Conference 7.286::digital

This oft-repeated first paragraph from the 1992 Annual Report is probably as
close as we come to a mission statement:

                "Digital Equipment Corporation is the leading worldwide
                supplier of networked computer systems, software, and
                services. Digital pioneered and leads the industry in
                interactive, distributed and multivendor computing.
                An international company, Digital does more than half
                its business outside the United States, developing and
                manufacturing products and providing customer services in
                the Americas, Europe, Asia, and the Pacific Rim. Digital
                offers a full range of desktop, client/server, production,
                and mainframe systems for multivendor computing environments.
                Applications include transaction processing, data management,
                telecommunications, finance, realtime data acquisition
                and control, vector processing, education, publishing,
                manufacturing, software development, and health care."

								- paul

Extracted from Livewire awhile back (2/15/93)


DIGITAL'S MISSION

Digital's mission is to help its customers make the right information   
available to the right people -- where, when, and as needed -- so work
is done quickly and easily making the customer enterprise more  efficient 
and productive.

    Whatever happened to Ken's notion of the "seamless computing
    environment."  Not bad marching orders if you can figure out just what
    a seam is...
    
    Frankly, for a business course, you can safely state that the mission
    for any publically held company is to provide a reasonable return for
    investors.  Because Digital's market has diversified so greatly,
    crafting a singular mission statement to describe the entire business
    might seem arduous, limiting and unhelpful.  You might have better luck
    forging a mission statement for your own particular organization WITHIN
    Digital...
    
    Steve

According to a recent "Dilbert" ...

"We enhance stockholder value through strategic business initiatives
 by empowered employees working in new team paradigms."

    The Proposal Development System in VTX may have what you are looking
    for.
    
    FJ

IMO, it is pathetic that this company doesn't have a mission statement
that each and every employee is *very* familiar with.

Pete

    Check opal.  It has a very good company overview presentation which has
    both a vision and mission statement.   Frank

    I was taught the following during S.E.L.L. training:
    
    Provide the highest quality Information Systems, Products and Services
    to customers worldwide.
    
    -Doyle
    
    

    This came up in this conference sometime back. The company missions and
    vision statements, used to be on VTX, when it was commented on that
    they had changed several times, over the course of  a year, they
    disappeared...
    
    We have a mission statement, but if we tell it to you, then we will
    have to shoot you...
    
    q
    

	We will go anywhere and do anything (unless it is actually
	illegal) in return for a stack of dollar bills ten feet
	high before the end of the current quarter. [Right now we
	are somewhat embarrassingly limited to work which is in
	some way related to computers, but we are trying to put
	all that techy stuff behind us as fast as possible].

	We need the money so we can carry on with the serious
	business of developing new and even better processors.

	/Tom

My groups mission statement (from our quality manual) is:

		"To create and fulfil demand for software"

								- Ian W.

     How about this: 
    
     U.S. Digital Services Logistics is committed to the highest level of 
     quality by meeting or exceeding our customers expectations 100% of
     the time. We will achieve this through an environment of employee
     involvement and the continuous improvement of our processes.
    
    
     
    

    For an overview of DIGITAL that has been developed for outside use
    (i.e., for sales people to use with cutomers) go into the OPAL
    database (VTX OPAL) and look for a presentation entitled "Dynamics of
    DIGITAL" - it can be mailed to you a postscript file.
    
    There are also quarterly presentations summarising DIGITAL's financial
    performance on OPAL - again for use with external audiences.
    
    I think that you will also find a number of technology strategy
    overviews in OPAL - of course DIGITAL is not going to share its
    business strategies including target industries, customer accounts,
    etc. 
    
    Bill

    Thanks for all the replies.  You have been helpful.  I believe I have
    enough now to give my brief presentation of Digital's Mission statement
    and Business level strategy (TO BECOME PROFITABLE AGAIN!).
    
    THANKS

Well, I'll add the last one I was given :

"To be sought after by our Customers and Partners, to lead them in
planning and implementing open, multi-vendor Information Technology
solutions to achieve their business goals."


... It makes you wonder if we're succeeding or not ? 8^)

Hmm, the semantic content of .12 and .4 are about the same...

    
    
                       "Make a buck"
    

Digital - Everybody thinks we make watches, so we're gonna make watches!
Our Alpha watch is the fastest in the business. Our seconds are nanoseconds!
 

    I thought our mission was something along the lines of being committed
    to bringing innovation to customers or something like that.  At least, 
    that's what we're saying on our PBS commercials.
    
    Steve

This string of responses is really comical.  It reminds me of what happens
whenever a customer needs information.  There are countless sources to track
down, each slightly or dramatically different, and then you have to figure
out what is the most accurate, most current or most applicable.  It would be 
nice to have one source of current, accurate information.  No wonder customers
question our responsiveness to their requests.

    I thought it was to cut staff, benefits and expenses until we make
    a profit.
    
    		Alfred

    Your responses are GREAT!!  and Commical.
    Personally I am going with .8 which was " to provide the highest
    quality information systems, products and services to customers
    worldwide."  Among other reasons, it is the easist to remember and
    understand!  It will be interesting to see the official statment when
    it comes out.
    
    Thanks - I present it tonight!

    .22
    
    Best of luck in your presentation.  If they ask you to prove it then
    you is in hot water..

    re: .19 (Steve Sherman)
    
    Here is the verbage carried by Livewire -- I think it's what you're
    thinking of.
    
    [Gee, notice that if we change the word "success" to, say, "dining
    pleasure", the statement could be used for Ben & Jerry's?  It seems
    they have a better reputation for innovation than we do these days]
    
    
)0 Worldwide News                                 LIVE WIRE
 qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq
 Brand news:  It's Ben and Jerry's - ...                     Date: 18-Jun-1993
 qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqq
Page   1 of 1  
                  Brand news:  It's Ben and Jerry's - naturally 
   
        (The goal of the company's brand management effort is to position 
   Digital as "the company whose people are dedicated to customer success 
   through innovation."  In this ongoing series, LIVE WIRE will show what 
   brands signify in the marketplace and to customers.)
   
        Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc., the Vermont-based ice cream and 
   frozen yogurt maker, relied for years on word-of-mouth marketing.  
   When the time came to expand their operations beyond New England, they 
   had to advertise.  By basing their marketing campaign on a carefully 
   nourished brand equity -- their product's naturalness and high 
   quality -- Ben & Jerry's catapulted into a U.S.-wide enterprise.
   
                 --"Image is Everything," by Gerald Lukeman  


                       FOR DIGITAL INTERNAL USE ONLY

    I know this is DIGITAL and not MARKETING, but a distinction needs to be
    made between the mission statement, an advertising theme, and an
    advertising tag.
    
    The purpose of a mission statement is to guide employees in
    understanding what we're in business to do for our customers.
    
    The older and broader mission statements that positioned Digital as an
    alternative to IBM.  In the 90's the role once held by IBM and Digital
    cannot be sustained.
    
    Digital's advertising theme is "imagine".  The advertising tag is
    "puting imagination to work".
    
    I'm not a Pollyanna when it comes to the future of Digital, but on the
    other hand, the cynicism that's appeared in this conference seems to be
    more and more mechanical, trite, and tedious.  If you want to be
    cynical then please try to be original.

>This string of responses is really comical.  It reminds me of what happens
>whenever a customer needs information.  There are countless sources to track
>down, each slightly or dramatically different, and then you have to figure
>out what is the most accurate, most current or most applicable.  It would be 
>nice to have one source of current, accurate information.  No wonder customers
>question our responsiveness to their requests.

	This is SO true!  I can't count how many times I have looked for
	information and found different answers or versions of the same
	thing all over.  Different calls (internally) to different sources 
	bring a wide variety of responses.

	Perhaps we need to bring back Chick Shue.  Wasn't it he who had
	the "Five Clear and Powerful Messages" or "MAGIC"?

	Or how about "One Architecture", "One Message", 
		     "One Operating System", "One......."	

    
>	Or how about "One Architecture", "One Message", 
>		     "One Operating System", "One......."	
    
    	... one egg, one basket.

>	Or how about "One Architecture", "One Message", 
>		     "One Operating System", "One......."	
    

	One gun, one bullet, one foot.

Actually, Alfred's reply .21 was the closest, with minor correction it's
"spot on":

    "I thought it was to cut staff, benefits and expenses"...until Bob Palmer
    can make a whopping profit on the sale of what's left.

Rob

I thought it was:

"These are the voyages of the StarCompany Digital, who's five
year mission is to seek out and discover new products and
customers, to boldly go where no company has gone before....
these are the voyages of the StarCompany DIgital...."


JD

    A correction.  Digital consistently has "putting imagination to work"
    on its ads on PBS.  I had thought otherwise.
    
    Steve 

	You buy it, we fix it.....


Richard.

re: .28, .29

People seem to be knocking the One Company, One Architecture, One
Operating System message of the 80's.

That is a missplaced criticism.  The One * worked brilliantly as a strategy 
for ourselves and our customers, within its lifetime.  But like all 
corporate strategies, it had a limited lifetime, and needed to be replaced.

Our failing wasn't in the One * strategy, but in thinking that it could 
last forever.

   Gary

>    A correction.  Digital consistently has "putting imagination to work"
>    on its ads on PBS.  I had thought otherwise.
 
	But we don't know what it's working on (or who's imagination it is)

	I wouldn't buy anything off a company that uses such bad grammar in its
	slogan......what happened to quality?

	Oh and well I'm at it, the advert that is meant to show we work 
	together as a team, has a picture of a race that women are not allowed 
	to compete in.

	
	Heather.....ah, that makes me feel better!

re .35

But Heather, if we're looking at the same ad ("imagine our whole crew pulling
together") as I am right now, you can't have missed that it's a woman who's
calling the shots. :-))

The thing that struck me as being unintentionally ironic about that ad is that
our "crew" are unfocussed and they have all their oars out of the water.

\jon

	I haven't seen that advert, the one I was looking at was the barriers,
	a male steeplechase track event.

	Heather

    RE: .37  by SUBURB::THOMASH 
    
	>I haven't seen that advert, the one I was looking at was the barriers,
	>a male steeplechase track event.
    
    There's also the one with the mountain climbers going uphill with
    their heavy gear and the "Digital" person soaring overhead on a hang
    glider.  Anyone know how to scale a mountain with a hang glider?  I
    thought they only went downhill.
    

>    There's also the one with the mountain climbers going uphill with
>    their heavy gear and the "Digital" person soaring overhead on a hang
>    glider.  Anyone know how to scale a mountain with a hang glider?  I
>    thought they only went downhill.
 
I guess you just have to use your...

...imagination!

-steve-

   ....Aren't we putting imagination to work?

   :-) 

   Nari

	If you believe that consultancy from a company that has lost
	$6 billion of its own money and $20 billion of its shareholders'
	money in the last few years can help your company be successful...

	... you will probably also believe that a hang glider is a good
	way to climb a mountain.

	Thus the ad is a sophisticated means of pre-qualifying clients.

	/Tom

>	... you will probably also believe that a hang glider is a good
>	way to climb a mountain.

Depends.  I recall from my youth seeing a hang glider climb a mountain.  It so
happend that the updrafts along each side of the "range" were very good; the
glider spent at least a couple of hours in the air going from one side of the
mountain, up over the top, to the other side and then back again.

but, i digress....

    Re: the base note, a quote contained in the handouts at my 
    	induction stays in my memory.  It was:
    
    	"It is our intention to stay in business for ever."
    
    	(Or words to that effect.)
    
    	
    Mark

    Gliders do indeed always go down, relative to the air they are in.
    But if the air itself is going up at a afaster rate, the net is
    an increase in altitude.
    
    I remember once getting over 1000 feet per minute ascent in a glider.
    Gliders can fly so high you need oxygen.
    
    Hang gliders are nowhere as efficient as the kind that set these
    records, but still - if the air is rising, you will go up.
    
    A funny thing about gliders - the most important thing you have on
    board that will determine whether you will indeed go up is the
    competence of the pilot.  This might be the point of the ad.  But
    most people do not know these details.
    
    The highest I have been myself is only 11,000 feet, and I turned back
    then because I had forgotten the @*#%@* oxygen mask.

	re .42:

>Depends.  I recall from my youth seeing a hang glider climb a mountain.  It so
>happend that the updrafts along each side of the "range" were very good; the
>glider spent at least a couple of hours in the air going from one side of the
>mountain, up over the top, to the other side and then back again.

	Touch�!

	As someone said, analogy is the crudest form of thought, and it
	often falls short when pushed too far.

	My intent, of course, was to suggest that the ad would not have
	the desired effect. I still feel that the likely average reaction
	would be that the people on the ground are, by dint of much hard
	effort, gradually moving up; whereas the guy in the hang-glider
	is effortlessly dropping lower.

	/Tom

    I found the following mission statement in the VTX proposal area.  I
    assume that it is Digital's current mission statement.
    
      Digital's mission is to help its customers make the right information 
      available to the right people -- where, when, and as needed -- so work 
      is done quickly and easily making the customer's enterprise efficient 
      and productive.

re Note 2549.46 by TOPCHZ::HILDEBRAND:

>     I found the following mission statement in the VTX proposal area.  I
>     assume that it is Digital's current mission statement.
>     
>       Digital's mission is to help its customers make the right information 
>       available to the right people -- where, when, and as needed -- so work 
>       is done quickly and easily making the customer's enterprise efficient 
>       and productive.

        And the basic idea has been around a long time -- from the
        "Distributed Systems Handbook", March 1978:

        "From the beginning we have believed that
        computers should be tools that can be used
        by people who need information to do
        their jobs.  We have promoted the design
        of interactive computer systems that can be
        placed where they are needed.  We see
        the trend toward the increased use of
        interactive, distributed computer systems as
        confirmation of our basic philosophy."
                - Kenneth H. Olsen

>    I found the following mission statement in the VTX proposal area.  I
>    assume that it is Digital's current mission statement.
>    
>      Digital's mission is to help its customers make the right information 
>      available to the right people -- where, when, and as needed -- so work 
>      is done quickly and easily making the customer's enterprise efficient 
>      and productive.
    
    
...April Fools was on Saturday.

    >  Digital's mission is to help its customers make the right information 
    >  available to the right people -- where, when, and as needed -- so work 
    >  is done quickly and easily making the customer's enterprise efficient 
    >  and productive.
    
    SI will therefore use their highly specialized skills in ALL-IN-1 and
    VTX to deploy the world-class solutions we use internally in customer
    projects. All based on proven technology like OpenVMs Clusters and
    character cell terminals.
    
    Olav

    re -.1
    
    C'mon, there ain't no ":^)" after that!  Y'all are tryin' to paint us
    SI folks like a bunch of bumbling idiots with outdated skill sets. 
    That ain't the case, honcho.
    
    We all know our internal systems are often the worst and, with the
    cutbacks, getting more so constantly.  That's not our fault.  What we
    sell to customers *is* the latest and greatest, and I personally
    believe we're doing right by them.  If y'all don't think so, send a
    resume somewhere else.
    
    								Tex

    There should have been a :-) there.
    
    Olav

    Hi, my name is John, and I'll be your waiter for this evening. My
     mission is to get the right information to the you -- wherever you
    sit, and when, and as needed -- so our meal preparation is done 
    quickly and easily making your stay here efficient and productive.
                                       

    Regarding Tex Eyster's message (in .50):
    
    > If y'all don't think so, send a resume somewhere else.
    
    Olav has announced that he will shortly be leaving us to work at
    Microsoft. I just hope you feel sorry! (And, yes, I am just kidding -
    except the bit about him leaving... :-( )
    
    /Neil

    Y'know, this is the *third* time I've made a comment like that and
    someone's done this.  I'm gettin' a complex...