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Novell inc. chairman and president Robert Frankenberg got a hard lesson in how important first impressions can be.
The night before he was to leave to join the Air Force, the then-long-haired and shabbily dressed Frankenberg invited his future wife, Linda, to a party. But his future mother-in-law took one look at him and told her to forget it. No daughter of hers was going to an all-night graduation party with someone scheduled to ship out the very next morning.
Since then, Frankenberg has learned a thing or two about first impressions. When he first arrived at Provo, Utah-based Novell after almost 25 years at Hewlett-Packard Co., Novell managers tried to persuade him to take an executive office suite. He suggested a small office cubicle situated among rank-and-file employees.
Eventually, he relented and took an office at the company's Timpanogos Research Park complex in Orem, Utah, formerly the WordPerfect Corp. facility. It is now the home of the Novell Applications Group, since the merger of the two companies earlier this year. The impression he left with employees lingers to this day. "We sometimes kiddingly refer to Bob as 'uncle Bob,'" says John Lewis, senior vice president of service and support at Novell. "His wanting to be close to the troops isn't forgotten. It made him familiar to the company quickly."
Considering the challenges facing Novell, that's a good thing. Microsoft Corp. has set...