Book Description
Digital Equipment Corporation achieved sales of over $14 billion, reached the Fortune 50, and was second only to IBM as a computer manufacturer. Though responsible for the invention of speech recognition, the minicomputer, and local area networking, DEC ultimately failed as a business and was sold to Compaq Corporation in 1998. This fascinating modern Greek tragedy by Ed Schein, a high-level consultant to DEC for 40 years, shows how DEC's unique corporate culture contributed both to its early successes and later to an organizational rigidity that caused its ultimate downfall.
Book Info
Text tells the 40-year story of DEC's creation, demise, and enduring legacy. Explains in detail how a particular culture can become so embedded that an organization is unable to adapt to changing circumstances, even though it sees the need. For executives wishing to make their companies more effective. DLC: Digital Equipment Corporation--History.
About the Author
Ed Schein was Chief of the Social Psychology Section of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research while serving in the U.S. Army as Captain from 1952 to 1956. He joined MIT's Sloan School of Management in 1956 and was made a Professor of Organizational Psychology and Management in 1964. From 1968 to 1971 Schein was the Undergraduate Planning Professor for MIT, and in 1972 he became the Chairman of the Organization Studies Group of the MIT Sloan School, a position he held until 1982. He was honored in 1978 when he was named the Sloan Fellows Professor of Management, a Chair he held until 1990. He is currently Sloan Fellows Professor of Management Emeritus and continues at the Sloan School half-time as a Senior Lecturer. He is also the Founding Editor of Reflections, the Journal of the Society for Organizational Learning devoted to connecting academics, consultants, and practitioners around the issues of knowledge creation, dissemination and utilization. His consultation focuses on organizational culture, organization development, process consultation, and career dynamics, and among his past and current clients are major corporations both in the U.S. and overseas such as Digital Equipment Corporation, Ciba-Geigy, Apple, Citibank, General Foods, Procter & Gamble, ICI, Saab Combitech, Steinbergs, Alcoa, Motorola, Hewlett-Packard, Exxon, Shell, AMOCO, Con Edison, and the Economic Development Board of Singapore. Schein has received many honors and awards for his writing, most recently the Lifetime Achievement Award in Workplace Learning and Performance of the American Society of Training Directors, Feb, 3, 2000 and the Everett Cherington Hughes Award for Career Scholarship from the Careers Division of the Academy of Management, Aug. 8, 2000. Paul Kampas is a consultant, researcher, and author with over two decades of multi-disciplinary experience in technology, systems, and strategy. Hi is principal of Kampas Research, a consulting firm that provides research, writing, thoughtware (intellectual tool) development, and educational services on technology, systems, and strategy.
DEC is Dead, Long Live DEC: The Lasting Legacy of Digital Equipment Corporation FROM THE PUBLISHER
DEC -- Digital Equipment Corporation -- was one of the pioneering companies of the computer age, making its mark with major innovations including the minicomputer, networking, the concept of distributed computing, speech recognition, and more. Yet the company ultimately failed as a business. In a real-life story that reads like a classical tragedy, DEC Is Dead, Long Live DEC shows that the very culture responsible for DEC's early rise also led to its downfall. Author Edgar Schein, who was a high-level consultant to DEC throughout its history, had unparalleled access to the company's story as it unfolded over the course of four decades. Schein and his coauthors tell the inside story of DEC's mythic rise and fall. In this era of post-dot.com meltdown, raging debate about companies "built to last" vs. "built to sell," and more entrepreneurial startups than ever, the story of DEC is the ultimate case study.
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