Debes' work may be paying off. The company this month announced that third-quarter earnings had roughly tripled year over year to a net profit of US$10 million. This week at the annual Lawson Customer and User Exchange (CUE) 2006 conference in Orlando, Debes spoke with Computerworld about the changes he has implemented at the company, and about its future. Excerpts from the interview follow:
Why were you chosen to lead Lawson? Think about the Intentia merger. I had done a lot of mergers and acquisition work in my previous history. I had also done international work; I worked extensively in the Asia-Pacific region. Before joining Lawson, I spent about 50% of my time working globally.
Can you discuss your management style and some of the milestones the company has hit since your tenure began? In the initial months, I worked just to get people on the same page, and now I think they're in rhythm. I made very few management changes. It's not my natural style to come in and fire people that have proven themselves in the past. What I hope is different now [in the company] is that we're headed towards being a performance-driven culture. We're interested in results, and not just about profit numbers. It has to do with delivering a quality product. I would say the sales execution is today at a good level -- not a fantastic level, but an improving one. Our consulting margins revenue is moving in the right direction.
Since you announced your decision to buy Intentia, has that created any doubt among your installed base? It's been more an issue for Intentia customers than Lawson's, in direct correlation to being the acquired company versus the acquirer. We've tried to be consistent and send a message that really hasn't changed over the last 12 months. That is, these products serve different markets, the personnel are different and we want to keep them both alive and have continuity and have the people and solutions remain in place. On the Intentia side, it was just one more objection that had to be answered [in the sales cycle]. It was a bigger deal for them in the first three or four months after the announcement than now.
How will Lawson stay unique and competitive in a market that is consolidating and full of big firms such as SAP or Oracle? You can be smaller and be nimbler and find segments of the market not well served by the giants. You can do things with customers they appreciate [that] they'd never get from SAP. You spend time with smaller firms face to face, building relationships. Those things we can do. Our whole client experience isn't just a bullet on a PowerPoint slide.