Network World, 01/04/99

RICH MCGINN CEO, LUCENT

Talk about well-rounded players. Lucent has the massive revenue, the stock leverage, the acquisitive nature and, most important, the extreme desire to beat Cisco in the race to IP convergence.

It gets its drive from Rich McGinn. McGinn is the one responsible for arming Lucent with the companies and technology to fight off predators such as Cisco. He's also the one who will chart the strategy for migrating Lucent's massive customer base to this New World of convergence. The company has a vast and loyal customer base that's looking for guidance from Lucent on the future of IP networking and Internet telephony. Then again, Lucent's immersion in circuit switching means a fundamental change in the way it does business, as packet switching becomes the medium for voice.

In that regard, Lucent may now be vulnerable to those, like Cisco, with a legacy in packet switching. Recent acquisitions of data network vendors are Lucent's effort to address those vulnerabilities.

Prominet gives Lucent a formidable Gigabit Ethernet offering for enterprise backbones. LANNET has reputable shared and switched LAN technology. Livingston Enterprises gives Lucent a credible remote-access routing solution.

And McGinn isn't done yet. The company is expected to make a major acquisition now that it has the ability to pool interests and avoid the tax man. Ascend, FORE Systems, Cabletron and Xylan have been cited as possible targets.

The company made a significant move recently with the rollout of the IP Exchange System, which replaces proprietary PBXs with open call-processing servers that share LANs and WANs with data applications.

MCGINN'S CHALLENGE: Lucent's migration task requires vision, execution and resolve, not only for Lucent and its customers, but for the industry as a whole. McGinn's challenge will be delivering on all three.

Prior: Larson

Next: Meeker