Glenn Rifkin

This is a book I read for research at work. It is part biography, part business management book focusing on the career of Ken Olsen, the founder of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Digital was a post-WWII start-up that took advantage of new computing technology from MIT and the military and brought it to the commercial market. DEC basically invented the minicomputer in the 1960s. Minicomputers are huge compared to microcomputers (aka - personal computers), about the size of a refrigerator, but they provided users with real-time interactive capabilities they could not get with the massive IBM mainframes. DEC's minicomputers sold like hot cakes to corporate and research clients, and by the 1980s the company was the second largest computer company after IBM. Olsen promoted participatory management at the company which made a lot of engineers loyal to the company because of the creative freedom, although working at DEC also involved heated arguments to defend one's ideas. It was a Massachusetts company, part of the Route 128 Tech Corridor that was the center of the computing industry before Silicon Valley took over. Sadly, Digital didn't survive the transition to personal computers but this interesting book tells of an innovative company that made great products through unique management strategies.… (mehr)