I have talked about mVisible before since it employees many people that have previously worked at Citrix. Many of these people are old timers from the era of when I worked for Citrix in America.
I have been following Myk Willis’ blog over the last few months. Given that he is the founder of mVisible, he always has something interesting to say.
Recently, he decided to publicly post his presentation to the board of directors. I have never heard of a company doing this before so I was very impressed. If you would like to read about the presentation he gave, please read the following posts:
Transparency
Presentation Part 1 (Vision)
Presentation Part 2 (Technology)
Presentation Part 3 (Products)
The summary of what mVisible is doing is basically focusing on providing content to mobile phones in a way that is much more economical and also makes it easier for consumers and producers to directly interact for that content. I am quite sure that this summary is not accurate so I would suggest reading the presentation for your own view.
What makes this presentation so interesting is that it is possible for anyone to read it. Usually this stuff is considered highly confidential and only the board and the company executives ever see it.
In the early days of Citrix, employees were allowed to attend the board meetings. I remember going to a few of them and being very impressed with the workings of the board. Once we went public, this became a very private affair. I’m not suggesting that these meetings be public but rather that I enjoyed attending these meetings to see how they worked. If I remember correctly, I witnessed the process of naming a product (WinView) during one of these board meetings. I seem to remember that Scott Kinnear enjoyed these board meetings the most. Perhaps he is enjoying them again working for mVisible now.
Live near Brisbane, Australia. Software developer currently focused on iOS and Android. Avid Google Local Guide
Red Circle Blog 
Hi Jeff,
It’s great to see this type of thing on the web and we are all big fans of openness and transparency here at mVisible. We keep all our corporate data on our internal network for all to see. Some of this is because I know that at a tech company, the engineers will hack into any secure data anyway so you might as well let them see and ensure that nothing in there will surprise them. No really, I think it’s very important in this day and age, especially, in the wake of some of the bigger corporate mistakes, to be more open and honest, frankly.
I’m actually not all that fond of board meetings, however, neither at Citrix, nor here at mVisible. They are a lot of work but they do force you to look at your accomplishments periodically.
I hope things are going well for you down under.
Scott Kinnear
Thanks Scott,
It’s good to hear from you. Everything here in Australia is going well.
When I mentioned that you enjoyed board meetings I was referring to a time when you did not have to participate. This would have been somewhere between 1993 and 1995. I remember you suggesting it to the engineers to attend.
I’m sure it would have been much different to have to present and answer difficult questions.
The other day I was thinking about Fantasy Football. Remember the year you finally won?
I’m glad things are going well for you at mVisible and you have a great team.
Jeff