Was Excite@Home marriage doomed at the altar?
By Rachel Konrad, Corey Grice and John Borland Staff Writers, CNET News.com August 31, 2001, 4:00 a.m. PT REDWOOD CITY, Calif.–Excite@Home picked a fitting venue for its management revival meeting last summer, perhaps unwittingly: Paramount’s Great America amusement park has been home to some of the country’s most terrifying roller-coaster rides for 25 years. The company was in the midst of its own harrowing journey, and some managers took offense at the event’s cheerful veneer. They scorned a pep speech in which then-Chief Executive George Bell asked participants to stand up and shout a somewhat dubious new company mantra, “Recommit!” “Everyone thought it was ridiculous,” said a former employee who attended the retreat in Santa Clara, Calif., in the heart of Silicon Valley. “They didn’t acknowledge any of the problems that were going on. They just wanted everyone to ‘recommit.'” Managers had reason to be disillusioned. In September, only weeks after his pep talk, Bell resigned as CEO
