Why did Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) fail?
I’ve been asked many times for my view why I felt the then (1980’s) second largest computer company in the world ultimately got subsumed into PC supplier Compaq and both assimilated into arch enemy competitor Hewlett Packard by the late 1990s. This is my perspective; other fellow employees who shared the journey may have their own (and maybe different) perspectives.
I managed the UK Software Products Group in DEC and had a 17 year term there (1976–1993). There are a wide variety of components that contributed to the final state, though failing to understand industry trends across the company was not among them.
The original growth 1957 through to Jan 1983 has based on discrete, industry based product lines. In combination, they placed demand on central engineering, manufacturing and sales to support their own business objectives, and generally ran the show to dominate their own industry segments. For example, Laboratory Data Products, Graphic Arts (Newspapers!), Commercial OEM, Tech OEM, MDC (Manufacturing, Distribution and Control), ESG (Engineering Systems Group), Medical Systems and so forth. Absolutely laser focussed on fulfilling customer needs in each industry they addressed.
The finance function ran as a separate reporting entity with management controls that went top to bottom with little ability for…
