“MLS SMACKDOWN”
We are gonna do this “Lucha Libre” style amigos!
In this corner…
Rapattoni
I’ll start off with Rapattoni. If there was a Vendor Hall of Fame or Vendor Life Time Achievement Award Andy Rapattoni would be first on the list to receive it. Andy would take the award, give a little speech and then go back to his office and continue to kick ass. When I talk to other vendors about Rapattoni they speak of them with venom. The kind of venom that was created in the cauldron of competition. Andy, his wife, and now son Nick have been doing it, and doing it well for 38 freaking years. 38 years people! They started their company back when Nixon was in the White House!!!
The biggest testament I can say about Rapattoni really revolves around what some consider a failure. Remember the Rapattoni lock box? They made a big deal about it, had a proto-type and then…..dumped it. I think that took a lot of guts to take on a project like that, but even a bigger set of balls to make the decision to drop it. That’s what is called confidence.
Strength: Experience and their independence.
Weakness: Will Nick be able to pick up where the old man left off?
Secret Weapon: Watch out for the “sleeper hold” from Rex Marr.
FNRES
When I think of all the people at FNRES and Cyberhomes the phrase I come up with is “Dream Team”. These guys have a boat load of talent all over the country. I was listening to Marty Frame on an Inman Audio Town Hall last week and you can tell that Marty is thinking 3 steps ahead of everybody. I’ve met Jay Gaskill only briefly but you can see this guy is a player that is accustom to being number one.
Putting John Hensley in charge of both MLS and Broker/Agent solutions is one of their best moves yet. John has a good balance of business and tech savvy and this role needs both. FNRES has been a sort of menagerie of acquired companies over the years and it’s about time they leveraged all their assets under one chief. Plus it’s not a secret that FNRES has some of the best technology out there, 2009 could be the year when Bob Morse and his team line ’em up and knock down some big wins. They have a lot of good hard working people and I know they will have a lot of us rooting for them in 2009.
Strength: Technology and talent.
Weakness: Will Bill Foley let them implement?
Secret Weapon: They keep hinting about something big, something new, so I guess we will have to wait and see.
Next up…
FBS and Marketlinx
Feliz Navidad everyone!
Greg,
Thank you for your recognition and nice comments. I have been CEO of the company for almost 40 years and I am proud to have Nick Rapattoni, our son, taking over. Niki and I will remain active in the company.
Nick is a tour de force and will carry on the company traditions. He has the leadership skills to take Rapattoni to dominance in all of its businesses.
Look for great things from him.