
18 • Strategy + Teamwork = Great Products
world- class manufacturing techniques in the corporation’s several facto-
ries. At that time in the 1980s, Northern Telecom had the most advanced
manufacturing plants in the world, manufacturing digital switching equip-
ment for the telephone industry. We employed all the latest techniques at
the factory oor, but top management failed to recognize that the market
was shiing toward computer- driven products. Instead of converting the
factories to digital data centers, top management was caught up in the dot
com craze and acquired companies le, right, and center at outrageous
costs. ese acquired companies ...