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Winn
strikes back
When it comes to chutzpah and salesmanship, few in Virginia
can top former e-tailer Craig Winn. With a revivalist's
fervor, Winn sold his turbo-charged vision for Value
America, a firm based in Charlottesville that Winn insisted
would revolutionize retailing by selling everyday goods
over the Internet. Yet much of what Winn promised never
came true. After bouts of bitter infighting, Winn was
pushed out as chairman of the struggling firm in December
1999. The company went bust a few months later, becoming
a national example of excess and dashed hopes during
the Internet bubble.
The
sad outcome has failed to dampen the irrepressible Winn,
however. Following a flurry of press accounts detailing
his overreaching, including a tell-all book by his former
communications chief David Kuo, Winn has struck back.
He has written, with colleague Ken Power, his own, 594-page
version of the history of Value America, called "In
the Comp-any of Good and Evil."
The
book - published by CricketSong Books, which Winn owns
- is part self-serving history and part Net Vision evangelism.
It's also apologetic as Winn takes to task Kuo, his
former PR guy, and John Byrne, a senior writer for BusinessWeek
whose 2000 cover story examined Winn's loose cannon
management style.
Interested
readers will have to shell out $29.95 for the Winn book
- about five bucks more than for the Kuo book. Another
part of Winn's media blitz: His views on the Enron scandal
are available from his latest public relations agent
in North Carolina.
-
Peter Galuszka
Return to Virginia Business - April
2002
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