Review for Rich Cummings February 2011
Rich has been with the company since October of 2007. During that time Rich has helped add focus and help hone the Responder Pro product, interfaced with many early adopters, done numerous speaking engagements and has provided input on marketing and technical direction.
Richs title is CTO but he was also responsible for the SE team including hiring, managing and training the SEs. Rich has been involved in the weekly sales forecasting meetings, in interviewing sales candidates, working with Marketing to develop talks, and has been a spokesperson for HBGary.
Everyone likes Rich. He is a social person and easy to talk to. He is passionate about his position and he is supportive of HBGary and its technology. He is a very dynamic evengilist and understands the security markets drivers. He is sure of his capabilities which is a positive and a negative depending on the situation.
Overall Richs contribution to HBGary has been positive and essential. HBGary is entering a new phase of its corporate life where it is essential that deliverables are met, that we need to put in place more infrastructure and processes around all areas and we also need to bring in additional talent to help augment our growth.
It seems as if Rich is burnt out on his current position, and is adrift. HBGary management is committed to finding the right position for Rich in order for him and the Company to succeed.
Strengths
Loyal- Rich is extremely loyal to people and to HBGary. He is a big supporter and espouses his beliefs to others.
Passionate-Rich is passionate about what he does and where he works. This shows in the way he presents himself in front of employees and customers.
Articulate at presenting his views and positions-Rich does a great job presenting our value proposition, the market we play in, the strengths and weaknesses of our products and others.
Broad knowledge of security and deeper knowledge of Incident Response-Rich knows a lot about the security landscape and the incident response market in particular. He keeps up on industry news, uses time at tradeshows to find competitive information and most of all, he really enjoys the space and the people.
Works long hours-Rich is always doing something, weather research or playing with the products, talking to customers or studying malware. This is positive because he can do so many things. Problem arise, when he needs more depth in an area or focus.
Up for doing anything to help company succeed
Motivated
Confidient in his capabilities
Weaknesses
Needs a Structured Environment-While Rich is a self starter, he often does not complete his tasks. This has negatively impacted sales, marketing and development. Part of the problem is Rich will not say hes too busy, the other part is that we believe he starts a project, but then doesnt see it through. When Ive questioned him about this, he finds it difficult to work alone, without peers around. Greg and I also believe he would be more successful in a structure environment where he has a support system around him to help prioritize and provide input and direction.
Confident in his capabilities-Rich is very sure of himself and he comes across this way. This is a positive to many customers, but it has a double edge, in that he sometimes goes into situations were he does not adequately prep for the situation, or bluffs his way through an explaination or event. This has created some negative feedback from co-workers and a few customers. Rich needs to understand his limits and if he is not sure, just work with his co-workers to find out the answer.
Overcommits, under delivers-This is probably the biggest complaint heard from Richs co-workers. He sets expectations that he can do a webex, do a speaking engagement, go on site then does not prepare, under prepares, or cancels. When confronted with feedback specific to an assignment or an events, he re-torts with you dont know how busy I am. He is defensive and unwilling to hear the feedback. If hes so busy and no one knows what he is doing, that says something in and of itself, which is point many have tried to make
Action Items:
Overall we feel Rich can contribute to the bottom line and continued growth. In order to do this , Rich will need to work in an office environment where there are people from multiple areas to help support his efforts.
I also feel that Rich is most beneficial in an evangelist role. He likes doing talks, he enjoys some travel, he has good ideas for talks, he just needs some structure and guidance to help hone his skills and work smarter.