating income: US$1.027 billion (2014)
Net income: US$0.86 billion (2014)
Total assets: US$15.216 billion (2014)
Total equity: US$7.586 billion (2014)
Owner: Dell Technologies (81%)
Number of employees: 18,000 (December 31, 2014)