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On Jan. 1, Bruce Claflin, now president and chief operating officer of 3Com Corp. in Santa Clara, Calif., will become the company's president and CEO. Claflin will replace Eric Benhamou, who will continue serving in his post as chairman.
Last week, Computerworld senior writer James Cope asked Claflin how his management style and vision for Kom differ from Benhamou's.
Q: What are the fundamental differences between the jobs of chief operating officer and CEO?
A: There are really two answers to that: very little and a lot. Eric has already structured my job so I have fairly broad responsibilities in the company, including all of our product development, manufacturing, marketing, sales, service support. All of the key staff [in these organizations] already report to me. The three groups that don't are the chief financial officer, the chief technology officer and business development. So, in some respects,...