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Larry Kuperman
Larry Kuperman
Join Date 04/2001
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In Search of Stupidity: Book Review

Over 20 Years of High-Tech Marketing Disasters

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May 2, 2006 9:55:15 PM from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
"In Search of Stupidity" by Merrill "Rick" Chapman is a must read for anyone in technology sales and marketing. It is laugh-out-loud funny, while at the same time accurate and factual.


If you were in business, any business, in 1982 you read "In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best Run Companies" by Thomas Peters and Robert Waterman. It was the "feel good" book for business managers and we, the yellow-power-tie wearing business managers of that era, carried it around the way the followers of Chairman Mao carried his writings during the cultural revolution in China. We went to training courses that taught us to have an "excellent corporate culture." Twenty-five years later, many of these "excellent" companies were gone, extinct like the dodo.

Companies like MicroPro International, VisiCorp, Ashton-Tate and many more are gone. Where was their excellence when they needed it? Of the Top 10 software companies in 1984 only Microsoft survived to the Top Ten list in 2001. Wait a minute! Companies that were dominant players in a booming market went out of business? How did that happen?

In Search of Stupidity recounts in detail the marketing blunders that brought the once-mighty down. From companies alienating their customer bases to companies that offer competing products to multi-year projects to rewrite code, you will find a litany of blunders that make you say "What were they thinking?"

Rick Chapman has an easy-to-read writing style and a acerbic wit. Parts of the book are literally laugh-out-loud funny. But more to the point, he has what is referred to today as "street cred." This is a book from a man who has manned the booths at trade-shows, who has gone out to demo product. In other words, from a sales guy who has actually sold high-tech products.

He supports his arguments both with references and statistics, but also with personal experience. He met and knew many of the players involved and his anedotes are priceless.

If you are in technology sales or marketing, my advice is get this book and learn the lessons.

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Larry Kuperman
Dr Guy
Join Date 09/2004
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Reply #1 May 3, 2006 6:56:19 AM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums

Do they qualify software as non-OS?  Because I was thinking Novell is still around (but a lot weaker) today.  Having been in the field for all those years, it is sad to see so many of the greats gone, but that is one book I want to read.  To see what other's take on the demise of the greats of the 80s.

At one time, Utah rivalled Silicon Valley as the mecca for the new age technology.

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Larry Kuperman
Larry Kuperman
Join Date 04/2001
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Reply #2 May 3, 2006 9:43:14 PM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums
Oh, you will be aghast at the Novell/Utah bashing....which seems quite accurate.

From 1989 to 1993, Novell prospered. Then came the acquisitions. First the purchase of Unix from AT&T, then the puirchase of WordPerfect and Quattro Pro. These products had...well, nothing to do with Novell's core business. These disastorous acquistuions and resales cost Novell billions and sapped the company's energies and focus.

Rick also points out that the Mormon religion frowns on caffeine. Imagine programmers deprived of coffee, Coke and (horror of horrors) Mountain Dew. How can you expect anyone to code in such an environment?

Novell finally acquired Cambridge Business Technologies and moved its focal point to Massachusetts, a caffeine-friendly zone.

See Link for the complete history.

Dr. Guy, you will love the book!
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Larry Kuperman
Dr Guy
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Reply #3 May 4, 2006 6:19:37 AM
from JoeUser ForumsJoeUser Forums

See Link for the complete history.

Dr. Guy, you will love the book!

I dont need to see it, I lived it.  Actually, Wordperfect was bought for one reason alone.  Wordperfect Office.  After they dumped the rest of the biz, they kept that and turned it into Groupwise, and that was critical to their business.  But the others were stupid.  Dr DOS, Unix.  They were trying to rival Microsoft, and Microsoft squashed them.  But I think I will read the book. It does sound fascinating.

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