(2 of 3)
Morgan remains as surprised by his decision to leave Philip Morris as his former associates are. There was, of course, the classic lure of rescuing and running a company on his own and the undeniable mystique of the technological future. "The Atari name did it," says one go-between who arranged the Morgan and Ross meeting. "Morgan never would have gone if it had been Coleco." He also got one of the most lucrative safety nets ever written into a business contract. Although Morgan will not comment on it, Atari insiders place his guarantee at more than $8.5 million over the next seven years. Moreover, sweeteners could raise it to $25 million or more depending on his success in turning around Atari. At Philip Morris, Morgan was making $300,000 a year.
Even so, it was a surprising jump. Morgan, the son of a successful oil executive, had aimed at the top of a business career from the time he left college. He had a single-minded determination that was often concealed beneath an exterior of rumpled suits and scuffed shoes that might have been more appropriate for a distracted economics professor rushing to class. Yet after 20 years with the same company, Morgan left. He says he looked at himself in the mirror after accepting the job, smiled and thought out loud, "Why, you little demon, you."
Morgan does not hide his disdain for the management style that flourished under ousted Chairman Raymond Kassar. Says Morgan: "The way Atari did business is dramatically opposed to the values I live by and believe in. There was an incredible arrogance at Atari. It was a rigid, unchallenged and unchecked giant, and it has paid every penalty imaginable for its mistakes."
Morgan was surprised, then agitated, to discover that many of Atari's senior executives who were working to develop and sell personal computers had no use for them in their own homes. Admits Marcian E. Hoff Jr., Atari's executive vice president for product development: "I don't use a computer for home finances, and I don't know anyone who does.
It's just easier to balance my own checkbook. Home computers have been a wonderful solution looking for a problem." Morgan concluded that the industry was heedlessly unloading upon an unsuspecting public technology that served no purpose, almost as if it were indulging in consumer deception. Says Morgan, who is determined to make home machines more useful: "Seventy-five percent of these sets are being bought for home entertainment or by parents who are made to feel guilty about not further enhancing their children's computer skills."
Some other Morgan zingers:
>"I'm trying to make Atari a humble company in the right sense of the word. Being humble in business means your customer is more important than you are. No one has to pay for flamboyance, arrogance and flashiness."
> "Americans are mazed out and shot out. They're tired of video games. Atari must compete against movies, novels, TV, anything that makes up America's six hours a day of leisure time. It is criminal in my mind that Atari did not think of a game like Trivial Pursuit first. I don't believe the industry will be a hit again until it rekindles its imaginative resources. If not, it's bye-bye to the industry."