My wife and I had become friends with another couple, through her job.
The husband was an engineering manager at Digital Equipment Corp.
He had a team of folks and had been regularly asking me how he
might handle certain team dynamics among his employees. He also
was working issues with another workgroup his team had to deal with. I
had become his unofficial “HR guy” . When an HR Manager position
opened up in the organization he encouraged me to apply.
interventions around AIDS, as it emerged in the mid 80’s. I ran a two
hour seminar on AIDS awareness and worked with 2 HIV positive men
as co-presenters. We had a film by a local Boston area physician (Dr.
Timothy Johnson, I believe) who did a lot of TV medical spots; some
CDC materials and selected AIDS Action Committee resources.
We ran this program dozens of times in the '87 time frame, for several
hundred managers across DEC. The most powerful part of the
program was the last part where these men would talk about their life,
how they contracted HIV, their medication regiment and outlook on the
future. At the end of the seminar I would thank them and shake their
hands. Back in the mid 80’s this was seen as daring… and the hush in
the crowd was un-nerving. But it paved the way for a climate of less
fear and ignorance. I would later learn it also sparked dinner table
discussions among the families of these managers that had far
reaching impact.
There were exciting business developments during this time as well.
The semiconductor industry was making hugh advances in technology.
We designed/built chips with sub-micron line widths, went to 6” wafers,
32 bit processing architectures, etc … and built a new fab, right on site
in Hudson, MA.
The work that was not so good was the layoffs. DEC was a pioneer in
computer systems, mini-computers and networking; but they missed
the PC revolution and the industry shift to Open Systems architecture.
As a result, in the late 1980’s things started to fall apart. By 1990 Ken
Olsen was handing things over to Bob Palmer and the layoffs were
underway. I remember submitting reports/data of employee names with
performance ratings and length-of-service information and getting
back ‘the list’ each quarter. In the early days it was also a ‘voluntary’
program and was very ‘rich’ … a month’s pay for each year of
service…. up to 24 months severance. The folks who went first got the
most and had an easier time finding work. The people who ‘hung on’
went with far smaller packages and the market was so flooded with
DEC people that many never worked in their fields again.
I remember a staff meeting of HR folks from the Marlboro, Hudson and
Westboro Massachusetts plants. We were discussing the next layoff,
this one to include a number of our own staff. One of the HR Directors
mistakenly reversed a common cliché and said people were
“Optimistically – Cautious” about the coming quarter…. I countered
and said, once they saw the numbers I hoped they wouldn’t become
“Pessimistically – Reckless” … it was a strange time.
I was anxious to move on, away from the layoffs and the culture of a
downward spiral. I interviewed around the Boston area… but to no
avail. DEC people not only had flooded the market, but they had
somehow gotten a reputation for not having to work too hard, having
too many support resources and focusing on things peripheral to the
core business. Some of this was true… but not all -- by any means.
The experience of being ‘professionally stereotyped’ was pretty
frustrating.
While I was looking to leave DEC, a situation developed that was to
play out very fortunately for me. I remember being in a meeting in the
Hudson, MA facility where Larry Ellison and Bob Palmer spoke,
together, to announce growing collaboration between their companies.
DEC was in discussions with Oracle regarding the sale of its (DEC’s)
Relational Database business (DEC RdB). DEC was primarily a
hardware company and its Nashua, NH database business, while
producing a very technically sound and sophisticated product, had
only a small market share and a niche’ market at that.
As the deal drew closer, Oracle wisely insisted that a senior HR person
go with the DEC employees included in the deal. This Nashua NH
engineering group and the various sales and support folks across the
US were going to be the first non-Redwood Shores development group
within Oracle. This HR role would be instrumental in transitioning
various organizational elements during and after the close of the deal.
Basic things like job titles, pay scales, employee records etc would
have to be migrated to the Oracle environment. Also, organizational
culture issues like the pace of software development, release
standards, a remote headquarters, etc … would need to be
addressed. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the relationship
between these competing products and the engineering and product
marketing groups would have to be addressed. The Oracle database
was the predominant relational database in the market; and was seen
by the DEC developers, as the “evil empire” … now the enemy was the
boss… and owner … and landlord…. and, ironically in the final
analysis, the savior of the product.
The way the opportunity presented itself was that the current HR
Director for the Nashua RdB group did not want to ‘go-with-the-deal’
and join Oracle. So, Digital’s SVP HR put the word out through the HR
organization that this opportunity was opening up … basically you had
to raise your hand, internally and publicly, to bid on a chance to leave
the company. (remember, this was in the midst of a downward
business spiral and quarterly layoffs of HR folks). I did some homework
and saw where DEC was going and where Oracle was going… and
raised my hand (along with a number of other senior HR folks).
I interviewed with the DEC senior engineering manager for the RdB
group and with the SVP HR of Oracle (who spent a good amount of
time in Nashua during the final negotiations). It came down to me and
one other colleague (whom I knew and am friends with to this day…
and who I later hired into Boston Scientific, but more on that shortly). I
was fortunate to get the offer. I started in the role several months
before the deal actually/officially closed.
The husband was an engineering manager at Digital Equipment Corp.
He had a team of folks and had been regularly asking me how he
might handle certain team dynamics among his employees. He also
was working issues with another workgroup his team had to deal with. I
had become his unofficial “HR guy” . When an HR Manager position
opened up in the organization he encouraged me to apply.
- Joining Digital Equip Corp (DEC) was a major
chapter in my professional life. As the story goes …
“ It was the best of times … and it was the worst of
times.” I worked in the Semiconductor business.
The plant was in Hudson, Massachusetts. There
were 3200 people there at its high point.
interventions around AIDS, as it emerged in the mid 80’s. I ran a two
hour seminar on AIDS awareness and worked with 2 HIV positive men
as co-presenters. We had a film by a local Boston area physician (Dr.
Timothy Johnson, I believe) who did a lot of TV medical spots; some
CDC materials and selected AIDS Action Committee resources.
We ran this program dozens of times in the '87 time frame, for several
hundred managers across DEC. The most powerful part of the
program was the last part where these men would talk about their life,
how they contracted HIV, their medication regiment and outlook on the
future. At the end of the seminar I would thank them and shake their
hands. Back in the mid 80’s this was seen as daring… and the hush in
the crowd was un-nerving. But it paved the way for a climate of less
fear and ignorance. I would later learn it also sparked dinner table
discussions among the families of these managers that had far
reaching impact.
There were exciting business developments during this time as well.
The semiconductor industry was making hugh advances in technology.
We designed/built chips with sub-micron line widths, went to 6” wafers,
32 bit processing architectures, etc … and built a new fab, right on site
in Hudson, MA.
The work that was not so good was the layoffs. DEC was a pioneer in
computer systems, mini-computers and networking; but they missed
the PC revolution and the industry shift to Open Systems architecture.
As a result, in the late 1980’s things started to fall apart. By 1990 Ken
Olsen was handing things over to Bob Palmer and the layoffs were
underway. I remember submitting reports/data of employee names with
performance ratings and length-of-service information and getting
back ‘the list’ each quarter. In the early days it was also a ‘voluntary’
program and was very ‘rich’ … a month’s pay for each year of
service…. up to 24 months severance. The folks who went first got the
most and had an easier time finding work. The people who ‘hung on’
went with far smaller packages and the market was so flooded with
DEC people that many never worked in their fields again.
I remember a staff meeting of HR folks from the Marlboro, Hudson and
Westboro Massachusetts plants. We were discussing the next layoff,
this one to include a number of our own staff. One of the HR Directors
mistakenly reversed a common cliché and said people were
“Optimistically – Cautious” about the coming quarter…. I countered
and said, once they saw the numbers I hoped they wouldn’t become
“Pessimistically – Reckless” … it was a strange time.
I was anxious to move on, away from the layoffs and the culture of a
downward spiral. I interviewed around the Boston area… but to no
avail. DEC people not only had flooded the market, but they had
somehow gotten a reputation for not having to work too hard, having
too many support resources and focusing on things peripheral to the
core business. Some of this was true… but not all -- by any means.
The experience of being ‘professionally stereotyped’ was pretty
frustrating.
While I was looking to leave DEC, a situation developed that was to
play out very fortunately for me. I remember being in a meeting in the
Hudson, MA facility where Larry Ellison and Bob Palmer spoke,
together, to announce growing collaboration between their companies.
DEC was in discussions with Oracle regarding the sale of its (DEC’s)
Relational Database business (DEC RdB). DEC was primarily a
hardware company and its Nashua, NH database business, while
producing a very technically sound and sophisticated product, had
only a small market share and a niche’ market at that.
As the deal drew closer, Oracle wisely insisted that a senior HR person
go with the DEC employees included in the deal. This Nashua NH
engineering group and the various sales and support folks across the
US were going to be the first non-Redwood Shores development group
within Oracle. This HR role would be instrumental in transitioning
various organizational elements during and after the close of the deal.
Basic things like job titles, pay scales, employee records etc would
have to be migrated to the Oracle environment. Also, organizational
culture issues like the pace of software development, release
standards, a remote headquarters, etc … would need to be
addressed. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the relationship
between these competing products and the engineering and product
marketing groups would have to be addressed. The Oracle database
was the predominant relational database in the market; and was seen
by the DEC developers, as the “evil empire” … now the enemy was the
boss… and owner … and landlord…. and, ironically in the final
analysis, the savior of the product.
The way the opportunity presented itself was that the current HR
Director for the Nashua RdB group did not want to ‘go-with-the-deal’
and join Oracle. So, Digital’s SVP HR put the word out through the HR
organization that this opportunity was opening up … basically you had
to raise your hand, internally and publicly, to bid on a chance to leave
the company. (remember, this was in the midst of a downward
business spiral and quarterly layoffs of HR folks). I did some homework
and saw where DEC was going and where Oracle was going… and
raised my hand (along with a number of other senior HR folks).
I interviewed with the DEC senior engineering manager for the RdB
group and with the SVP HR of Oracle (who spent a good amount of
time in Nashua during the final negotiations). It came down to me and
one other colleague (whom I knew and am friends with to this day…
and who I later hired into Boston Scientific, but more on that shortly). I
was fortunate to get the offer. I started in the role several months
before the deal actually/officially closed.
