昔日谷歌軟銀高管轉(zhuǎn)戰(zhàn)Palo Alto Networks公司,明星CEO將有何動(dòng)作?
尼科什·阿羅拉已經(jīng)找到下一個(gè)舞臺(tái)。今年6月6日,這位商界超級(jí)明星將出任Palo Alto Networks的首席執(zhí)行官,而該公司儼然已成為網(wǎng)絡(luò)安全領(lǐng)域最亮的一顆星。 可能還有人不了解阿羅拉,幾年前《財(cái)富》雜志對(duì)他有過(guò)一番描述。他是一位頂尖管理者,前谷歌董事長(zhǎng)兼首席執(zhí)行官埃里克·施密特曾稱(chēng)他為“我共事過(guò)最擅長(zhǎng)分析的商人”。他也是一位大手筆的投資人,在全球范圍向大批初創(chuàng)公司投出了數(shù)十億美元,比如“中國(guó)版Uber”滴滴出行和“印度版亞馬遜”Snapdeal。他還是一位技術(shù)天才,日本電信集團(tuán)軟銀的首席執(zhí)行官孫正義曾指定他為接任者(但此后孫正義改變主意,決定再領(lǐng)導(dǎo)軟銀十年)。 哦,差點(diǎn)忘了,可能也是最有名的一點(diǎn):《財(cái)富》曾將阿羅拉封為印度的“商界貓王”。 雖然阿羅拉在網(wǎng)絡(luò)安全領(lǐng)域沒(méi)什么經(jīng)驗(yàn),但他是打造企業(yè)巨頭的老手。他曾擔(dān)任谷歌的歐洲市場(chǎng)負(fù)責(zé)人,后來(lái)?yè)?dān)任首席商務(wù)官,期間協(xié)助谷歌轉(zhuǎn)型,從單純出售廣告轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)榻駮r(shí)今日的盈利大戶(hù)。他幫助互聯(lián)網(wǎng)新貴谷歌加強(qiáng)紀(jì)律性,將不受拘束的能量轉(zhuǎn)化為強(qiáng)大的商業(yè)實(shí)力。他在軟銀的時(shí)間不長(zhǎng),但期間軟銀成長(zhǎng)為科技投資領(lǐng)域的大玩家,他也借此蜚聲業(yè)內(nèi)。 了解阿羅拉的經(jīng)歷后,我們也能預(yù)測(cè)他執(zhí)掌Palo Alto Networks期間可能有何動(dòng)作。過(guò)去一年,這家推出防火墻產(chǎn)品的公司股價(jià)暴漲90%,但虧損額也在增長(zhǎng)。我猜測(cè),阿羅拉主要目標(biāo)是改善公司財(cái)務(wù)狀況,而不是像之前一樣不斷收購(gòu),過(guò)去幾個(gè)月該公司收購(gòu)了云安全初創(chuàng)公司Evident.io和推出自動(dòng)執(zhí)行安全任務(wù)服務(wù)的Secdo。通過(guò)與Palo Alto Networks即將卸任的首席執(zhí)行官、長(zhǎng)期任公司副董事長(zhǎng)的馬克·麥勞夫林合作,阿羅拉將繼續(xù)推動(dòng)公司平臺(tái)化。在平臺(tái)上,開(kāi)發(fā)者可以創(chuàng)造和開(kāi)發(fā)安全軟件和工具。他的目標(biāo)是,讓Palo Alto Networks保持業(yè)內(nèi)領(lǐng)先,幫助過(guò)渡到亞馬遜云服務(wù)平臺(tái)Amazon Web Services等云技術(shù)的企業(yè)保障安全。 資本市場(chǎng)對(duì)阿羅拉即將接掌Palo Alto Networks響應(yīng)積極。6月1日,該公司股價(jià)收?qǐng)?bào)209.19美元,盤(pán)后交易期間漲幅超過(guò)3%。看來(lái)阿羅拉上任的消息讓投資者相當(dāng)激動(dòng)。(財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)) 譯者:Pessy 審校:夏林 |
Nikesh Arora has found his next act. On June 6th, the business superstar is set to become the new CEO of Palo Alto Networks, a company that has proven itself as one of the brightest lights in the cybersecurity industry. For those who may not know Arora, here’s a sleek portrait Fortune painted a couple of years ago. He is a top operator whom Eric Schmidt, the longtime Google honcho, once described as “the finest analytical businessman I have ever worked with.” He is a billion-dollar bet-maker who has plunked down gobs and gobs of cash on ascendant, international startups, such as Didi (the “Uber of China”) and Snapdeal (the “Amazon of India”). He is a techie talent whom Masayoshi Son, the famously hands-on CEO of Japanese telecom conglomerate Softbank, once named his successor (before “Masa” backtracked, opting to control his baby for up to another decade). Oh, and lest I forget: Perhaps most illustriously, Arora is a man whom Fortune once christened India’s “Elvis of business.” Although Arora has little to no experience in cybersecurity, he has loads when it comes to building up corporate behemoths. As Google’s ex-Euro-boss and later chief business officer, he helped transform the ad-seller into the profit-minting powerhouse it is today. He helped instill discipline into the quirky Internet upstart, focusing its untamed energy into unstoppable commercial force. And during his brief stint at Softbank, which has since risen to become arguably the biggest player in tech investing, he made his mark indelibly known. Arora’s track record provides some insight into what we can expect from his tenure at Palo Alto Networks. In the past year, the computer firewall-maker’s stock price has gushed 90%, but its losses have grown as well. I wager that Arora will aim to shore up the firm’s finances, but not before furthering a recent shopping spree, which has included acquiring Evident.io, a cloud security startup, and Secdo, a security task automator, over the past few months. In partnership with Mark McLaughlin, Palo Alto Networks’ departing CEO and enduring vice chairman, Arora is poised to continue shaping the company into a platform player, on top of which developers can create and deploy their own security software and tools. The aim: keep Palo Alto Networks ahead as the go-to standard for businesses seeking to stay secure as they transition to cloud infrastructures, like Amazon Web Services. Already the impending succession has shown results. Palo Alto Networks’ share price—$209.19 at market close on June 1st—rose more than 3% in after-hours trading. Investors are, it would appear, all shook up over the news. |