{"id":3516,"date":"2019-05-31T07:00:03","date_gmt":"2019-05-31T14:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/?p=3516"},"modified":"2019-05-31T07:00:03","modified_gmt":"2019-05-31T14:00:03","slug":"championship-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/championship-teams\/","title":{"rendered":"Championship Teams"},"content":{"rendered":"

From 1962-1968 the New York Mets were a last place team.\u00a0 In 1967 the team signed Tom Seaver<\/a> \u2013 who would turn out to be a franchise player.\u00a0 They won the World Series in 1969.<\/p>\n

The Boston Red Sox were suffering from the Curse of the Bambino<\/a>, with many believing they\u2019d never win another championship.\u00a0 In 2001 they brought in Manny Ramirez and then in 2003 they added \u201cBig Papi,\u201d slugger David Ortiz and pitcher Curt Schilling.\u00a0 They won it all in 2004<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sports history is full of examples where teams have turned around their image by making small tweaks to their line-up. So is the history of technology.<\/h3>\n

In 1997 Apple Computer was at the brink of declaring bankruptcy. Steve Jobs returned to lead their rebirth, creating industry defining products in the desktop and then personal device space.\u00a0 Apple is now one of the most valuable companies in the world.<\/p>\n

Dominance in sports, technology and other industries doesn\u2019t come out of nowhere and doesn\u2019t happen overnight.\u00a0 It happens when an organization\u2019s leadership creates a vision, and rebuilds their roster and\/or portfolio \u2013 often one step at a time \u2013 until the success finally becomes obvious.<\/p>\n

Not everyone recognizes this while it\u2019s happening. In 2003 Boston lost to the Yankees in the playoffs, and in 2004 they were down three games to none in a best of seven playoff series.\u00a0 Many people thought the curse was still in effect and they would lose again.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t.\u00a0 They won.<\/p>\n

I selfishly bring-up all of these examples because I just (four months ago) joined a championship team and not very many people realize it.\u00a0 Plantronics \u2013 the global leader in audio headsets and endpoints \u2013 and Polycom \u2013 one of the pioneers in video collaboration \u2013 recently combined into a new entity called Poly.\u00a0 We\u2019re on our way to a championship \u2013 even if you haven\u2019t noticed it yet.<\/p>\n

Both \u2018teams\u2019 have experienced plenty of past glory.\u00a0 It was a Plantronics headset that brought us the famous words from the moon \u201cOne small step for man, one giant leap for mankind\u201d almost exactly 50 years ago<\/a>.\u00a0 When NASA (and really any organization) knew their communications was mission-critical, they turned to Plantronics for the best and most reliable technology.\u00a0 No slouch itself, Polycom\u2019s iconic triangular speakerphone is now in the Smithsonian Museum<\/a>, standing as a monument to how it changed the nature of business communications.<\/p>\n

As cheap headsets became available at the grocery store and expensive headsets were suddenly judged more by their fashion than their quality, it was a little easier to mistakenly look past Plantronics.\u00a0 As office politics and business controversies came to light, it was a little easier to look past Polycom.<\/p>\n

What has changed?\u00a0 Everything.<\/h3>\n

In 2016 Joe Burton took over the CEO\u2019s chair at Plantronics<\/a>.\u00a0 In 2018 Plantronics purchased and combined with Polycom<\/a>. Joe, just like those historical sports teams, has slowly and methodically improved the roster.<\/p>\n

Tom Puorro \u2013 who led the Unified Communications team at Cisco \u2013 came on board to help guide and manage the technology vision<\/a>.\u00a0 He and many others \u2013people who truly understand the changing nature of enterprise communications \u2013 have joined the team at Poly.\u00a0 Our vision of the future of collaboration is now more on-target than any other firm in the space.<\/p>\n

The roster however is not just the people, it\u2019s also the solutions that are emerging.<\/h4>\n