I finished reading Almost Perfect (mentioned here), a first-person account of the rise and fall of Word Perfect by Pete Peterson. Pete was one of the founding members of the company that changed the concept of word processing from one of dedicated machines such as Wang to the concept that we now know — specialized software that runs on commodity computers and printers.
It’s a mind boggling concept that a startup company with a product that was developed essentially in the free time of a University professor could upset the status quo of an industry dominated by giants such as IBM and Wang. Then, years later, after becoming the market leader in word processing software, Word Perfect all but disappeared because it failed to adapt early enough to the emergence of Microsoft Windows.
The book itself is an interesting read, written in an engaging voice. It didn’t take much effort or time to complete. I recommend it if you’re in the industry because there are many lessons to be learned from a company that grew from zero to more than a half-billion dollars revenue in about a decade. And there are lessons to consider how that same company essentially disappeared in an even shorter time. It’s a free book, available online (HTML) and as a PDF. If you have a Kindle, do what I did: download the file, pay the 10 cent conversion and Whispernet fee and read it in comfort. Then let me know what you think.
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