An understanding man

Back in 1998, Robert Norum and I met a vibrant young man in a tiny office above a pizza shop in Cambridge, UK. That man was Mike Lynch . He had founded a business called Autonomy to analyse and process unstructured data. Autonomy’s pioneering tools were able to discern ‘meaning’ in email and video. At the time this technology was a radical step forward and it laid the groundwork for many modern big data and AI applications.

Robert and I were trying to sell Mike on the idea of creating a brand - a clear proposition and a promise that would drive his marketing and sales. Mike wasn’t particularly impressed. He saw our offer as rather trivial and expensive. Eventually, after some relentless salesmanship, he caved in and hired us.?

At the time, most technology marketing focussed on dreary specifications, or what we referred to as ‘speeds and feeds’. Instead, we tried to explain the key benefits of Autonomy’s extraordinary solutions. Looking back, the work was quite punchy. And it worked. While Autonomy grew, we kept pressing them for more budget to extend global brand recognition. Sadly, we had limited success. Eventually we parted ways and I lost touch with Mike.

After Autonomy sold to HP (2011), we met up again at a talk in London given by Clayton Christenson. We chatted about Mike’s stellar achievement and then he suddenly changed the subject. “You were right to push us to spend more on marketing”, he said. “We should have. It would have made things much easier”.

I’ll never forget that exchange. He didn’t need to tell me or admit he might have been wrong. Maybe he wasn’t. While I genuinely believed my advice, I was also keen to earn more fees and commissions. He had seen incremental costs. Neither of us could have forecast increased growth with certainty.?

I learned this. Mike was an exceptionally wise man who played the game of life with a straight bat*. He was forever curious and not afraid to reassess his judgement. Above all he was kind, thoughtful and strikingly generous.

The world will miss him.?

*American readers may need to look up this English colloquialism.