Scott Kriens, Chairman and CEO, Juniper Networks
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As chairman and CEO of Juniper Networks, a $2 billion company in a $20 billion market, Scott Kriens has to get creative when it comes to grabbing enterprise market share from rival Cisco Systems. Kriens' strategy has been to focus on enterprises and service providers. And lately, it appears that the strategy has been paying off.
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Last month, Juniper, Sunnyvale, Calif., rolled out its first line of Ethernet switches with routing capability. Its enterprise-focused Service Layer Technology business grew 27 percent over the past year. And Kriens thinks Juniper is better positioned than Cisco to capitalize on the coming boom in service-oriented architecture.
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But keeping up with Cisco isn't Kriens' only challenge these days. Kriens is among the executives under investigation for stock options backdating, which has dented Juniper's stock and fueled acquisition rumors.
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Despite Juniper's recent woes, channel partners say Kriens' move to bring in IBM channel veteran Frank Vitagliano and give him full control over direct and indirect sales shows that he's listening to their feedback. "With some CEOs you get a lot of lip service, but Scott is clearly interested in leveraging the knowledge from Juniper's partner base," says Chris Labatt Simon, president and CEO of D&D Consulting, Albany, N.Y.