23 October 2009

Remembering DEC ~ Epic MIT Spinoff Firm...

Innovation Economist Scott Kirsner writes about Remembering DEC: Memoir from Co-Founder Harlan Anderson Due Out in November...
"Harlan Anderson just turned 80 this month. With Ken Olsen, he started Digital Equipment Corp., which was one of the pillars of the Route 128 era here in Massachusetts, and at one point was the second-biggest technology company in the world. Next month, his memoirs are out: Learn, Earn & Return: My Life as a Computer Pioneer. [...] Olsen and Anderson left MIT in 1957 to start a company that would design new computers that took advantage of the shift from vacuum tubes to transistors. [...] At its peak, DEC employed an incredible 140,000 people worldwide. Olsen was replaced as its leader in 1992, and in the late 1990s, many Digital businesses were sold off, culminating in the sale of the company to Compaq in 1998."
The photo of the early DEC Board is pretty epic in that it reminds us of Jay W Forrester, MIT Sloan Professor Emeritus whose former students have gone on to found more high-impact ventures than any other Institute faculty member! Digital, MITRE, 3Com, Patni, Pugh-Roberts, Meditech -- this list continues. Jay even used his own System Dynamics methodology to model the growth of startup companies... and used it as a board member at Digital;-)

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