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The Digital Culture
So many of us grew up professionally and
thrived within the famous Digital "culture" — whether
in engineering, manufacturing, marketing, sales or services... the
empowerment of the individual and innovative style of matrix management
provided a foundation for all of our employees to shine.
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Please see presentation by Debra Amidon from
the 2008 Gordon College Ken Olsen Science Center Dedication.
This is under the Digital's Heritage Section.
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Nov. 2015: Sent in by Frank Coyne of Digital
Galway Ireland:
DEC Model.pdf (click on link)
The retrospective DEC Leadership, Legacy and
Corporate Social Responsibility programme model attached is just for
information, but may be of nostalgic interest to some of your diaspora/group
members.
An interesting, independent follow-up article
appeared in the Financial Times on November 2nd, 2010, titled: Case Study:
Seventeen years after the Digital closure, new doors open in Galway, which
your group members might also find interesting. Francis P.
Coyne, Executive Education and Training Consultants
Tel: + (353)-1-288 5628 - Mobile: (087) 254 2634
http://www.frank-coyne.com
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Here are links to two Culture documents
developed in the 1980s by Reesa Abrams:
1/12: Also on culture - Rob Dandrade sent
in a document about
"Leadership and Follower-ship" authored by John Fischer.
Download
the "Ken Olsen Memory Book" compiled by Gordon College for their Tribute.
This is a 3.2MB file in pdf
format (over 80 pp.), so we recommend that you right-click on the link and
save it to your computer's hard drive before viewing it. It is a
remarkable testament to Ken's professional contributions and personal
values, and overwhelmingly expresses the love and admiration we still feel
for him.
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| The Ship of
DECItaly |
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Alessandro Peruzzetto
(1st, right) and Angelo Bonomo (1st, left) came from Italy to attend the
Tribute to Ken Olsen at Gordon College in June 2006. Here they are
with Nancy Kilty, Gary Finerty, and John Loether enjoying dinner after
the Tribute. |
The Ship of DECItaly by Alessandro Peruzzetto
Friends, I want to share with you a nice
story...
Once upon the time, a great cruise ship was
sailing across the oceans, raising admiration and envy from the whole fleet.
Its strengths were: the high technology on which it was built, the care for
its passengers and, above all, the competence and team spirit of its crew.
Even on rough seas, the crew was always able
to handle the most critical situations, thanks to the team harmony built on
mutual trust and respect, and the passengers' expectations were always met.
Taking advantage of a slump in the cruise
market, the shipowner, aiming solely at his own profit, smelled a good deal
and sold the ship to a competitor, at a bargain price. A good business on
paper, but too complex to manage operationally.
The new owner refurbished the vessel, turning
it into a containership.
The old crew found it difficult, in most cases
impossible, to adapt to the new reality and to serve under the new property;
it was time to migrate towards more suitable harbors...
Thanks to the experience and the prestige
acquired on the fleet's jewel, the refugees were welcomed with open arms by
other shipowners: the officers became commanders of other ships, often
bringing with them their most trusted team-mates; the sailors found
comfortable engagements elsewhere; the most entrepreneurial ones became ship
owners and skippers on their own. Within a couple of years the old crew, by
then totally dispersed, was safely sailing the seas under different flags.
But, as it's well known, the sea does not
divide but rather unites the people who, even if physically distant, sail it
with love and respect. The old crew kept sticking to the values in which
they had been believing for a long time, managed to keep in touch and,
thanks to the initiative of some distinguished team members, founded a new
community: a virtual one, indeed, but nevertheless even stronger than
before.
I am pleased to introduce it to you:
its name is DECITALY.
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Alessandro with Ken in
Rome in 1990 |
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Engineers Rule -- Again? by Bill Ross:
I could not resist a quick comment on a 1/16 article in
Wired on "How Yahoo Blew It" (via the Boston Globe's Business
Filter). The article concludes,
"At Yahoo, the marketers rule, and at Google the engineers rule. And for
that, Yahoo is finally paying the price."
As a former Digital employee, I found this
highly ironic: being an engineering-driven company was exactly what was
usually blamed for DEC going down, down, and finally out.
"And the seasons, they go round and round...",
in Joni's words. Is quoting a lyricist too cheesy? Okay, then, how about Sir
Isaac Newton, the inventor of gravity? As Newton's Second Law of Psychics
states, "What goes around, comes around."...
Last summer, I went to a groundbreaking at
Gordon College where Ken Olsen was being honored by naming their new science
building after him. I got close enough to watch as a steady stream of his
former employees came up to express their heartfelt appreciations to him,
and got to see the flash in his eyes. So only then, since he was gone from
Digital by the time I worked there, I felt like I got to see who Ken Olsen
really was. But I sure got to hear a lot about him from the old DEC people
who were still there, and the story was told that when he came into the
company cafeteria, he'd pass by all the execs and go have lunch with... the
engineers. That stuff about Google people getting a day a week to work on
their own projects? That's exactly what was going on at Digital in its
heyday, and it all came from Ken.
Bill Ross
AltaVista, Littleton, '96-'98 - email Webmaster to contact Bill.
A Digital Experience - by Faye Detsky-Weil:
Monster.com asked people to write to
them about their best bosses.
The best boss I ever had was someone who cared
about me and my future. He took the time to talk to me about what I wanted
to do and where my interests were. He had me write objectives for my job and
for my career. At the time I dreaded it and thought of it as punishment,
only to look back and realize that he was doing me a favor. He was the first
boss I had who did this for me and I realized in the years that followed
that he was not typical of most managers. Many have to write up performance
reviews and objectives as a job requirement. He was my mentor. I was rather
young at the time, but I was not afraid to talk to him about my goals. He
encouraged my talking to him and knew that I was destined for a better and
more fulfilling career. He saw my potential and took an interest. After I
moved on, he contacted me about a position in his department. I turned it
down and have always wondered where I would be had I accepted it. We worked
together at Digital Equipment Corporation, the best company I ever worked
for. I am still in contact with some of my coworkers, but I regret not
having kept in touch with him. I thank him for making me feel respected and
empowered. That man is John Doherty.
Faye Detsky-Weil, Sept 1980–May 1986 (Tax
Department and Educational Services) - email Webmaster to contact Faye.
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