Feb. 20 Historical Example A Viable Business Model Is Important

blog cover image
14
12.6K followers

Today in history is all about Ken Olsen, born on this day in 1926 and sadly a death in 2011. His scientific mind offered so much to the world of technology; his leadership style was great, but his downfall was an expensive business model. Anyway, let’s not go ahead too fast here.

Ken grew up in Connecticut with a rich heritage. His father’s parents came from Norway and his mother’s parents from Sweden.

Like so many great young minds, Ken had an inquisitive scientific, mathematical mind. At a young age he figured out how things worked and gained the reputation of being the neighborhood inventor.

A degree in electrical engineering expanded his knowledge base and landed him a job with more opportunity. While studying at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), the Office Of Naval Research of the United States Department of The Navy recruited Olsen to help build a computerized flight simulator. Of course he was ambitious and pursued another invention as well: the building of the first transistorized research computer.

Each opportunity led to more adventure and challenge. In the 60’s Olsen received patents for a saturable switch, a diode transformer gate circuit, an improved version of magnetic core memory, and the line printer buffer.

Remember The Early Days Of Line Printer Buffers?

We remember well the days when the printer would get stuck spooling. We would have to clear the spooler, reset and restart it.

Do you remember those days as well? Or do you still have challenges?

Anyway by 1967, Ken and a former colleague, Harlan Anderson, were eager and ready to form the Digital Equipment Corporation, known as DEC.

DEC, headquartered in Massachusetts, became the nation's second-largest computer company with IBM begin first. Its initial impact was felt in the area of minicomputers, which are sized between the mainframe and desktop computers. They are often referred to as servers used for scientific and engineering computations, business-transaction processing, file handling, and database management.

Later on DEC introduced the VAX and Alpha systems, which for a while were used as a standard in CPU benchmarks. Technology does not stand still however. On July 1992, Digital renamed their VAX/VMS to OpenVMS as an indication of its support of "open systems" industry standards such as POSIX and Unix compatibility.

We remember the days WA servers ran on UNIX. Now it looks like the AWS servers used by WA run on Linux.

What Happened To DEC?

In 1998, Compaq Computer Corporation, seeking to expand into the lucrative enterprise computing business, agreed to acquire Digital Equipment Corp. in a blockbuster deal worth $9.6 billion.

A Lesson On Business Models

Digital Equipment Corp. utilized the favored microprocessor technology, but its business model could not profitably sell a computer for less than $50,000. Its high cost led to its downfall so that’s why it was acquired as a blockbuster for Compaq.

We Can Be Glad WA Has A Business Model That Works

Creating a workable business model does take effort and foresight. We are so grateful to Kyle and Carson for keeping the price point of membership affordable for so many. The WA platform has so much to offer the world of online affiliate marketing entrepreneurs. It’s very exciting to see the membership grow.

Do you give much thought to your own online business model?

After all it is part of an Entrepreneur’s business.

Login
Create Your Free Wealthy Affiliate Account Today!
icon
4-Steps to Success Class
icon
One Profit Ready Website
icon
Market Research & Analysis Tools
icon
Millionaire Mentorship
icon
Core “Business Start Up” Training

Recent Comments

13

Thanks for the information. Great read

Glad you enjoyed it. You are very welcome.

Omg.....
In 1973 I joined DEC at what was called The Old Mill and later saw and shook hands with Ken Olsen! I remember the old Dec-10 series which you could open a door and walk into! Compared to today it's amazing!

Thank you for sharing your first hand experience. Wow! Shaking hands with Ken is amazing. You have a lot of memories to think about. And Yes today is certainly different.

I have developed brick and mortar models but have had difficulty with the online business model so it’s a bit hit and miss.

Thanks for your response. I have been thinking about this but have no concrete answer either at this point.

Hi George.
I agree with your point about developing a business model.

Personally I think that training on creating a business model and plan would be a valuable addition to the training here at WA.
:-)
Richard

Yes, it would. That would a a challenging task because there are so many pieces.

See more comments

Login
Create Your Free Wealthy Affiliate Account Today!
icon
4-Steps to Success Class
icon
One Profit Ready Website
icon
Market Research & Analysis Tools
icon
Millionaire Mentorship
icon
Core “Business Start Up” Training