Firstly I would like to thank Peter for taking the time out of his busy schedule to answer these questions for us. It is very much appreciated by me and I'm guessing many others.
Secondly - please feel free to copy the interview to other sites but I would appreciate you including a link to the source of the copy if you do.
Some of the questions included here are from other contributors which I have reworded to try and make them less specific so that Peter would have more freedom to answer them.
Q. Would it be 'safe' to say that your interest in flying suggests that you are not a risk averse person in general?
[Peter Bondar]
I prefer the phrase aggressive risk management, when starting with nothing you have to take risks, if you want to be ahead of the guys who did start with something.
Personally I am a highly structured and very focused individual when I fly. I have a duty of care to my passengers and to my family. So my attitude to risk varies depending on the consequences and the opportunities.
We are here but once so trying to achieve things is a large personal driver. I always explain the risks associated with my activities so no one can say they didn’t know what the risks were when they came along for the ride!
Q. Can you give us a little bit of your personal history or insight into what brought you to the point of becoming a 'flying doctor' for ailing businesses?
[Peter Bondar]
I’ve spent 30 years in sales and marketing and corporate affairs and watched lots of people (including me) make all sorts of mistakes and errors of judgment.
I’ve also seen (and helped) in a number of very successful adventures.The future success of any company is the analysis, key decisions and actions that point the company in a certain direction.
The aim of flying-doctors is to focus on providing companies with the key capabilities for them to decide where to go and how they should achieve it. We want to be generally involved in the ‘inspiration’ rather than the ‘perspiration’ for two reasons; we can add a lot of value in relatively short period of time and we can help most companies to get their staff to take over the more repetitive functions that we could do.
Obviously the scale of the challenge varies. Larger, more complex situations take obviously more time than simpler cases.
Q. I believe you and David Lee, Tadpole Technology's chairman, have worked together in the past, did that influence your decision to take on the job offered or was it purely a business decision?
[Peter Bondar]
David and I worked at Acorn Computers and also in a start-up NewMarket Technologies. We have been good friends ever since and we often chat over ‘situations’ and ‘issues’ that both of us have been involved in over the years. I do not think I would have considered the assignment if David wasn’t involved.
The challenges in this assignment were enormous and unless you felt that you were on a similar ‘wavelength’ it would have been a very risky project to be involved with. (even by my standards!)
Q. You seem to have taken on the mantle for Endeavors Technology with great gusto, was it a difficult decision to take on this challenge given the previous history associated with Tadpole Technology in general?
[Peter Bondar]
If I do something then I give it 100% I eat, sleep and breathe all my projects.
I met Steig Westerberg about a year earlier and had a pretty good idea of what I was letting myself in for. Tadpole’s history, whilst important to understand, had no particular relevance. In fact why would you want a ‘Flying-Doctor’ if everything was perfect? I don’t do health checks on companies that are clearly doing well.
Q. Initially you were hired to carry out a review of the company for a 3 month period, was it the promise within the streaming market that helped you to decide to extend that initial contract. Do you see a buzz in streaming?
[Peter Bondar]
It was clear to me from the start that the technology was great, it was the sales, marketing and management that was not fully perfected!
It was clear also that it was going to take far more than 3 months to address the issues that had built up over the previous two years.
The Board agreed to extend my tenure on a month by month basis as the issues and opportunities unfolded.
As far as application streaming is concerned I think it’s a really cool technology and a logical successor to thin client computing of the Citrix/Tarantella type.
I’ve been involved in PC virtualization and remote terminal services since 1992 so I think I know good stuff when I see it!
Q. Endeavors recently showcased at MMS2007, without going into specifics obviously, can you give the readers an idea of how AppExpress was received by the delegates and if you consider that it was a productive few days, oh go on then lets be cheeky - did you get any leads?
[Peter Bondar]
It was a good show for several reasons, it’s the first time we have been seen publicly in about two years!
It got our sales and marketing guys working hard having to get lots of new materials, imagery and lots of associated things all going.
Yes we did get some leads and it gave us the chance to network with some of the industry’s key players. Pictures will be loaded on our web site soon.
Q. Mr Westerberg spent 2 years focusing solely on the games market, is that a market Endeavors are still encouraging and courting or is enterprise the space Endeavors wants to dominate?
[Peter Bondar]
Well no and yes!
We are still very much involved with the technologies of streaming games, we are not interested in being a content aggregator or a vertical solution provider for the games market like Exent.
We are talking to some games orientated companies about using our technologies as part of their solutions. This is our Systems Integration model.
As far as the Enterprise sector is concerned we see that there are sectors we can offer a strong and compelling offering, we are actively working those sectors.
Q. Mr. Hiroshi Nakagawa, Manager Japan, has been very quiet and there don't seem to have been any new contacts coming out of Japan, is his sole responsibility the Softbank contract?
[Peter Bondar]
Nakagawa-san has been working closely with Softbank in their roll out programs. Softbank (who acquired Vodafone Japan) are probably our most energetic and demanding client. They require and receive a lot of support and Nakagawa-san helps enormously in this area.
I cannot offer forward looking statements but just because things look quiet doesn’t necessarily mean that nothing is happening.
Whilst appreciating the Company's new policy of only commenting on matters of substance, and thus hopefully avoiding the PR /SP disasters of the past, there is concern amongst shareholders that following the recent significant deals with M$ and Citrix, for example, the Company, has been over cautious and needs to give the market a steer to better guide & manage shareholder value.
Q. Are you now able, for example, to comment on how future revenue will be generated from both deals?
[Peter Bondar]
No I cannot. The terms of the agreements at the request of our licensees is strictly confidential. I welcome our more conservative assessment of our situational analysis and our forward looking statements.
Better to impress than disappoint I feel. Having said that, I know that both these agreements create an environment that can only benefit Endeavors.
Q. What prompted the Board to sell Tadpole Cartesia Inc and are you personally satisfied that it will be in the shareholders long term interest?
[Peter Bondar]
I’m not at liberty to discuss this, maybe this is something to be raised at the AGM? However I was involved in the discussion and decision and fully supported it.
Q. For many years the shareholders have commented on the lack of support given to the company by the house broker. In fact they actually give the wrong web address for the company. With the company now perceived by many to be heading in the right direction are there any plans to sit down with the house broker and explain the business to them and get an up to date accurate brokers note issued to let the institutes know where the company is headed?
[Peter Bondar]
There are a lot of activities in the corporate development arena which David is leading and we are supporting. I’m sure we will see some ‘outputs’ of this in due course.
Q. Now someone who feels you can tell a lot about a person by this following question and wanted this put in to lighten the mood. What colour of socks do you wear?
[Peter Bondar]
Big subject, I left my first company in disgust after they criticized my colour of socks as the main issue at review time.
It's taken 30 years to get to the point where I now consciously choose some dark coloured socks for my first big business meeting. I have a relatively boring collection of black socks although quite a few are monogrammed with the days of the week!
Q. As stated earlier, you are contracted to Tadpole/Endeavors via your own company Flying Doctors, is there a point where you would be happy to take a more permanent position with Endeavors if that also meant that you still had the time and ability to operate your own business?
[Peter Bondar]
Yes potentially, as always, the devil is in the detail. I’ve always said that I would be willing to ‘follow through’ if required. We will have to wait and see!
I am of course a long term NED and would be happy to hand over to someone else if the Board felt it was the right thing to do and watch from the ‘sidelines’ too.
Q. Would you like to give a summary of what your thoughts are for the future development of streaming and in particular if the present products offer scope for enhancement to make the sector more desirable?
[Peter Bondar]
My vision is that every pc and mobile device will have a ‘widget’ that can stream applications to that appliance from a variety of sources. People will stream applications like they load Cd's and DVDs and application streaming will be as common as video/audio streaming is today.
AppExpress has the potential (in my personal opinion) to be the foundation technology for such a vision.
Technology goes in market life cycles. I think we are still in the very early stages of this market and we will see application streaming used in many diverse ways in the same way as we see web servers everywhere, even in home routers, TVs, burglar alarms etc.
Q. Do you think we are going to see more sales of 'Operating System' ready only computers in the future with everyone just streaming the products they require as and when they need them? Secondly, how far away do you see that being?
[Peter Bondar]
Absolutely, in fact some vendors will offer products that stream operating systems and applications! I think we could see such devices in the next few months.
Q. Is AppExpress a product that is suitable to be packaged as an off the shelf solution to small businesses of for example 50+ users and if yes, is that a direction you would like to explore?
[Peter Bondar]
Can we discuss this later this year? Maybe you would like to come to the AGM?
Seriously this is a logical extension and has been an evolving part of our product strategy for some time. There are all sorts of issues in providing low cost, high volume solutions which we are working our way through. Stay tuned!
Q. You have now been with the company for just over 8 months I believe; Is it your dream to be the person who brought Endeavors back from the brink and sends it forward into profit or do you leave emotional attachment at home when you take on a job like this?
[Peter Bondar]
Some one once said ‘Ruthless in the decision, sensitive in the execution’;
I think I can be ‘Dalek’ like in the analysis phase but once I commit to something then I hang in there. Frank Sinatra’s ‘I did it my way’ springs to mind.
For me I do things with a passion, it’s not a passion driven (I think) by ego but a very basic instinct to do the very best I can. I knew that Endeavors could, should and would be rescued. I didn’t know how, but intuitively I knew it would.
I regard what we have achieved so far as one of my personal greatest milestones and I’m immensely proud of that not just for me but for the stakeholders and the shareholders.
Obviously there are challenges ahead for who ever runs the Company, but I am proud to have been able to help in what many regarded the darkest hour and honoured that David and Mark gave me that opportunity.
Q. There is an airstrip for private planes not far from me here in Aberdeenshire, when are you going to pop up and take me out for a spin?.....lol
[Peter Bondar]
Sure, why not, the summer is coming on; I pop into Inverness often so I’ll drop in! I don’t take small children and dogs though! And we don’t spin this class of planes!
Q. OK final question. In your view are Tadpole Technology's darkest days now firmly behind them and do they have a future position as market leader in the streaming space?
[Peter Bondar]
Big questions!
Clearly the path has been far from smooth and many issues have been overcome. There are many risks both charted and unknown for any such company moving forward.
I personally think the AppExpress is a great product, its pretty mature so relative to other products its reliable, scalable and robust.
Anecdotally we are repeatedly told that ‘out of the box’ AppExpress is ‘better’ than the other guys. There are significant opportunities emerging, but there are powerful forces which we have to be cognizant off.
There are also dilemmas; shorter term profitability and possible shareholder satisfaction versus larger, longer term investment with potentially bigger payoffs.
There have been so many false dawns and broken promises I feel wary about committing myself.
If I owned the company and could mange those dilemmas without recourse to others it would be so much easier.
If I have anything to do with it we will give it a damn good go, but then I’m not risk averse!
Well I'm sure you will agree that Peter was probably as frank as he could be throughout the interview and judging by one of his answers may be willing to re-address some of those he couldn't quite answer yet - later in the year.
