DEC Is Dead, Long Live DEC

part threeLessons and Legacies

Many of the lessons and legacies of Digital Equipment Corporation have been woven into the various chapters of part II. What remains to be done in the last two chapters and in the appendixes is to focus more specifically on lessons and legacies and to examine their implications for organization and management theory. In particular, the DEC story has tremendous implications for technical entrepreneurship and the role of boards of directors in helping to manage the evolution of technically driven organizations. The DEC story also illustrates in great detail what organization theories talk about in the abstract: the consequences of success, growth, and aging.

Management theories do not sufficiently take into account ...