Readers of this blog know I quote Ray Wang often. Ray has just announced he is leaving Forrester. Over the last couple of years I have come to admire Ray. He is generous with content (and blogs and Tweets) when analysts are told to hide behind their firewalls. He says it as he sees it when most analysts have turned mealy-mouthed. He smiles a lot – every meeting with him leaves you energized though not sure if vendors he covers leave with the same feeling :)
And he is amazingly brave. He had no earthly reason to leave for Mumbai, India when the terrorist siege there last year was far from over. He did so because he had a presentation commitment he felt obligated to keep. Everyone I know calls him a “superstar” analyst – he was everywhere.
At a price. At an event where he sat next to me, I told him I was concerned how sleep-deprived he was. For what?
Analyst firms like Gartner and Forrester, unlike investment banks, do not really encourage “superstars”. Ray’s compensation was likely less than 10% of revenues he was directly or indirectly bringing to Forrester. It’s funny because I had the same realization precisely a decade ago about how under-compensated I was.
Whatever he does next, I have no doubt Ray will continue to impact the software industry.
I hope he does not mind calling him a fellow rebel. Glad to have you part of the Force!
