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