Re: Death by analogy Part 2 (was Re: is ada dead?)

[Ted Dennison<dennison@telepath.com>]

In article <3B4B4BF9.12C1E8C@lmco.com>, Michael P. Card says...
>A business set up to operate in this kind of "build-to-order" environment is 
>simply not capable of mastering the other kind of business model, which would 
>be more like "speculative manufacturing," where you build something you *think*

When I was at LMC in Orlando they tried to commercialize their simulation image
generator business by making PC video chips. Their initial product was actually
fairly nice. It ran the Daytona USA consoles, and through a partnership with
Intel, got put in a lot of video boards. 

The problems happened after that. It seemed like they just didn't know how to
run a commercial business, but they knew what one looked like. So they practiced
some slavish cargo-cult style of business building. They separated themselves
from all the LMC support organizations in the building, so that they could be
lean-n-mean, but kept the same top-heavy management structure that the rest of
the org had (if anything, it was even worse). They saw that other commercial
companies give out free sodas, so they gave out free sodas. They saw that other
commercial companies use lots of inexperienced developers, so they refused to
accept transfers from anyone in the plant with more than 2 years of experience.

In the end, their biggest success was in selling the group itself to Intel
(another big company). I don't think they ever did ship a second-generation
chip.

>interest in the product, and DoD contractors really don't spend a lot of money 
>on that, just like housing contractors don't do much more than put ads in the 

Actually, they do. You just don't see them much because you don't golf or hang
out in bars. :-) But their marketing folks have probably never talked to anyone
who didn't have at least $15mil buring a hole in their pocket. They are more
sales people than anything.

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