There are very few turn-around case histories in the computer industry that deserve to star as business school studies in how to do it unaided and get it right, but Data General Corp is a truly shining one. Storage Technology Corp deserves great credit but it did at all times have a viable product line where seven years ago, Data General had a proprietary minicomputer line that had been its raison d’etre for 20 years since its foundation but was not only in terminal but plummeting decline – and nothing else. Yet Ron Skates and his team wasted no time whinging, rolled up their sleeves and created two totally new product lines, the AViiON Unix servers and the CLARiiON disk arrays, and while there are all the risks that face all hightech companies lying in wait, the company’s second quarter net profit up 199% on sales up 16% at $389m, making it a smidgen bigger than its biggest ever in the go-go days, suggest that the company really is now back on an even keel, the down-side being that the company has scarcely grown over the recovery.
