BIG DATA

Turning a $10,000 Investment into $6.3 Million Return: Lasting Lessons on Innovation from Control Data’s Journey - New book shows how an upstart computer company beat IBM at their own game -- Recently the New York Times reported that seven of the 10 fastest supercomputers in the world used code handwritten by one individual with no formal training in computer software design. The precursor to that striking style of innovation was created by Control Data Corporation, best known for their supercomputers in the 1960s. So effective was this startup company that in 1963, IBM’s chairman said that he failed to understand why IBM has lost their leadership position with supercomputers to a company with 34 people, including the janitor. "Price eloquently tells the story of how a start-up Minneapolis firm of the late 1950s rose up against the likes of IBM and others who dominated the computer industry, providing a rare and descriptive view of this fascinating success of business leadership."- Irwin Jacobs, Founder and CEO, QUALCOMM In a new book, The Eye for Innovation: Recognizing Possibilities and Managing the Creative Enterprise (Yale University Press) the former CEO and Chairman of Control Data, Robert M. Price, draws on 40 years at the forefront of the computer industry and illustrates how today’s business leaders and entrepreneurs can apply it. He explains the principles that transformed those 34 employees into a company with 45,000 people with revenues topping $1 billion in less than 14 years from its start. And by August of 1968, an initial investment of $10,000 grew to be worth $6.3 million.