1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
IT Business Management Biographies, July 14, 2011
This review is from: Lessons: An Autobiography (Hardcover)
People who are interested in reading biographies of top entrepreneurs and top executives will be fascinated by the "Lessons" of Dr. An Wang written with Eugene Linden even considering the fact that the book was written 25 years ago.
Readers will learn about An Wang's way of life: his childhood and youth in the Republic of China, losing his family during the war, moving without anything to the United States, studying successfully at Harvard, working as a scientist, then transforming into a very successful IT entrepreneur, making his way to the top. Here the story ends. You get a lot of advice from a man who knew what he was speaking about, maybe that he did not always follow his own advices he was sharing with his readers.
It is absolutely worth the time to get an extended picture provided by people around Dr. An Wang and how the story developed further until the end of Dr. An Wang, March 24th, 1990, and of Wang as a company. Therefore I can highly recommend "Riding the Runaway Horse - The Rise and Decline of Wang Laboratories". Dr. An Wang thought he can implement his son as his follower. His decision was wrong. It was too late when Dr. An Wang realized that his son was not up to the challenge and he was forced to replace his son by an external executive. It did not prevent the once glorious company to fail.
In the IT history there is only one unique company where the founder and leader, Thomas Watson, Sr., made the right decision implementing his son Thomas Watson, Jr., as his successor.
PS:
On page 208 Dr. An Wang wrote: "The IBM System 36 which came out in 1983, is totally different from the IBM System 38, which came out in 1984."
This needs to be corrected: The outstanding IBM System S/38 was announced in 1978, first delivered in 1980, and it was the basis for the very successful IBM System AS/400 succeeding IBM S/36 and IBM S/38 in June 1988.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well Worth Reading, April 26, 2009
This review is from: Lessons: An Autobiography (Hardcover)
This is the best business autobiography I have read. Rather than toot his own horn (e.g., Jack Welch), Dr. Wang presents simply and clearly the lessons he learned as the founder of Wang Laboratories, a highly successful computer manufacturer. Unfortunately, he died of cancer in 1990. This book is a fitting memorial.
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4.0 out of 5 stars
A self claim sucessful story book, December 15, 2011
This review is from: Lessons: An Autobiography (Hardcover)
This is a book by an old thinking Chinese living in US. He was successful by learning western way of managing company, but when transferring power - he still think like Chinese - by giving company to his son who is not capable of running it. At the end he lost his company while he is fighting cancer at the hospital bed. I feel sorry for him.
Mr. Wang represents the old way of Chinese living in US.
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