Frjáls verslun - 01.05.2004, Page 30

JÚN S. VON TETZCHNER
STARSOFEUROPEINNOVATORS
JON S. VON TETZCHNER
Chief E*ecuti»*. Opera Softvwe, Nomay
IT’S a rare entrepreneur
who tsickies Microsoft
Corp. hcad-on and lives to
tell the tale. That’s doubly
unlikely when his product is a
Web browser. After all, even
mighty Netscapc
Communications Corp.,
whose browser vimially
launched the Intemet boom,
eventually fell victim to the
software colossus.
But Jon S. von Tetzchner,
CEO and co-founder ofOslo-
based Opera Software, is that
rare survivor. Since he and
business partner Geir Ivarsoy
iaunched Opera in 1995, the
company has attracted a
following of tens of mfllions of
uscrs who love the browser’s
easy navigation and speedy
pcrformancc. Crowning
Opera’s success, this March
the company stagcd a
successftil stock offering—one
of the first after Europc's long
postboom drought—that
raised $17.9 million to firnd
fiiture growth.
Opera has prospered
against all odds by relying on
tcchnical virtuosity and clever
management. In its first five
years, the company was too
small to register high on
Microsoft’s radar. By the time
the software giant took notice,
Opera had gained a loyal
following and established a
reputation for innovation. Its
PC browser is either free if
uscrs accept ads tucked into
the screen or uvailable for $39
in an ad-free version. But von
Tetzchner’s smartest move
was to spot opportunities for
browsers in devices other than
PCs. In 2003, the company
booked70%ofits $11.7
miUion in revenues from
software licenscs to makers of
mobile phones, interactive
TVs, and othcr non-PC
machines. Opera’s cUents
include marquec names such
as IBM, Nokia, Motorola, and
Canal+ Technologies, who
weave tiny versions of the
browser into handsets, set-top
boxes and other products.
“These companies don’t
depend on Microsoft now, and
they don’t want to in the
future,” von Tetzchner says.
Such a scrappy attitude has
served von Tetzchner well.
Raised in Iceland, he moved to
Norway for university studies
in computer science and
completed his degree whUe
worídng fbr the national
phone monopoly, Telenor.
When he and Ivarsoy cooked
up a Web browser in 1994,
Telenor sct the pair free to sell
the product on their own. The
first few years were rocky, but
by 1998 the company was
turning a profit. Von
Tetzchner, 36, now spcnds
mudi of his time on the road
scaring up deals, whUe
Ivarsoy, who handles the
technical side, drives Opera’s
latest innovations.
That leaves von Tetzchner,
who Ls married with two smaU
chUdren, little time to indulge
his passion for soccer and fbr
collecting vintage PCs. But
this Ls a man on a mission. He
can imagine a day when
browsers—including Opera’s,
of course—wUI be built into
evezything from cars to
appliances. So if someday your
refiigerator starts singing an
aria, youil know it’s because it
has Opera inside. •
HENNING KAGERMANN
Chief Executiv*, SAP. Germany
HENNING KAGERMANNISNT your typical button-down |
executive. With his penetrating blue eyes and Einstein- g
like mop of sUvering hair, the CEO of German software i
giant SAP looks more like the theoretical physics professor he jj
was untU age 35 than a globe-trottíng business leader. He even *
has a weU-known taste for heavy metal music.
But don’t be misled. Kagermann, 56, who became SAP’s sole §
CEO in May, 2003, after sharing the job for five years with chair- j
man Hasso Plattner, guided SAP through thc dárk days of the rj
tech downtum with as much boitom-iine toughness as any MBA. £
Now, with sales expected to head up again, by 4% this year and z
9% in 2005, Kagermann can devote more time to his passion »
for new technology. SAP is the world’s largest supplier of run- i
the-business software—sales, accounting, manufacturing, and =
so on—with tens of thousands of big corporate cUents. But 5
critics have faulted it in the past for plodding innovation. S
During the Intemet boom, for instance, SAP took heat for being S
latetograsptheNct’simpact.Itscrambledtoretoolits £
software for browsers and Web servers and eventually emerged s
triumphant over dot-com rivals. Today, Kagermann says, “the t
68 BuslnenWMk ! June 7.2004
PELLE TORNBERG
Presidenl and Chief Execulive,
Metro Intemational. Sweden
WHILE RUNNING a group of
SwedLsh television stations in
the eariy 1990s, Pelle Tomberg
considered investing in newspapers.
Aflcr a little market research. howcver,
he dropped the idea. “Newspaper
readership had been declining fbr many
years, and the typical reader was more
than 50 years old. The advertising
demographics were tenible,” he recalls.
But Tomberg, 48, kept mulUng the
problem: What kind of newspaper
would attract affluent young readers
coveted by advertisers? In 1995, with
backing from his bosses at the Swedish
media holding company AB Kinnevik he
launched what may be the answer—
Metro Intemational, a chain of free
tabloids distributed weekdays on city
street eomers and at subway stations.
Fiom a single newspaper in
Stockholm, Metro has grown to 36
editions in 15 languages, distributed in
more than 100 cities worldwide,
including, most recently, New York City.
Revenues soared 43%, to $203.5 mUlion,
last year. WhUe giveaway tabloids have
traditionally been viewed as
downmarkct, Metro Ls drnwing
mainstream advertisers such as the
Hennes & Mauritz apparel chain
bccause its readers are educated and
relatively weil-off. Tombeig says time-
strapped 40-and-undcrs like Metro
because they can zip through it. “The
newspaper industry didn’t understand
that its biggest competitor wasn’t
television or the Intemet,” he says. “It
was breakfast, aerobics, careers, kids.”
One group that still needs convincing
is Metro Intemational shareholders. The
company’s shares have plummeted from
$12 to less than 60* since it was listed
on the Stockhoim exchange in 2000.
Becausc of heavy spending on
expansion, the company hasn’t yet
posted a profit, but the tide of red ink is
starting lo recede: Losses declined from
$63.2 mUIion to $10.8 million last year,
and Metro says its newspapers posted a
$435,000 operating profit during the
firstquarter.
Metro increasingly fitces rivals—for
example, the free tabloid amNew York,
launched last year with backing from
TVibune Co. But Tomberg, who runs
Metro Intemational full-time from
London, dœsn’t seem worried. “In cities
where we have competition, we have
reached profitabilily morc quicldyhe
says. A former broadcast joumalist, he
moved to the commercial side 15 years
ago, heiping to develop a home-
shopping network for Kinnevik and
Strix, a Swcdisb production group
specializing in reality-'rv shows. The
workl is likely to hear more from this
waves of change are eoming faster.” SAP won’t be fooled again.
That’s why the cerebral CEO is pushing to get ahead of the
next big trcnd in business software-so-called Web services,
which link disparate applications over the Intemet into a single
inteUigent mesh. Mictosoft Corp., IBM, and others are chasing
the same idea with their own solutions. So Kagermann and his
brain tmst are taking an unusual and ambitious approach,
launching software called NetWeaver that talks openly with
everybody else’s. “We’re building what our customers want,”
Kagermann says. “They’re going to choose different solutions,
and we have to eonnect between them.” With NetWeaver,
which has already shipped to customers such as BMW,
Whiripool, and Colgaie-Palmolive, elients don’t have to rip out
existing technology or cast thcir lot entireiy with one company.
They can choose the systems they want and tie them together
with SAP software.
SAP as the industry’s conciliator: You could call that an
innovation in itself. But with 70% of SAP’s $8.8 billion in
annual revenue coming fiom existing cUents, Kagermann aims
to keep customcrs happy. That’s a fiir cty from the strong-
arming used by some rivals, and investors like the strategy. SAP
shares are up 50% from last year, outpacing the NASDAQ. Not
bad fbr a rock-and-rolling phvsicist who found his life’s calling
pushing the boundaries ofbusiness software. ■
June 7.2004 i ButineuWeelc 69
Business Week fjallaði um Stjörnur Evrópu í byrjun júní og birti sem forsíðugrein „Stjörnur Evrópu - 25 leiðtogar í forystu
breytinga." íslendingurinn Jón S. von Tetzchner, forstjóri Opera Software, er á listanum yfir framsæknustu frumkvöðlana.
Jón í ótrúlegum
félagsskap
íslendingurmn Jón Stephensson von Tetzchner, forstjóri Opera Software í Noregi, er í
hópi 25 snjöllustu leiðtoga Evrópu núna að mati Business Week.
Textí: Guðrún Helga Sigurðardóttír
Business Week birti nýlega lista yfir Stjörnur Evrópu, 25
leiðtoga í fararbroddi breytinga. Listanum er skipt í fjóra
hluta, stjórnendur, fjármálamenn, „agenda setters” og
brautryðjendur. Jón er á listanum og er þar í hópi manna eins
og Fred Goodwin, forstjóra Royal Bank of Scotland, og
Helmut Panke, forstjóra BMW í Þýskalandi. Goodwin er á
listanum yfir ijármálamenn og Panke er á forstjóralistanum
en Jón er á listanum yfir framsæknustu frumkvöðlana ásamt
Jean Stephenne, forseta GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals í
Belgíu, og Pelle Törnberg, forseta og framkvæmdastjóra
Metro International í Svíþjóð.
Ný kynslóð „Stjörnulistinn minnir á að það er grundvallar-
breyting í bígerð í evrópskum viðskiptum og stjórnmálum
þegar það sem sumir kalla eftirstríðskynslóðina fer frá. I
stjórnmálum er um að ræða leiðtoga sem komust til valda í
skugga síðari heimsstyrjaldarinnar, t.d. Chirac, 71 árs,
Schröder, 60 ára, og Silvio Berlusconi, 67 ára,“ segir m.a. í
greininni og haldið er áfram: „í viðskiptaheiminum er ný
kynslóð af hæfum, árangursmiðuðum stjórnendum að
tryggja það að frumkvöðlaandinn hverfi ekki þó að tækni-
bólan hafi sprungið. Jón S. von Tetzchner, forstjóri Opera
Software í Noregi, sýnir að tækniþróunin á meginlandinu
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