How the Utah software empire of WordPerfect was built from scratch by three graduates of Brigham Young University. Peterson, the company's original marketing director, was booted out in 1992, just as the firm topped $500 million in sales. WordPerfect—the 80's most wildly successful word-processing product—began in 1977 as an idle summer project by an underemployed Brigham Young computer-science instructor named Alan Ashton. When the program miraculously worked on the mainframe computers that were then the norm, he hired Bruce Bastion (the author's brother-in-law and a college band leader) to help sell it, and the author (then part-owner of a failing drapery store) to be business manager and marketing guru at $5.00 an hour. A few years later, Ashton and Bastion appeared on the Forbes 400 list of America's richest people and—in spite of predictable but fascinating fumbles and glitches—sales were soaring and the company couldn't hire programmers and support personnel quickly enough. But in addition to a fast-flowing stream of new PC- compatible WordPerfect products, the company launched a series of secondary products with names like P-Edit, MathPlan, SSI*Data, SSI*Forth, and InForms—all of which failed. Meanwhile, Peterson- -desperately trying to promote all the new software while maintaining a semblance of order in a corporation now 600-strong and full of turf wars and chaos—became something of a tyrant. In the final battle—fought over distribution strategy for WordPerfect 5.0—he lost and was abruptly out: ``There was dancing in the aisles of some departments.'' Nevertheless, he shares his painfully acquired management philosophy in an afterword. A well-written and often hair-raising tale of serendipitous software success, given a special timeliness by the comparable corporate shake-out at Apple, including the firing of longtime chief John Sculley. (First printing of 25,000)
Pub Date: Dec. 20, 1993
ISBN: 1-55958-477-7
Page Count: 208
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1993
Perceptive perspectives on the organizational order that could characterize successful institutions in the Global Village's high- tech future. Asserting that rigid hierarchies with built-in caste systems will not be able to respond effectively to the postindustrial era's demands, Helgesen (The Female Advantage, 1990, etc.) focuses on an alternative framework she felicitously dubs ``the web of inclusion.'' In the author's persuasively documented view, this flexible, functional, participatory structure affords many advantages, including the ability to evolve by trial and error. In addition to taking individuals previously relegated to the periphery and making them integral to a productive communal whole, she observes, networklike webs can (with a big assist from advanced hardware and software) push power down the traditional chain of command to erstwhile subordinates: in the military, to cite one arresting example, front-line troops able to identify and hit targets of various sorts. At the heart of the author's disquisition are case studies detailing how web arrangements have helped four companies and one medical facility overcome challenges of the sort apt to be commonplace in the next century. Unfortunately for Helgesen, Intel—her marketing paradigm for the fine job it made of appealing to PC users over the heads of equipment manufacturers— has recently suffered through a widely publicized fiasco involving the Pentium chip's shortcomings. On the plus side of the ledger, Anixter Inc., Boston's Beth Israel Hospital, the Miami Herald, and Nickelodeon provide object lessons on ways in which webs can deal fruitfully with problems such as diversity and continuous employee training programs. At the close, the author shares some constructive thoughts on workplace design, the virtual office, and allied instrumentalities that could encourage the best and brightest staffers as well as their less gifted colleagues to assume greater responsibility on the job. A first-rate contribution to organizational theory and practice. (Author tour)
Pub Date: May 15, 1995
ISBN: 0-385-42364-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The former president (Jankowski) and senior vice president (Fuchs) of CBS consider television's future and find the corporate networks in great shape despite cable TV's rise. The authors argue that the networks possess inherent strengths that will keep them powerful for many years to come. These include: tremendous concentrations of money, talent, and experience with long-established methods of creating popular entertainment; alliances with affiliates that pool news and other resources; and enormous audiences that will continue to lure advertisers. The virtues of the network concept explain Rupert Murdoch's recent success in building Fox and Ted Turner's attempted takeover of CBS, which occurred even as the media was sounding the networks' death knell. Meanwhile, a growing number of cable channels and emerging alternatives, though hobbled by a scarcity of money and talent, must fight for ever tinier slices of the viewer pie. This argument may be seen as self-serving, given the authors' backgrounds, and much of the rest of the book is little more than an apologia for TV. Sections on violence fail to consider important evidence of links between television and real-world violence. Other arguments- -that Americans want lowest common denominator entertainment, and that TV can't provide more balanced electoral coverage—also fail to persuade. But there's a strong dose of common sense in the authors' skepticism about the threat posed by cable and by developments like high-definition television, pay-per-view, and home shopping. The book also offers a solid overview of how networks function, of government regulation of TV, and of public television. Anyone betting heavily on the ``information superhighway'' should consider this bottom-line view. Take the rest with a grain of salt.
Pub Date: May 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-19-507487-4
Page Count: 165
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
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