NetApp Future History from 2003

This is an unusual blog entry because instead of telling a short story in 700 words, I'm releasing a twenty-page strategy document that I wrote in late 2003.

I call it a "future history", because I wrote it in the past tense, as if it were a history of NetApp focusing on the period from 2003-2007. My goal was to describe as accurately as possible what we needed to accomplish over the next few years, and I thought that writing in the past tense, as if it had already happened, would help make the vision more real for people.

This paper started as a whine. I was confused about NetApp's vision and strategy, and I figured if I was confused, then many others probably were as well. Late 2003 was a confusing time. We were just reaching $1 billion in revenue for the second time. The first time had been about 3 years earlier, in 2001, at the end of the dot-com boom. And then the tech crash pummeled us back down to $800 million. It didn't feel like a 20% drop. We had been doubling annually for many years, so our whole planning process was focused on reaching $2 billion. Going from the $2 billion we expected down to $800 million was traumatic.

For the three years after the crash, we had a clear mission: Get back to where we had been—reach a billion again, with a reasonable profit margin. But when we succeeded, it wasn't clear where to go next. Before the crash, our goal had always been to double, but after a three-year struggle to return to a billion, doubling annually didn't seem reasonable. This is what triggered my whining, and I started asking lots of questions throughout Dan's staff. What could we hope to accomplish? Given the market situation, what did we need to accomplish?

This paper is the result of my questions, and we shared it with every employee at NetApp. Some people were concerned about being so open with our strategy, but I am convinced that a culture of openness and inclusiveness has helped fuel our success. Three years later, I'm proud to say that we have achieved most of the goals that we set. The paper set out a $2.5B goal for this fiscal year, which ends in April 2007, and most analysts predict that we will exceed that. The run-rate of our last quarter is well over that, so we have declared victory and moved on.

I am sharing this Future History publicly because I think it is an interesting case study for people to see how we put this vision together, and what we thought we were trying to accomplish. Please keep in mind that this is three-year-old strategy, so don't assume that everything in here came true! On the other hand, a surprising amount did, which shows the power of being clear about your vision as a company, and sharing it as broadly as possible with your employees.

Comments

[Startups.in/India]

One word. Awesome!

I happened to visit netapp.com to apply for Intern positions and then while reading through the NetApp site, chanced upon the link to your blog.

It indeed is amazing to see a founder of a successful company openly sharing thoughts and helping future entrepreneurs and startups.

Definitely reflects the spirit of the company. Thanks for sharing it.