The founding, fantastic growth, and fast decline of Norsk Data AS

Transcription

The founding, fantastic growth, and fast decline of Norsk Data AS
The founding,
fantastic growth,
and fast decline of
Tor Olav Steine
torolav@online.no
The best view of Rondane..
The Ronde
Castle, 2178m
The High
Ronde 2118m
..is seen from one of the lesser
tops (the High Ronde in the back)
www.norsk-data.no
FFI Cipher
Group 1966?
The First Three and the Chairman
Rolf Skår Lars Monrad-Krohn Per Bjørge TerjeMikalsen
Product maturation through projects
SAM2 Nord1
F-16 sim.
Mac, Fortran
ND 5,50,500..
SINTRAN
LFK Net
TSS, QED
SIBAS, TPS
NSB, KOS, LEO
NORTEXT
NOTIS
CAD/CAM
ADMIN SW
The Nord 1
Wilh. Wilhelmsen Taimyr
1968: Nord 1
Radar support
anti-collision
Tokke hydro
power stations
Dave Walden in the Arpanet team
D
a
v
e
ARPANET Logical Map, March 1977
Rolf Skår summed it
up as follows:
No Bo Lewendal, no
TSS.
No TSS, no CERN
contract,
Bo Lewendal
ca 1971
No Cern contract,
ND bankrupt in
1973!
LHC: The Large Hadron Collider
Geneva Airport
Norsk Data delivered
Nord 10 computers
To control the SPS
ring, starting in 1974.
Robert Cailliau, Tim Berners-Lee (left) and Ted
Nelson (right) at a WWW conference in Tokyo 1997.
F16 simulator
Saving flight hours
in the air
NSB Cargo Car
Supervision
(1976):
- Wagon rating
- Maintenance
- Tracking
Product maturation through projects
SAM2 Nord1
F-16 sim.
Mac, Fortran
ND 5,50,500..
SINTRAN 1-3
LFK Net
TSS, QED
SIBAS, TPS
NSB, KOS, LEO
NORTEXT
NOTIS
CAD/CAM
ADMIN SW
The ND 10 Panel
The NOTIS Concept
The NOTIS Keyboard
How do you inspire people to
perform at a maximum level?
The ND Spirit
• Work: You spend at least half of your time awake
at work—get the most out of it!
• Solutions: Do not choose the easiest one, choose
the one you think is right!
• Work pressure: The reward usually is proportional
with the difficulties.
• Things you dislike: Do something about them,
improve them if they are important enough.
The ND Spirit, contd.
• Work instructions: Until you are sure someone
else has taken over the responsibility, the
responsibility is your own.
• Colleagues: Find out who are important for you
(org. chart disregarded), and treat them
accordingly.
• Instincts: Be skeptical of some of them, do
some of the things you dislike the most, talk to
some of the persons you dislike the most.
The ND Spirit, contd.
• Performance: If you are honest to yourself, you
are the best judge.
• Improvements: You are allowed to propose
improvements, even if you are not perfect yourself.
• Obedience: If you are convinced that you are right,
stick to it.
• Personality: Be yourself. Like yourself. Improve
yourself.
• Mistakes: Admit them.
• Chances: Take them.
Successful ads
Successful ads
Successful products
Results 1974-1990
5000
4000
3000
Revenue
Profit
2000
Emplyees
1000
0
1974
-1000
1975
1976
1977
1978
1979
1980
1981
1982
1983
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
The Management Group
So, what went wrong?
What went wrong?
• The price of oil dropped 50% (1986)
• The Norwegian Government purchased less
• Disruptive technologies emerged
• Networked PCs, Unix  Standardized platforms
• Necessary shifts to systems integration not made
• Norsk Data was caught in its growt spiral
• Necessary changes would never had been accepted
by stock holders
• …and maybe a little arrogance
• Continous, successful growth for 13 years does
something to you.
The new management group
What more went wrong:
The Coup de grâce:
• A 200 MNOK convertible loan, to be repaid in
full (by 1988?).
• DnB guaranteed for the payback loan.
• ND was eventually taken over by Den Norske
Bank, who sold it to Telenor
– the Norwegian state owned Telecom operator, for
less than they could write off in taxes (because
of inherent losses in the ND books)
ND ceased to exist 1992
• The employees were dispersed
between a number of companies..
– Umoe, Telenor, Ergo Group, Siemens,
Bravida, EDB, etc.
----oOo----
19. Sept 2007 500 ND-veterans
gathered to celebrate the 40th
anniversary of a company that
ceased to exist 15 years ago!
40th anniversary Sept.19.2007
TerjeMikalsen
Rolf Skår
Lars Monrad-Krohn
ND’s 40th anniversary at the
Norwegian Technical Museum
Kristen Nygård
Ole Johan Dahl
Inventors of object oriented programming: Simula
Bård Sørbye
Robert Cailliau Dave Walden
Tor Olav Steine
2010.10.21
R&D Norsk Data
Alfatroll - Company
confidential
www co-inventor
Internet/BBN
R&D Norsk Data
39
..resulting in Internet,
WWW, and object
oriented programming
– in short: state of the
art computing
ND may not have invented the gunpowder
2010.10.21
Alfatroll - Company confidential
40
… but we heard the explosion!!
The founding,
fantastic growth,
and fast decline of
Tor Olav Steine
torolav@online.no