DEC is dead, Long live DEC

After a long time I found some time to get through a book. I took a book that had been chosen by my current company's CTO as a recommended book for reading - "DEC is dead, Long live DEC". The book consists of three major sections taking about DEC's culture, its decline and then the lessons learned.

I have just started with the second section. The first one was interesting. I suppose many of today's top high-tech companies inherit a lot of legacy from DEC. I suppose what Ken Olsen would have done in today's high growth, high fluctuating environment. Possibly creating a DEC out in today's rapidly changing world would be really difficult.

Personally, I felt that this book gives a lot of insight into how a technically-oriented company led by a techie would span out into. I suppose management takes a bit of back seat in these type of companies and attitude comes to the forefront. I have seen a lot of MBAs in the HR departments of many IT companies. I strongly recommend them to read this section to understand how a techie culture would be. It is more towards getting things done, solving problems, fixing issues rather than a "do this in this manner", " come through this channel", etc.

Tracy Gibbons writes a chapter on DEC's other legacy - about how DEC influenced the society as a whole. It's an interesting read. Access the full chapter online at Tracy's consultancy site.