Ray Wang has kept a few of us apprised of his plans since he announced he was leaving Forrester. It is public today he is banding with other Forrester alum Charlene Li, Deborah Schultz and Jeremiah Owyang at Altimeter.
Their moves continue the fragmentation in technology influence - the thousand points of influence I wrote about here. And a growing opportunity for boutique firms like Altimeter and mine to work with new partners. I started my own boutique firm 5 years ago in line with the "network" thinking John Hagel describes in this video. Lots of specialists loosely connected to bring value. We have accordingly gone to market with several other boutique firms. I am also proud to have been a founding member of the Enterprise Irregulars group of bloggers - many of who have their own boutique firms.
The last five years have also opened my eyes to the influence peers have on technology decisions today. As I have written before "In the 70s buyers turned to IBM for advice. In the 80s Andersen. In the 90s Gartner. Today, they turn to each other."
So, we look forward to working with Altimter and Ray with the humility of knowing our small role in that network of influencers. Congratulations and a hearty welcome from a network node!
