Red Hat to focus on core products and service, says new CEO

by Martyn Williams

January 24, 2008 —

Red Hat's new CEO plans
to keep the company focused on its core Linux OS and middleware business while
also improving the service it offers to customers, he said Thursday.

"It's a very exciting time for Red Hat, we have a very bright future in
front of us. Our business model is strong and our growth remains very, very
robust," said Jim Whitehurst, who was speaking in Tokyo during his third
week in the job.

Whitehurst came to Red Hat from Delta Air Lines where he served as chief operating
officer for two years. During that time he gained experience of being a customer
of major IT vendors and says he knows well what is expected of companies like
Red Hat.

"From a user perspective an absolute focus on service is critical. Based
on talking to customers so far, one observation I have is that we need to re-double
our effort working with our various partners in service," he said.

Because much of Red Hat's business is done through resellers and the channel,
there can sometimes be disconnects in customer service. For example, Red Hat
might end up telling a customer to contact the partner while the partner refers
the customer back to Red Hat, he said.

But is Whitehurst the right man to be talking about customer service? After
all, he came to Red Hat from an industry that is the subject of frequent complaints
from its customers.

"I think airlines only beat out cable TV operators in customer satisfaction
surveys so I'm certainly not going to defend the airline industry's record on
customer service," he said. Experience at Delta taught him the need to
pick a small number of things and do them well to improve overall satisfaction,
he said.

"The Delta situation was the fastest major bankruptcy ever and during
that situation our customer service numbers actually went up quite significantly.
We did it by focusing on a couple of things. In the airline industry it's clean
airplanes and on-time, those were the two things we focused on. I know those
sound like two little things but they significantly impact the customer experience,"
said Whitehurst.

For Red Hat he said he is still working on which areas will be the priorities
that he focuses upon.

"I understand the importance from the customer's perspective of excellent
customer service in IT," he said. "As an industry, information technology
is not known for excellence in serving our customers well and I have been adamant
from day one that everything Red Hat does will be viewed through the eyes of
the customer."

IDG News Service