Description
In 1976, computer scientists working at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center produced the first personal computer-the Alto, a complete hardware and software package. Their invention was not surpassed until the appearance of Apple's Macintosh in 1981. Yet today, fifteen years after it invented the personal computer, Xerox still means "copy." The reason is that the men running Xerox decided not to market the Alto. Their actions reflected all the complexities of Xerox's corporate culture in the mid-1970s: a one-product monopoly facing competition for the first time and losing market share, an organization grown bloated and complacent after more than a decade of unprecedented prosperity, and a numbers-oriented, nontechnical, and risk-averse top management. Fumbling the Future tells how one of America's leading corporations invented and then ignored the technology for one of the fastest-growing products of recent times. In hardcover, the book was a best seller in the San Francisco Bay Area. Its strong impact even reached Xerox, where it was used by executives in an internal management program. It is a book for anyone who is interested in the future of American business and the American
