> DEC (and the other minicomputer makers) generally missed the shift from vertical integration to horizontal integration
Great comment, and absolutely right. I seem to recall that Andy Grove wrote a whole book about that ;-)
With hindsight, I should have recast my NIH statement, because those developments may have been a function of the desire to own as much as possible of the vertical stack.
I forget which book by Grove it was but I remember reading it when I was doing some strategy research for a client once.
You may be right that DEC's NIH was something of an outcome of vertical integration. It was widespread in that sector and just generally there wasn't anything like the sort of coopetition that would come later. I still remember at Data General getting an absolutely flaming email from a sales rep because we had OEMd a LAN board from DEC for a system after we had switched to some sort of industry standard bus. The email was to the effect that "We're fighting with these guys every day and you guys in corporate turn around and stab us in the back by buying their products."
Great comment, and absolutely right. I seem to recall that Andy Grove wrote a whole book about that ;-)
With hindsight, I should have recast my NIH statement, because those developments may have been a function of the desire to own as much as possible of the vertical stack.