When ambitious young Chinese immigrant An Wang founded Wang Laboratories in 1951, the company operated out of a single room, had two employees, and made $15,000 its first year. By the 1970s, however, it had become a sprawling empire with revenues of $2.5 billion. But hard times were ahead for this computer giant. . . . 16 pages of photographs.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Chinese immigrant An Wang, a Harvard Ph.D. and computer pioneer, turned a Boston storefront operation into one of the legendary success stories in the computer industry. But by 1985 the glory years at Wang Laboratories had given way to a downward spiral of massive debt, layoffs and late product deliveries. To Boston Globe journalist Kenney, Wang's trajectory resembles a classic tragedy, rooted in a fatal flaw of its secretive, visionary leader--his obsessive desire for control and his placing of family interests ahead of those of shareholders. Wang's biggest mistake, asserts Kenney, was making his son Fred director of R&D, then president. An Wang fired his son in 1989, a year before his own death from cancer. This gripping, remarkably intimate saga discloses behind-the-scenes wrangling from the joyride years through the 1991 deal with IBM whereby Wang sells IBM products globally. Photos.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Wang Laboratories was a small firm, started by Dr. An Wang in 1951, that grew to play a significant role in the development of the U.S. computer industry of the 1980s. Kenney carefully traces the history of the company, revealing the tragic flaw in Wang's personality that caused this brilliant firm to lose momentum and fall away from the cutting edge of office automation technology. Based on interviews with former employees of the company, Kenney's account is an excellent case study of a company poised for a brilliant future but unable to overcome the stress of frantic growth. Business collections should add this title.
- Joseph Barth, U.S. Military Acad. Lib., West Point, N.Y.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
- Joseph Barth, U.S. Military Acad. Lib., West Point, N.Y.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Maybe moot but plausible in retrospect,
By Retrospective Reader (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Riding the Runaway Horse: The Rise and Decline of Wang Laboratories (Hardcover)
Riding the Runaway Horse came out more than fifteen years ago. As a business history, it captured the views held by many observers and former Wang employees around 1992. The author supports with plenty of interviews his claim that An Wang's character strengths and weaknesses created and ultimately doomed Wang Labs. His claim may be correct; at least the preponderance of his evidence supports him. But as shareholders, what can we learn about other surviving businesses from the Wang story? Probably not enough to make a good and also timely investment decision. Great human interest story, though.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good business history,
By A Customer
This review is from: Riding the Runaway Horse: The Rise and Decline of Wang Laboratories (Hardcover)
An Wang did okay. In fact, he did more than okay. He did great. He did work that he enjoyed, and he did it well. And he used his money to support a lot of good causes. No, when the company became huge, he didn't handle it well, but very few entrepreneurs are able to make this transition. The big strategic error was failing to pursue personal computers. This now seems incredible, but at the time, at the time, how many people did predict that a workplace would be filled with dozens and dozens of computers, networked together in various ways? For example, when I took computer programming in 11th grade in 1979-1980, we had one computer for the class (and we had to load a program using a cassette tape). This book generally takes a chronological approach, which I think makes any story better. At times, the author overexplains, so you might want to skip an occasional passage. All in all, a good read.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must-read for any early Wang employee,
By A Customer
This review is from: Riding the Runaway Horse: The Rise and Decline of Wang Laboratories (Hardcover)
A gripping book focussing on the helter skelter developments at the computer company. Will bring tears to anyone who worked for any length of time at the Lowell Mass facility in the seventies or eighties.
s. ganesh
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