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Good morning, Marketers, and here’s a tale of two CEOs.
PegaWorld iNspire 2022 takes place next week — virtually again — and there will be the usual slew of product announcements from Pega. A shadow will inevitably be cast, however, by the award of $2.036 billion dollars in damages to its competitor Appian in a civil lawsuit alleging Pega misappropriated Appian’s trade secrets (Pega has said it disagrees with the verdict and has “strong grounds” for appeal). There were predictable effects on the value of each company’s shares.
Although Pega and Appian established themselves first in the business process management space, each has developed marketing and customer services offerings, which is why I’ve met a number of times with each of the founders. Alan Trefler of Pega and Matt Calkins of Appian are similar in many ways. Charismatic and fiercely intelligent, they each created their companies while in their twenties (Trefler is approaching 40 years as CEO of Pega). Trefler is a chess master, Calkins an inventor and champion player of board games. On the other hand, Calkins is softly spoken while Trefler can boom when the occasion demands.
Whatever the ultimate outcome of the litigation, there’s something poignant in seeing these two smart and successful entrepreneurs cross swords.
P.S. A reminder that a great way to contribute to the community is sharing what you’ve done with your martech stack over the last twelve months. Please take our MarTech Replacement Survey.
Kim Davis
Editorial Director
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