Q: You’ve had quite the life -- from dropping out of high school and earning a computer science degree at Princeton to literally castrating a bull. What made you want to write a book?
 
A: It’s very unusual for one person to be part of the leadership team of a company during its whole lifespan. Bill Gates and others have done it, but it is not a journey very many get to take. I started as an engineer, became a manager, and now I’m looking at the strategy of a multi-billion dollar company. That’s something I think a lot of people are interested in, what it feels like to experience a long career trajectory through one company and what I learned along the way, both professionally and personally.
Q: It is rare for the founder of a company to remain involved long after it has gone public and grown into a multi-billion dollar a year enterprise? Why have you stayed?
 
A: I have a short attention span but NetApp has kept me interested. The jobs that I’ve held are radically different jobs. I went from being a programmer, to VP of engineering with hundreds of people reporting to me to focusing on strategy for a large group. So, the first reason is just the continuous change. Also, NetApp is not the same company it was fifteen years ago or even three years ago. Our growth and the new things we are doing keeps us in continuous change. The second reason is that somewhere along the way I think I got attached to NetApp as a company. What is this thing we’ve created? I think there is a sense of paternal pride and not just for the technology as I am not sure that would keep me, but for the people and the team. There is something special that keeps us together.
Q: The book recounts three phases of NetApp’s life -- childhood, adolescence and adulthood. What phase was your favorite?
 
A: They all have aspects to them that I find really interesting. I guess if there was one that I didn’t really like I wouldn’t be here anymore. I think there is just an excitement and energy to the childhood stage. It is small, you know everybody well and the things that you do make a difference. You need cash or a sale tomorrow or you’ll go out of business. The hypergrowth period, or the adolescence as I call it in the book, is so exciting because of its speed. We were just growing so quickly, doubling every year. That’s exciting to me. The mature company that NetApp is today is fun because we are among a handful of companies in the world that make up the Fortune 1000. It’s so interesting to me to be part of that and to see how a larger company works. I can’t choose a favorite -- it would almost feel like choosing a favorite child.
Q: NetApp not only survived the dot.com bust but has become a huge success. What are the lessons for young companies struggling to hold on in the current economic climate?
 
A: One of the big takeaways I have from the dot.com period is the importance of corporate culture and corporate values. You find out more important stuff about your culture in a crash. If you treat your people well in good times and bad, you will be investing in culture and corporate values over time. There are certainly other lessons as well. During the downturn we made some real investments in changing our business model. The change of a downturn does create opportunity if you and your organization are ready for them. More than ever, I think these lessons apply to what’s going on in corporate America today.
Q: The bull in the book’s title is a metaphor for risk,. How did you learn to overcome the fear of risk and in turn take the right risks that allowed the company to grow?
 
A: One thing that helped me think about risk was to compare the current risk I was facing to other risks that might be similar. I was at a company that was doing well and I liked the people I worked with. That’s the company that I left before James Lau and I started NetApp. A lot of people I talked to said, “A start-up is very risky.” Meanwhile, I had other friends who quit their jobs to go off and get their MBA or a law degree. I compared my risk to theirs. The downside of those going to school was they would spend a couple of years not getting paid and at the end of it hopefully they would have learned a lot. My downside was that I would spend a couple of years not getting paid and hopefully at the end of it I would have learned a lot. From a different perspective, the risk seemed manageable.
Q: What did life on a ranch teach you about running a company?
 
A: In a work situation I’ve never had to castrate anybody or brand anybody or chase them down a gully. On the other hand, I think there are a lot of attitudes that you learn on a small ranch that are very valuable. On a ranch you are called on to do a lot of jobs. At a start up you may not have the resources or ability to call in a specialist at every moment, so instead, you roll up your sleeves and do it yourself. Self sufficiency is highly valued on a cattle ranch and it turns out it’s a keen survival skill for anyone in a start up as well.
Q: You’ve said you’re an engineer at heart, but you’ve held management roles throughout NetApp’s history. Is management something you've grown into? Is it something you’ve grown to love?
 
A: I’ve held different types of management roles. During the first years of NetApp’s history, I was largely a programmer and a system architect. When I became a manager, I suddenly had 250 people working for me. I approached management as I did engineering in many ways. How do you structure it? What should the organization look like? How should the reporting go to you? In a sense you could think that those are engineering problems. You are not working with capacitors or chips or software, you’re working with labs and budgets and people. I took a new role in the company and started thinking strategically -- writing a blueprint for the company’s future, if you will.
Q: It was interesting to me that NetApp had a “double or die” philosophy about its business. Can you talk a little bit about that and why you are a big believer?
 
A: Double or die is not a philosophy that applies to every company or business. That was a philosophy that applied very specifically to technology companies during a period of rapid growth. Many industries have different hypergrowth eras, that was just ours. Looking back on it, at the time the tech crash came we had just reached a billion dollars in sales. I think if we had grown a bit slower maybe if we were half a billion or a quarter billion dollar company, we might have sunk along with so many others.
Q: In the book you say that “change creates opportunity.” Do you think right now is a moment of change for businesses? Is there a chance that the downturn, while making it tough for many to survive, will also create opportunity?
 
A: I do. During a downturn, a lot of people will wonder if there is a lower end version of the product that they are using that would be good enough or almost good enough. Certainly, whoever is making cheap, small cars right at the moment has a great opportunity. That’s true for practically every industry. I also think you certainly have to hunker down and be careful and watch your expenses very closely and watch your hiring during an economic downturn. The reality is that you might not grow as fast and you might not grow at all possibly, but there still will be things you can do for new customer requirements. One of my colleagues, Tom Mendoza, says people do not open their wallets unless they are in pain. They pay money for something because they have a pain that needs solving. It’s certainly true that people have less money than they did before, but they have more pain than they had before. So whoever can figure out a cost-effective cure has the opportunity to do surprisingly well in a downturn.
Q: If someone were to walk away from your book with a single lesson or thought, what would you hope that might be?
 
A: Look at every opportunity and take some of them. Have fun with life. I’m not a big believer in being too serious and I certainly think that shows in the book. Sometimes you have to focus and be serious but even while you are doing it you can have fun. Fun helps create luck. Do something that you care about. When I worked at Deep Springs one of the things I found very rewarding was that I was taking care of food. There I am chasing cows around on horseback, with beautiful scenery, and it was fun in a lot of ways. I liked that. There is something so fundamental about taking care of food. Food is a physical requirement for people. It’s not at all abstract about what thing you are accomplishing in the world -- it’s food. Figure out something in your work that means something to you. It’s different for everybody, but if you can do that you are going to enjoy your life more.