Conference 7.286::digital

	I'm sure the terminals development group is looking
	ahead for ways to make more  VMS character-cell
	applications.

	I'm sure the PC folks are looking ahead for ways to 
	incorporate more DEC "added value" to personal
	computer products ( thereby insuring headaches and
	incompatibilities for customers ).

	I'm sure our disk drive people are developing yet
	another proprietary storage architecture...that will
	sell, oh, 500 units.

	I'm sure our sales organization is ramping up to sell
	the loss-leaders hardest.....highest margin, you know.

	I'm sure our Field Service organization is planning
	to move all repair parts to Maynard...central storage is
	best for record-keeping.  Besides, if the customer gets
	a spare part, that's one less for logistics.

	I'm sure software engineering is spending a lot of dough on
	ways to get patches to the customer more quickly....and 
	not a dime on getting it right in house.

	Steve H
	(wearing my cynical hat today)

    
    No. There is no one in Digital looking out for the future. Not one
    person is looking ahead and trying to figure things out. Everyone's
    just sitting around waiting til the money runs out, then we're all
    going home. 
    
    Now really, what kind of answer are you looking for? 

    
    No, it's an excellent question.
    And two very appropriate replies.
    I'm just trying to work my way into the future.  I would prefer it be
    with Digital.
    

    There could be if there is enough people who believes and also makes
    their best to get the better tomorrow.
    
    I don't know how we can get this kind of situation, because there is
    far too much humans who thinks only about the going quarter and the next
    quarter. And the very long term plan considers the whole FY93.
    
    If we stay in this kind of thinking we won't be in business after five
    years.

re: .1

>>>	I'm sure our disk drive people are developing yet
>>>	another proprietary storage architecture...that will
>>>	sell, oh, 500 units.

Steve, if it helps ease your cynacism, a look around the CXO plant indicates
500 units is probably closer to our daily disk drive production than the lifetime
production. Also, Charlie Christ (V.P. of Storage) and the people working in
Storage are VERY serious about putting together a viable 5 year plan and
executing it successfully. Most of us in Storage realize we will be out of 
business very quickly if this planning effort is not successful.

-John

My own organization (SDT) is involved in an ongoing exercise called "Future 
Mapping" to do precisely this (project where our market is going 5 years out, 
plan how to get there, track our progress on that plan).

--PSW

    Does Digital have a future????  I heard this other day and would laugh if
    it wasn't so true sounding...for those of us who are left (today anyway):
    
    Working for Digital is like re-arranging dec(k) chairs on the Titanic!
    
    Sorry to be negative...It is not my normal...but it is what DEC has taught
    me.
    
    -pat

According to the September 14th issue of Information Week

                  Trying to Top Alpha 

Only weeks before it is expected to debut its first Alpha-based products,
Digital Equipment Corp acknowledged it is already hard at work on a future
generation of its trail blazing Alpha RISC processors. The planned chips are
said to run at 1,000 Mhz (NOT a missprint), five times faster than the current
Alpha processors. The new chips are already being tested at DEC's Palo Alto,
Calif. research center. Dubbed Bips, the future version of Alpha will provide
up to a billion instructions per second. There is no word on when Bips could 
show up in actual systems  
******************************************************************************
Re Disk Drives

 As was mentioned previously, CXO manufacturing is in the OEM business, big time
we have over 30 customers now, with more coming on everyday. Our biggest problem
is gearing up for the demand for the RZ26 1.05 Gig drives. The future 
incarnations of the 3.5 and 2.5 products will probably be even more popular.
The recent joint venture with StorageTek, Rocky Mountain Magnetics helps 
meets current demand for thin film heads and puts us on the leading edge of the
new magneto-resistive head future.

Things in the corporation are currently, still pretty bleak, but I think there
are probably some good indications that the worst of times maybe behind us. 


Regards
Barry

    I'm not 100% sure there's anybody doing what the basenote asks, but
    there sure-as-heck are people in this company paid to do it. They're
    called Vee-Pee's.
    
    Come to think of it, some of those same people were being paid similar
    money to do the same job 5 years ago too!

    James.

    FWIW, and from memory, some Japanese companies have 20, 30 and (if memory
    serves me right) even 50 year plans.

    Andr�

    re .0
    
    Is there a group in Digital that is looking back five years and trying
    to figure out all the mistakes we made and how we can learn from them?
    
    Dick

>>>    Is there a group in Digital that is looking back five years and trying
>>>    to figure out all the mistakes we made and how we can learn from them?

If there is, the group is probably composed of old DECcies. So they can't
possibly recognize all the mistakes (not the least of which is having too many
entrenched DECcies without any business experience at any other companies run
the show here).

Vicki Meagher

    I HOPE Bob Palmer will clear out alot of the 'old guard' which led us
    to where we are now after October 1st.  I hope they are not just moved
    out somewhere, still drawing a salary, benefits, etc.  This is really
    demoralizing.
    
    I know of situations where people in an office do not know what a
    certain handful of people are doing.  They have offices, phones,
    terminals and secretaies, but everyone in this particular location 
    does not know what these handful of people do.
    
    A group of us at lunch on Friday named at least 6 level II mgrs and
    above who 'lost' their jobs but ALL went to the Projects Groups and
    none of us at least know what they're doing.
    
    We can not continue to cut the worker bees arbitrarily and keep people
    around as managers with as little as 1 person each.  If we're asked to
    participate in the TFSO, I believe all levels should participate, but I
    know, looks who is making the decisions...

    I fear there is a note of oversimplification here.
    
    Some of the "old guard" got fat and lazy.  Some were ripping off
    Digital.  Others were trying to "do the right thing" but were too nice
    to be effective.  Some couldn't get anyone to make a decision, even in
    the face of disaster.
    
    Some of the "new guard" never caught on to what Digital was about. 
    Some were the mba's who knew all the models but didn't know the
    business.  Some were imported managers whose previous experience was
    predatory and who continued those habits here.
    
    If it were as simple as "old" vs "new", there would never have been the
    colossal mismanagement we've seen.  I doubt BP will be trusting enough
    to keep all the old guard or all the new guard.  In any case, I think
    he will look for results first and reputation second.  At least, I hope
    so.
    
    Dick

>>>    If it were as simple as "old" vs "new", there would never have been the
>>>    colossal mismanagement we've seen.

What about the groups that have nothing but "old-guard" managers? Meaning,
everyone with any authority in the group has been at DEC for at least 8 years,
in some cases many more years.  I'll bet we have a few of those groups around. 

Vicki Meagher

    re .16
    
    Vicky, maybe nobody with authority in your chain was powerful enough to
    help or hinder.  There are plenty of groups far removed from the place
    where decisions that needed to be made weren't.  That, in fact, is part
    of the problem.
    
    Dick

    re .16
    
    I agree with Dick, let's not OVERsimplify things here...If we (Digital)
    were to take off on a tangent against "Old Guard" managers (assuming
    that this refers to someone who has been at DEC for >10yrs?) we could
    lose alot of GOOD managers, as well as bad.  I like the idea of holding
    ALL management accountable, and those that aren't should go.  I do
    think
    that management at DEC is very POOR, and something has to be done...
     

    I would be surprised if someone, somewhere within Digital, weren't
    studying future trends.
    
    But perhaps the relevent question is ... will Digital be able to
    implement, and stick to, ANY plan long enough to make the investment
    into such a study worthwhile?
    
    Not unless we quit this tendency toward constant reorganization and
    micromanagement (IMO).
    
    ... Bob
    

    re: .19
    The first step in sticking to the plan would be to communicate
    that plan to all employees so that we're all on the same page.
    
    So, in other words, no.
    
    Rick
    who_is_still_waiting_for_an_official_notice_that_Ken_has_resigned

re .21
>    Is there a group in Digital that is looking back five years and trying
>    to figure out all the mistakes we made and how we can learn from them?

Beats me.  But if you can get hold of a copy of the September 1992 issue of
UPSIDE Magazine, the author of "The Ultimate Entripreneur" has the cover story
on DEC/KO/BP and goes in-depth into how we got here and where we can go from 
here.  Extraordinary reading!  Good perspective.  Lots of interviews with 
current and former DECcies and sidebars on the VAX 9000 and our PC efforts.  Far
too long to rekey here.  Track down a copy.  As far as I can see, it fairly
represents the problems that brought Digital down.

    What type of magazine is UPSIDE?
    
    i.e. is it something I could buy at any newstand?
    
    thx
    

    
    re .22,  What kind of a magazine is it - Well the letter head says
    "Interpreting the Impact of Technology for Top Managers".
    
    I have never seen it except in Calif., or when someone there mails it
    to me.  I have the Sept issue and did truely enjoy the article and
    sidebars.  I also enjoyed the cover cartoon - KO in his canoe about to
    go over a waterfall.  
    
    Upside's subscription address is
    
    		Upside Publishing Co.
    		1159-B Triton Drive
    		Foster City, CA. 94404
    
    
    /Mike J.

    hi,
    this is not about DEC but it talks about something remotely related
    to looking in the future in a company.

    current issue of business week, 9/28/92 have a big article about hitachi,
    they seem to have plans 25 years ahead to go into things like
    neural computing, and other weird and advanced things like this,
    i recommend it highly to read for anyone interested, and to get a 
    view about what the competition doing, they talk in the article about the 
    importance of basic scientific research in Hitachi.

    i was going to write excerpts from it, but it is too long, and Ross
    perot is right now on TV and i dont want to miss that.

    /nasser