DEC Is Dead, Long Live DEC

appendix dDigital

THE STRATEGIC FAILUREPeter DeLisi

In business as in war, defeat is deeply rooted in theorganizational dimensions of the loser’s strategy.

Joseph Bower,

Harvard Business Review

In this appendix I will argue that the collapse of Digital Equipment Corporation, as well as being a cultural failure, was fundamentally a strategic failure. This failure was rooted in DEC’s lack of appreciation for the power of strategy, its reluctance to make strategic choices, its inability to redefine its identity and reposition itself when necessary, its frontal assault on a more dominant force, and its lack of success in capitalizing on emerging new markets. Before we begin the discussion of Digital’s strategic failure, it is important that we discuss ...