[Info-vax] Out with Hurd, in with OpenVMS

[Michael Kraemer]

JF Mezei schrieb:
> Michael Kraemer wrote:
> 
> 
>>after which he was ousted and left Palmer the mess
>>that finally killed DEC.
> 
> 
> Palmer was no CEO material, just like Curly Capellas was no CEO material.

Maybe, but Olsen wasn't material for the 1990s as well,
let alone for the 21st century.

> Gerstner took over IBM in a FAR WORSE SHAPE than Palmer took over DEC.

I don't buy that. Both companies had big losses,
at the same time, for similar reasons, of similar size
relative to their revenue.

> Gerstner immediatly stopped the slash and burn that had been begun under
> his predecessor. 

What was it again that Akers did slash and burn?

> Deals were already in place to split IBM into a
> gazillion pieces to downsize IBM so it could pay its debts.

What debts? IBM had two lossy years, but otherwise still deep
pockets.

> Gerstner was then a good enough leader to quickly realise that CULTURE
> was a big problem at IBM and that it needed to be changed. And he did
> that through good leadership and choosing the right people to support him.
> 
> Of all people, Palmer, having worked at DEC and lived though the various
> Alpha vs Prism vs VAX 9000 debates, should have known that there was a
> big problem of culture and that Olsen's technique of internal
> competition no longer worked. But he was of no calibre to change that.

In the first place they had a problem with a changing market place
and external competition.
Less tech-centric, more customer focused, that would have
been the better strategy.

> So he changed the colour of the DEC logo, made the dot on th i round
> instead of square and then listened to Wall Street Casino Analysts who
> wanted to see heads roll. So he started to lay people off and sell off
> divisions.

DEC had way to many employees on their payroll compared to their revenue
(an Olsen mistake from the 1980s), so no "Casino Analysts" needed here,
just the usual survival strategy when times are getting tough.
IBM did that too, to a lesser extent though.
Same for selling divisions which aren't core business.

> Yeah, Olsen failed to correct DEC's direction. But at the time he left,
> DEC was fairly easily correctable with the right actions.

If Olsen had left five years earlier, maybe.