The founding, fantastic growth, and fast decline of Tor Olav Steine [email protected] 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 NORTEXT LFK Net NOTIS TSS, QED CAD/CAM SIBAS, TPS ADMIN SW NSB, KOS, LEO 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 NORTEXT LFK Net NOTIS TSS, QED CAD/CAM SIBAS, TPS ADMIN SW NSB, KOS, LEO 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 5000 Results 1974-1990 4000 3000 Revenue 2000 Profit Emplyees 1000 0 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 -1000 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 2010.10.21R&D Norsk Data www coAlfatroll-inventor - CompanyInternet/BBN confidential 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 … 2010.10.21but we heardAlfatrollthe - Companyexplosion confidential !! 40 The founding, fantastic growth, and fast decline of Tor Olav Steine [email protected].