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Corel's Fate Lies In 'Focused Strategy' : Reputation, software and Linux are interim CEO's top priorities - Company Operations

When Corel Corp. co-founder and CEO Michael Cowpland resigned on Aug. 15 Derek Burney was catapulted into the spotlight and handed the reins of the troubled software company.

Now the appointed "interim" CEO has said he may be in the driver's seat indefinitely.

"The board committee is certainly set up to conduct a search for a permanent CEO. Whether they are actively doing it or not I don't know," the 37-year-old Burney said during an interview with Computing Canada.

"They've pretty much given me full authority to execute on the strategies that we come up with and in speaking with them over the last couple of days they really aren't paying a whole lot of attention to the term interim, so neither am I."

A new face and a more focused Linux strategy is what industry analysts say Corel needs to get on the path to recovery. While Cowpland will no longer be involved in the operations of the company, he will continue as a director and as a technology advisor to Corel.

"For any product strategy to succeed I think they had to show something is different and what better way to do that than to have what many people have seen as the problem, resign," said Kevin Restivo, software analyst with IDC Canada.

Cowpland stepped down after months of financial trouble for the Ottawa-based software firm including the termination of over 300 employees in June as a cost-cutting measure.

Now it is Burney's job to guide the recovery plan and coming from the inside, formerly as executive vice-president, engineering and chief technology officer, he said he has an edge and enthusiasm someone new might not bring to the table. His primary goals for the next 12 months are two-fold, but improving the company's tattered image is high on the list.

"One of the things I'm looking at, apart from restoring the company to profitability, is restoring its credibility," he said. "I don't think it's a secret that there have been some issues there and it's one of the reasons I'd like my actions to speak louder than the words."

Moving forward, Burney said marketing plans will be created to promote Corel products with a more focused approach.

"One of the things we're doing in respect to fixing our operating budget is to make sure we know where every operating dollar is going and that it is laser focused in the direction we want to head," he said.

So we will have a certain amount of money allocated for WordPerfect and for Linux and Draw. It's really a matter of making sure they are targeted appropriately, rather than a blanket marketing plan."

Cowpland's departure has been viewed as an admission the Linux push wasn't being properly executed from the top said Rob Enderle, vice president of Giga Information Group.

"Whenever a CEO departs its an indication the current strategy isn't working," said Enderle. "Part of that strategy is Linux. It's hard to see Corel backing away from the platform, but it is at least reasonably likely the next CEO will come in and look to find another way to raise the company's visibility and revenue which could mean moving even more aggressively on the Linux platform now that it is maturing."

On the same day Cowpland stepped down, Corel launched Corel Linux OS second edition and CorelDraw Graphics Suite for Linux at LinuxWorld in San Jose, Calif.

Picking up where Cowpland left off, Burney plans to continue to push Linux OS for the desktop, which he said has made some significant gains in recent months.

"It's had its fits and starts, but one thing we noticed with Linux, if we look at the latest PC Data numbers, is that in the month of July we doubled the market share from the month before which was a staggering increase," Burney said.

"In part, that is due to the latest uproar around Linux and the fact it is getting a lot of air play. And when you have IBM, Dell and HP endorsing Linux on the desktop, while they have chose a different interface than the one we use, it still validates the position we had all along, which is that Linux is a viable alternative."

Corel will be launching a server edition of Linux at the end of the year and an enterprise edition shortly thereafter which incorporates the whole concept of the application service provider, Burney said.