Gideon Gartner
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page.
Gideon I. Gartner (born 1935) is an entreprenuer and philanthropist, best known as the founder of Gartner, an information technology (IT) research and advisory company. He has been described as the patriarch of the IT industry analyst business [1], due to widespread adoption of the innovations he incorporated into Gartner as a second-generation information business. He has continued to champion information industry innovations, first through two other companies he founded -- GiGa Information Group (now part of Forrester Research) and Soundview Technologies (now part of UBS AG) -- and today, as an advisor to companies such as TheInfoPro.
Contents |
[edit] Early life
Gartner was born in Palestine and grew up in New York. He attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), obtaining a BSME in 1956 and a master's from the MIT Sloan School of Management in 1960.
[edit] Early career
Gartner began his career in the computer business. At IBM, he was Manager of Market Information in its Data Processing Division, and Systems Engineering Manager and Systems Engineer in IBM World Trade Corporation. He also worked for Philco Corporation in its Computer Division, and for System Development Corporation, working on two U.S. government large system contracts: SACCS (Strategic Air Command and Control System), and DCA (Defense Communication Agency Control System).
[edit] IT industry information businesses
In the years leading up to the formation of Gartner Group, Mr. Gartner was a partner at Oppenheimer & Co. He had been named the top individual technology analyst on Wall Street between the years 1972 and 1977 inclusive, by Institutional Investor Magazine.[2][3]
[edit] Gartner Group
He founded Gartner Group in 1979, and served as its CEO and Chairman through April 1991.
IT "Advisory" firms are different than consultancies, in that they provide "continuous" advice to clients, defined in renewable but open-ended contracts, and which normally include a mix of "deliverables" including (but not restricted to) content, client interaction with conpany analysts and/or experts, and events.
In 1979 the primary "advisory" firms in Information Technology (IT) were IDC (International Data Corporation, part of IDG), Dataquest (now part of Gartner), and Yankee Group. Gartner's innovations, which were aimed at creating an advisory model which would address eveolving and complex needs of IT professionals and firms, included:[4]
1. Selling to multiple constituencies (competitors usually sold to only computer hardware, software and services vendors, although Dataquest had a service for investors, and Input Corp. had a service for users); Gartner sold to vendors, plus users (generally large enterprises and other organizations, e.g. government agencies), investors, and consulting firms. Investors were among the first targets, as Gartner had just resigned as partner of Oppenheimer & Co., But at Oppenheimer he had also begun servicing a group of large corporations, which became the base for Gartner's enterprise activities. As Gartner Group's coverage of IBM was deep (IBM was the primary vendor at the time), other vendors desired to be ties into its research network. Thus, the market Gartner addressed was broad, and each constituency provided insights and information which benefitted others, creating market advantage.
2. Gartner's venture capital financing was unique at the time, being initially financed by Bessemer Venture Partners and E.M. Warburg Pincus [5], with Bank Paribas joining a year later. This led to the firm being the first in its field to raise public capital in a 1986 offering, supporting its growth.
3. Gartner instituted a measurement and compensation scheme, novel for its time: since it sold annual renewable contracts and recorded "Contract Value", it based progress reporting and compensation (commission for sales personnel and bonus for analysts and managers), on the growth of appropriate Contract Value (CV) during a period of time, which was called Net Contract Value Increase (NCVI). Thus, all variable compensation was based upon growth and not on revenue from renewals, an important factor in developing a strong growth culture.
4. Having come from Wall Street, Gartner adopted the idea of employing senior industry people, who were in fact "peers" of their prospective clients. This was a departure from the current industry practice at the time, where analysts were relatively young and relatively inexperienced albeit bright. Furthermore, instead of focusing on market research, Gartner emphasized G2 -- company intelligence and analysis.
6. Gartner developed a disciplined research process, which was documented in a Research Notebook, used in regular training programs at the firm,and is credited with developing a novel and strong research "process". Process highlights called for analysts to scan all sources of input, be trained in recognizing "patterns", develop new ideas from these patterns, and document these ideas in brief one-page "research notes" (general industry practice at the time, was to publish relatively long reports). Research gimmicks were introduced, such as the "stalking horse", a research collaborative tool whereby analysts were compelled to graphically present and defend their logic. Thus, the "horse" became the company mascot. Intensive research meetings for all research were conducted at least weekly, and provided additional training and other benefits. All this contributed to an unusually strong and acknowledged organizational culture. [6]
Gartner Group was ranked among the fastest growing private firms in the U.S. (by Inc. Magazine) until it went public in 1986, whereupon it was ranked for several years among the best small companies in America (by Business Week , e.g. #9 overall, and #1 in profitability, in 1987). Gartner was sold to Saatchi & Saatchi in 1988,and Mr. Gartner signed a contract to remain as CEO until April 1991. In 1990, Mr.Gartner led a successful leveraged buyout of the firm financed by Information Partners, a private equity fund owned by Bain Capital and Dunn & Bradstreet.
Gartner Group is generally recognized as the world's leading "advisory consulting" firm in the IT industries, based on annual revenues and market share.
[edit] Soundview Technologies
Mr. Gartner, who had retained contact with his Wall Street clients, initiated a new financial service for Gartner Group via a new partnership with Dillon Read, which distributed its reports and personal services to Dillon Read's investment client organizations. Gartner Group seevered the Dillon Read relationship and became an independent broker-dealer in 1984, named Gartner Securities Corp., and spun this business out to its shareholders just before its first public offering in 1986, providing analysis, investment advice and banking services, to all institutional investors. Its name was changed in 1988 to Soundview Technology, when Gartner was acquired by Saatchi & Saatchi. Soundview was unique in that it combined accepted Wall Street research and distribution methods, with the intimate (albeit "arms length") relationship with Gartner analysts, and arguably became the leading technology research boutique on Wall Street. But it merged in 2000 with Wit Capital, and was eventually sold (early 2004) to Charles Schwab Company, and thereafter completely absorbed into Schwab and UBS.
[edit] GiGa Information Group
Giga Information Group was founded by Mr. Gartner in 1995. He raised more than $15 million to start the company [7]; he was Chairman and CEO until late 1999. In less than four years from first shipment, this innovative firm became the fastest growing technology advisory consulting company in history, generating a run rate of over $65 million, with more than 1200 enterprise clients. In February 2003 the company was sold to Forrester Research.
[edit] Lifestyle and philanthropy
Mr. Gartner lives in Aspen, Colorado and the New York area, and is involved in business ventures, athletics and classical music. His music background includes a lifetime of piano practice, as well as performing on the French Horn, having been a member of the London School Symphony Orchestra, and the Brooklyn Philharmonic (then called the Brooklyn Philharmonia). He is on the board of the Opera Orchestra of N.Y, is a trustee of the Music Associates of Aspen (the Aspen Music Festival and School), is a fellow of the Aspen Institute, and is on the National Councils or equivalent, of the Aspen Art Museum, and the Anderson Ranch.
He has served on the Library Committee of the M.I.T. Corporation and is a Sustaining Fellow Life Member of M.I.T. He is a past member of the board of the Society for Information Management where he was Special Appointee to the President. He is a trustee of the Charles Babbage Foundation. In the 1977 joint exhibit sponsored by the ACM and Goldman Sachs in Washington D.C. and the Boston Computer Museum, documented in the book “Wizards and Their Wonders: Portraits in Computing”, Mr. Gartner was honored as one of the 19 “Communicator” stars in the IT industry.
Mr. Gartner's professional activities have included speaking before major organizations worldwide. In . He has addressed graduate student groups at Harvard Business School, M.I.T., Yale, University of Georgia, and Arizona State, among others. Mr. Gartner has also written extensively, for example, the AMA journal, series of articles for Computer Decisions and Information Week magazines, and the forward and much of Chapter 7, in “The E-Marketplace…Strategies for success in B2B eCommerce”, by Warren Raisch (McGraw Hill, 2001).
(Sources include Gartner Inc. annual reports and other documentation, SEC documents, and numerous published articles describing the company and Mr. Gartner).
