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Almost Perfect: How a Bunch of Regular Guys Built WordPerfect Corporation
A former executive at the WordPerfect Corporation details the company's rise in the computer industry and what compelled him to leave after ten years as a driving force in the company
240 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
September 21, 2024
WordPerfect Corporation was one of the software giants of the 1980s and early 1990s. It was incredible to read just how unsophisticated they were -- not in a good way -- as they became massively successful and achieved yearly sales of hundreds of millions of dollars in software revenue per year (in 1980s dollars!). Although there were many reasons that led to the company's demise, lack of proper corporate governance, planning and prioritization processes, and just general decision-making standardization led to dozens of silos and wasted resources, as documented by Pete Peterson in this book.
Peterson doesn't come across as a very nice guy: he admits that people repeatedly told him that he needed to be less of a jerk at work, and he hints at this abrasiveness as one of the reasons he ultimately got fired. But he was also put in a very bad position by the two co-founders of WordPerfect, Bruce Bastian and Alan Ashton. He was their first business hire and effectively became CMO but Bastian and Ashton obviously still pulled the strings behind the scenes and wouldn't give him the formal CEO title. This despite the fact that Peterson poured his life and soul into the company and his work (in a way that he admits was unhealthy, even living next to the WordPerfect campus). It's one example of the messy corporate governance issues documented in the book that ultimately slowed WordPerfect's growth and let Microsoft overtake the company with Microsoft Word.
Thirty years after WordPerfect's peak, there are still some valuable lessons that technology entrepreneurs can learn from the company's journey. Many things have changed, of course, including the much larger role of outside capital, a move to subscription businesses rather than permanent licenses for software, etc. but the product management lessons remain the same. One is to pick a business strategy based either on differentiation by features (premium product) or cost (volume product) and not to conflate the two. WordPerfect was a premium product to start with, and forays into a lower-cost, poorer-quality offering (LetterPerfect) were a mistake. Another key lesson to learn is to not get pressured into building the second product too quickly after the first one is successful. It's valuable to be prepared, and do research into what could the next product so that the company has options, but trying to roll out ill-fated forays into spreadsheets, for example, also drained valuable capital from the company. A third lesson is to not expand the scope of the successful product too much, at least not without pressure-testing all of the dimensions of that expansion. Peterson admits they launched money-losing variants of WordPerfect on platforms like the Commodore Amiga, just because engineers were so passionate about porting WordPerfect that they would have done it on their spare time. It's tough for executives to hold the line on this kind of passion, especially because they get lulled into the sense that expansion is free (if developers are willing to work for "free") but the cost to bring a product variant to market is far more than just the cost of the R&D.
The facts and stories in the book are interesting, but the book itself is not terribly well-written. Peterson's text lacks much character or personality. I hesitate to even call it "folksy" because Peterson just comes across as cold and calculating. Folksiness would imply a little bit of warmth and humanity and that's missing here. I don't think Peterson is as actively evil and exploitative as an Elon Musk; it's just that he's very laser-focused on excellence and outcomes and his level of EQ leaves much to be desired.
I will add that it's fabulous that Peterson has put up the entire manuscript for free on his website now that the book is out of print.
Peterson doesn't come across as a very nice guy: he admits that people repeatedly told him that he needed to be less of a jerk at work, and he hints at this abrasiveness as one of the reasons he ultimately got fired. But he was also put in a very bad position by the two co-founders of WordPerfect, Bruce Bastian and Alan Ashton. He was their first business hire and effectively became CMO but Bastian and Ashton obviously still pulled the strings behind the scenes and wouldn't give him the formal CEO title. This despite the fact that Peterson poured his life and soul into the company and his work (in a way that he admits was unhealthy, even living next to the WordPerfect campus). It's one example of the messy corporate governance issues documented in the book that ultimately slowed WordPerfect's growth and let Microsoft overtake the company with Microsoft Word.
Thirty years after WordPerfect's peak, there are still some valuable lessons that technology entrepreneurs can learn from the company's journey. Many things have changed, of course, including the much larger role of outside capital, a move to subscription businesses rather than permanent licenses for software, etc. but the product management lessons remain the same. One is to pick a business strategy based either on differentiation by features (premium product) or cost (volume product) and not to conflate the two. WordPerfect was a premium product to start with, and forays into a lower-cost, poorer-quality offering (LetterPerfect) were a mistake. Another key lesson to learn is to not get pressured into building the second product too quickly after the first one is successful. It's valuable to be prepared, and do research into what could the next product so that the company has options, but trying to roll out ill-fated forays into spreadsheets, for example, also drained valuable capital from the company. A third lesson is to not expand the scope of the successful product too much, at least not without pressure-testing all of the dimensions of that expansion. Peterson admits they launched money-losing variants of WordPerfect on platforms like the Commodore Amiga, just because engineers were so passionate about porting WordPerfect that they would have done it on their spare time. It's tough for executives to hold the line on this kind of passion, especially because they get lulled into the sense that expansion is free (if developers are willing to work for "free") but the cost to bring a product variant to market is far more than just the cost of the R&D.
The facts and stories in the book are interesting, but the book itself is not terribly well-written. Peterson's text lacks much character or personality. I hesitate to even call it "folksy" because Peterson just comes across as cold and calculating. Folksiness would imply a little bit of warmth and humanity and that's missing here. I don't think Peterson is as actively evil and exploitative as an Elon Musk; it's just that he's very laser-focused on excellence and outcomes and his level of EQ leaves much to be desired.
I will add that it's fabulous that Peterson has put up the entire manuscript for free on his website now that the book is out of print.
May 15, 2009
This book really pissed me off.
Good behind-the-scenes information, but too much justification. It feels like after-the-fact whitewashing. I can't decided if Peterson is genuinely a decent person or an asshole. Probably both, because he does come off as quite human.
He preaches the virtues of honesty and dealing with people in a straightforward manner, but admits to being less than honest. He mentions that he had many corporate assets in his house, such as a computer connected to the corporate network (this is all pre-VPN), telephone, etc. While I'm sure these were used *primarily* for work-related activities, I find it hard to believe that *at no time* they were ever used for personal matters. He then spends an entire paragraph whining about some unnamed person using corporate time and resources to print and mail a hate letter addressed to him.
Whiney is a good adjective for Peterson.
He seems all too willing to excused his shortcomings while openly admitting that he cared nothing for his employees' personal well-being. Exercise, family matters, etc., were not the company's concern and should be dealt with during off-hours. However, because he was so completely swallowed by the company, which consumed all of his personal time, any personal activities he needed to accomplish are simply pushed aside.
He openly admits that he had no managerial experience or business education, then spends large portions of the book touting his successes. Granted, given his lack of experience and education, he did accomplish a lot. So did Ghengis Khan. At one point, he considered going back to college and getting a masters degree but didn't because he felt the company could not survive his absence. He settled for reading 2-3 chapters from a few marketing books and then throwing together a few plans. While he did accomplish a lot, he continually brushes over and excuses his willful, knowing and sometimes intentional shortcomings.
Human, at best. Taskmaster, at worst. When he was asked to leave the company, my only reaction was to wonder why it took them so long.
I have to wonder why this book was ever published by any self-respecting publisher. I don't recommend it at all. However, feel free to come to your own conclusions. The book is available for free online at http://www.wordplace.com/ap/ and is a quick read. I'm a slow reader and worked through it in less than a day. It's available for free online because (1) the book only sold around 10,000 copies and (2) is now out of print.
Out of print. It's a wonder that this book ever saw the light of day at all. The online version "fixed five typos" but there are plenty to be found, along with several formatting issues. I'm guessing Peterson didn't use WordPerfect to edit this.
Good behind-the-scenes information, but too much justification. It feels like after-the-fact whitewashing. I can't decided if Peterson is genuinely a decent person or an asshole. Probably both, because he does come off as quite human.
He preaches the virtues of honesty and dealing with people in a straightforward manner, but admits to being less than honest. He mentions that he had many corporate assets in his house, such as a computer connected to the corporate network (this is all pre-VPN), telephone, etc. While I'm sure these were used *primarily* for work-related activities, I find it hard to believe that *at no time* they were ever used for personal matters. He then spends an entire paragraph whining about some unnamed person using corporate time and resources to print and mail a hate letter addressed to him.
Whiney is a good adjective for Peterson.
He seems all too willing to excused his shortcomings while openly admitting that he cared nothing for his employees' personal well-being. Exercise, family matters, etc., were not the company's concern and should be dealt with during off-hours. However, because he was so completely swallowed by the company, which consumed all of his personal time, any personal activities he needed to accomplish are simply pushed aside.
He openly admits that he had no managerial experience or business education, then spends large portions of the book touting his successes. Granted, given his lack of experience and education, he did accomplish a lot. So did Ghengis Khan. At one point, he considered going back to college and getting a masters degree but didn't because he felt the company could not survive his absence. He settled for reading 2-3 chapters from a few marketing books and then throwing together a few plans. While he did accomplish a lot, he continually brushes over and excuses his willful, knowing and sometimes intentional shortcomings.
Human, at best. Taskmaster, at worst. When he was asked to leave the company, my only reaction was to wonder why it took them so long.
I have to wonder why this book was ever published by any self-respecting publisher. I don't recommend it at all. However, feel free to come to your own conclusions. The book is available for free online at http://www.wordplace.com/ap/ and is a quick read. I'm a slow reader and worked through it in less than a day. It's available for free online because (1) the book only sold around 10,000 copies and (2) is now out of print.
Out of print. It's a wonder that this book ever saw the light of day at all. The online version "fixed five typos" but there are plenty to be found, along with several formatting issues. I'm guessing Peterson didn't use WordPerfect to edit this.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 6, 2009
Let's see... death marches, a company that proudly explains the employees that it doesn't care at all about their happiness or future, and that they will never get promoted.
The CEO explaining that coming to work with "a bad attitude" should be grounds for dismissal without compensation, or that congratulating someone on the birth of a son is improper use of company time.
These guys chose wrong every time they had to make a strategic decision, and were unsympathetic hardasses to boot, but got lucky half a dozen times when their competitors self-destructed, or simply didn't care about the market, and rode a wave of coincidence and slapstick to the top of the anthill.
All things considered, a fine manual on how not to run a company, written by the guy that ran one.
That said company was extremely succesful (for a decade!) is perhaps the best part. Had they been even half competent at their job, they would probably still exist.
The CEO explaining that coming to work with "a bad attitude" should be grounds for dismissal without compensation, or that congratulating someone on the birth of a son is improper use of company time.
These guys chose wrong every time they had to make a strategic decision, and were unsympathetic hardasses to boot, but got lucky half a dozen times when their competitors self-destructed, or simply didn't care about the market, and rode a wave of coincidence and slapstick to the top of the anthill.
All things considered, a fine manual on how not to run a company, written by the guy that ran one.
That said company was extremely succesful (for a decade!) is perhaps the best part. Had they been even half competent at their job, they would probably still exist.
January 7, 2023
It was nice of the author to put this up for free when it fell out of print, and I'd say that if you are interested in the history of IT/computing in the 80s and early 90s, it's a worthwhile read. The PDF is a brisk 115 pages, and while he's not a great author, Willard 'Pete' Peterson doesn't write badly enough that it's a slog to get through. I also appreciate that he does admit -- in several places -- that a good amount of his good fortune arose from the luck of being in the right place at the right time, something most rich people ignore even though the main cause of wealth is being born into it, be that Tucker Carlson's being born into the Swanson dinner fortune, Bill Gates coming from millionaire lawyers, or Warren Buffet being the child of a 4-term Congressman.
That said, if the other reviews haven't clued you in, Pete is...not a nice man. I don't exactly think he's arrogant like some other reviewers said, but rather he comes off as a pretty big hypocrite without ever quite realizing he is one. Everything he claims to stand for, his actions never actually reflect, and hilariously he never puts two and two together meaningfully even when his own daughter calls him out on it. He's very much the worst sort of capitalist: autocratic, without real ethics, and convinced that profit is the sole good and sole factor in running a company. He talks a lot about his belief in flat corporate structures, and it gets a bit grating when everything he actually did makes it very clear he saw himself as king and high priest alongside the two other owners of the company that eventually ousted him. To give him some credit, a few of his biggest blunders -- including the classic "if I leave, they'll come crawling" bluff -- he does admit were mistakes.
That said, if the other reviews haven't clued you in, Pete is...not a nice man. I don't exactly think he's arrogant like some other reviewers said, but rather he comes off as a pretty big hypocrite without ever quite realizing he is one. Everything he claims to stand for, his actions never actually reflect, and hilariously he never puts two and two together meaningfully even when his own daughter calls him out on it. He's very much the worst sort of capitalist: autocratic, without real ethics, and convinced that profit is the sole good and sole factor in running a company. He talks a lot about his belief in flat corporate structures, and it gets a bit grating when everything he actually did makes it very clear he saw himself as king and high priest alongside the two other owners of the company that eventually ousted him. To give him some credit, a few of his biggest blunders -- including the classic "if I leave, they'll come crawling" bluff -- he does admit were mistakes.
February 14, 2014
A decent enough trip down memory lane of four pretty formative years of my life spent at WP Corp, 1989-93. The book is strongest and most interesting on the early years, and gets a bit bogged down in needless technical detail and preaching of his business philosophy and Darwinian views on employee relations, which seem very outdated in the age of Google and Facebook.
Written in 1993, barely a year after his ouster, and before the company imploded, it would be interesting to see if time has led Peterson to see things any differently, either in acknowledging maybe that his strategic errors set up the fall, or becoming more entrenched in the idea that his vision and leadership is what made WP a success. My vote is the former, that he bears much responsibility for its fall, particularly in the colossal mistake of backing OS/2 instead of Windows, which is largely glossed over, and in not realizing that what worked when there were 5 employees could not work with 5,000. In the end it seems pretty clear that the author's arrogance and inflexibility were responsible for both his downfall, and in part, that of WP Corp, may it rest in peace.
Written in 1993, barely a year after his ouster, and before the company imploded, it would be interesting to see if time has led Peterson to see things any differently, either in acknowledging maybe that his strategic errors set up the fall, or becoming more entrenched in the idea that his vision and leadership is what made WP a success. My vote is the former, that he bears much responsibility for its fall, particularly in the colossal mistake of backing OS/2 instead of Windows, which is largely glossed over, and in not realizing that what worked when there were 5 employees could not work with 5,000. In the end it seems pretty clear that the author's arrogance and inflexibility were responsible for both his downfall, and in part, that of WP Corp, may it rest in peace.
July 31, 2012
A pretty readable book about a time period for which I harbor some lingering nostalgia. Peterson relates the angst and struggle of getting a new business up and running, and the ecstasy of seeing the bird unfold its wings. He also carries us through an interesting time when offices were still buying multi-million dollar mini-computers (a step down from the mainframe) from places like Data General, and Microsoft was a bit player. What happened next is well known and now seems almost inevitable. But there was an alternative future and at the time, WordPerfect was a part of it.
I remember the software well, using it during my undergraduate years and beyond. Reading a corporate biography (I hate that expression) was interesting and more captivating than I'd expected, primarily because of the narrative strength of the author.
I remember the software well, using it during my undergraduate years and beyond. Reading a corporate biography (I hate that expression) was interesting and more captivating than I'd expected, primarily because of the narrative strength of the author.
April 8, 2009
Now available as a free download.
Interesting if you're generally interested in software companies.
Also interesting for fans of unreliable narrators. Peterson is pretty enamored with the job he did as the head of WordPerfect, and it's interesting to read between the lines about what might've gone wrong.
The writing is overall pretty poor, but it's a fast read and a good story.
Interesting if you're generally interested in software companies.
Also interesting for fans of unreliable narrators. Peterson is pretty enamored with the job he did as the head of WordPerfect, and it's interesting to read between the lines about what might've gone wrong.
The writing is overall pretty poor, but it's a fast read and a good story.
Read
July 30, 2012The most interesting part about first-hand history is the chance to sometimes see not just how people want their story to be told, but the truth that leaks out from behind that facade.
December 13, 2020
So difficult to read. The only value is seeing that anybody can get lucky.
February 8, 2024
Fascinating autobiographical story about the rise and fall of the WordPerfect Corporation from the point of view of one of the board members. Petersen recounts how they initially built their word processor for Data General machines, then expanded to MS-DOS, the platform that would bring them their greatest success. Despite fierce competition from WordStar and later MS Word, they managed to become the market leader from version 4.0 onward, thanks to much greater functionality such as line numbers (important for lawyers) columns and footnotes that could continue on the next page. Despite this success, they continued to expand to other platforms such as Wang, Atari, and Amiga. During the rise of the GUIs, WordPerfect Corporation initially bet on the wrong horse, namely IBM's OS/2. This wishful thinking was motivated by the concerns that expanding to MS Windows meant playing on the competitor's platform. Peterson does not mention that this was also the case with MS-DOS.
Peterson is pitting WordPerfect Corporation against Microsoft. Where the former is driven by selling and supporting the best possible product, the latter is driven by a desire for money and power. The secret behind WordPerfect's success is its flat company structure. He imagines a company with only directors, advisors and managers. The directors set the direction, the advisors form the layer below and facilitate the managers who do the work.
Peterson occasionally talks about the many problems he has internally, despite his hard work and good intentions. The reader must see for himself how unpopular he is when seemingly a single disagreement makes the other two members of the board decide to throw him out. Employees are celebrating in the offices and later Peterson receives an anonymous hate letter at home from an employee he never knew. Peterson just thinks it's abnormal that this employee is using his employer's time and resources to send him that letter.
The book concludes with a short piece about the decline of WordPerfect. First it is bought by Novell and later by Corel, for a fraction of the price it once was. Peterson expresses the hope that the reader learns from his biggest mistake, not taking enough time to convey his ideas about business to those around him.
Some citations:
"One look at Word, however, erased all our worries. The product was no more innovative than its name. Microsoft had designed Word to work like its spreadsheet, Multiplan. It was clumsy to use, and came with no new or interesting features."
"I hoped for our sake that Excel was merely an accident."
"We still seemed determined to try to release as many unsuccessful products as possible "
Peterson is pitting WordPerfect Corporation against Microsoft. Where the former is driven by selling and supporting the best possible product, the latter is driven by a desire for money and power. The secret behind WordPerfect's success is its flat company structure. He imagines a company with only directors, advisors and managers. The directors set the direction, the advisors form the layer below and facilitate the managers who do the work.
Peterson occasionally talks about the many problems he has internally, despite his hard work and good intentions. The reader must see for himself how unpopular he is when seemingly a single disagreement makes the other two members of the board decide to throw him out. Employees are celebrating in the offices and later Peterson receives an anonymous hate letter at home from an employee he never knew. Peterson just thinks it's abnormal that this employee is using his employer's time and resources to send him that letter.
The book concludes with a short piece about the decline of WordPerfect. First it is bought by Novell and later by Corel, for a fraction of the price it once was. Peterson expresses the hope that the reader learns from his biggest mistake, not taking enough time to convey his ideas about business to those around him.
Some citations:
"One look at Word, however, erased all our worries. The product was no more innovative than its name. Microsoft had designed Word to work like its spreadsheet, Multiplan. It was clumsy to use, and came with no new or interesting features."
"I hoped for our sake that Excel was merely an accident."
"We still seemed determined to try to release as many unsuccessful products as possible "
July 9, 2024
Almost Perfect : How a Bunch of Regular Guys Built WordPerfect Corporation (1993) by Pete Peterson is an account of WordPerfect’s rise to become the world’s number one word processing software. Peterson was the chief operating officer.
The book gives an interesting first person account of what running a software company was like in the 1980s. WordPerfect was written in Assembly language and was fast. It was faster than the competition. WordStar was the most popular word processor for some time.
WordPerfect eventually got very serious competition from Microsoft Word, which would eclipse WordPerfect when Windows 3.0 came out and PC users switched from DOS to Windows.
The book is quite raw, Peterson’s real opinions come through. But as such it’s also more honest than most books like it. Peterson’s ideas of all employees signing a loyalty oath don’t come across well. Also he states that birthdays shouldn’t be celebrated at work which many people would also be surprised by. Peterson’s ideas on what people should expect from a company are blunt.
Almost Perfect is an interesting book to read. It’s a real account of a past era of software companies.
The book gives an interesting first person account of what running a software company was like in the 1980s. WordPerfect was written in Assembly language and was fast. It was faster than the competition. WordStar was the most popular word processor for some time.
WordPerfect eventually got very serious competition from Microsoft Word, which would eclipse WordPerfect when Windows 3.0 came out and PC users switched from DOS to Windows.
The book is quite raw, Peterson’s real opinions come through. But as such it’s also more honest than most books like it. Peterson’s ideas of all employees signing a loyalty oath don’t come across well. Also he states that birthdays shouldn’t be celebrated at work which many people would also be surprised by. Peterson’s ideas on what people should expect from a company are blunt.
Almost Perfect is an interesting book to read. It’s a real account of a past era of software companies.
March 16, 2023
At first I was a bit taken aback by "I had 5 kids", "he had 16 kids", etc., until I noticed the author was from Utah. Then it felt more like a refreshing perspective from someone quite unlike me on subjects I find close (and with at least some of those opinions I could agree).
Unlike FoxTales, which I've read previously, this book is written by a managing and sales director, so it offers less insights on the software side of things, and more insight on the management and sales side of things. As a programmer, I've found FoxTales a bit more useful and interesting, even though the overall tales of a young and spunky startups growing big and unwieldy and being swallowed by a giant monopoly are quite similar.
I don't know where to go from here in this review, so I think I'll end there.
Unlike FoxTales, which I've read previously, this book is written by a managing and sales director, so it offers less insights on the software side of things, and more insight on the management and sales side of things. As a programmer, I've found FoxTales a bit more useful and interesting, even though the overall tales of a young and spunky startups growing big and unwieldy and being swallowed by a giant monopoly are quite similar.
I don't know where to go from here in this review, so I think I'll end there.
August 29, 2025
A nostalgic recollection of the good old days when ssi stood for satellite software international, programmers had honest and hardworking values, and people were just excited about trade shows and wordperfect 6.0. Narrator has a no nonsense vibe, which also feels kind of wholesome.
September 3, 2021
Not bad for a free e-book, if you have any interest in tech companies of the past.
December 31, 2009
Very interesting look into the belly of a 1980s-era software corporation. Word Perfect was originally written in assembly code and available on minicomputers (by comparison, a desktop computer was classified as a microcomputer). Shipping bugfixes was more difficult back then (page 28).
The management philosophy was somewhat different. Just as Walmart is famous for being responsive because of its flat hierarchy, Word Perfect tried to keep itself flat and efficient, but had interesting drawbacks: "A flat structure by its nature is bound to discourage some, because it limits management opportunities. ... For those who joined SSI to move up a career ladder, this flat structure was a source of tremendous frustration. ... If employees needed help to get all their work done, they would usually want to hire assistants to help them. Instead of letting them hire subordinates ... I would ask them to give up part of their responsibilities. ... For most people ... losing responsibility was very discouraging. ... Instead of having more and more assistants, they saw themselves as having more and more rivals. How could they explain to their spouses or parents that because they were doing a great job they were having to give up responsibilities?" (page 48).
Even as the company got larger, things were run in a very light weight manner: "For practically every week from December of 1989 through mid-1990, I invited 16 different managers to have lunch with me for three consecutive days starting on Tuesday. After lunch each day, I spoke for about an hour and a half. ... At the time we did not have a company organizational chart, an employee handbook, any written job descriptions other than those written for the reps, or a widely published mission statement" (pages 85-86).
Not everything was perfect about the place, but the book is well written, easy to follow, and challenges many modern business assumptions.
The management philosophy was somewhat different. Just as Walmart is famous for being responsive because of its flat hierarchy, Word Perfect tried to keep itself flat and efficient, but had interesting drawbacks: "A flat structure by its nature is bound to discourage some, because it limits management opportunities. ... For those who joined SSI to move up a career ladder, this flat structure was a source of tremendous frustration. ... If employees needed help to get all their work done, they would usually want to hire assistants to help them. Instead of letting them hire subordinates ... I would ask them to give up part of their responsibilities. ... For most people ... losing responsibility was very discouraging. ... Instead of having more and more assistants, they saw themselves as having more and more rivals. How could they explain to their spouses or parents that because they were doing a great job they were having to give up responsibilities?" (page 48).
Even as the company got larger, things were run in a very light weight manner: "For practically every week from December of 1989 through mid-1990, I invited 16 different managers to have lunch with me for three consecutive days starting on Tuesday. After lunch each day, I spoke for about an hour and a half. ... At the time we did not have a company organizational chart, an employee handbook, any written job descriptions other than those written for the reps, or a widely published mission statement" (pages 85-86).
Not everything was perfect about the place, but the book is well written, easy to follow, and challenges many modern business assumptions.
March 19, 2011
While not a particular well written book, it's still interesting from a historical perspective since it gives an inside view of a company that was quite important in the computer industry back in the 80s. This book is available for free on the web. If I had to pay for it, I probably would rate it lower. So basically, I wouldn't recommend that people buy this book, but it might be interesting if you come across it for free.
June 6, 2009
I liked the book overall, I always enjoy reading about the evolution of software companies.
Pete Peterson definitely comes across as a bit of a nazi to me. If WordPerfect had survived I wonder if it would have evolved into the more relaxed environments that tech companies enjoyed as a result of the dot com boom.
Pete Peterson definitely comes across as a bit of a nazi to me. If WordPerfect had survived I wonder if it would have evolved into the more relaxed environments that tech companies enjoyed as a result of the dot com boom.
January 12, 2016
Found it a very interesting and entertaining read as to how business was conducted in the 1980. Scattered throughout the book I found practical business and management advice, learning from failures.
February 14, 2008
Interesting for the narrative, and also as a business study.
April 5, 2009
Really good book for software developers, business types, etc looking to understand some of the aspects of the software business.
May 4, 2010
Great book. A must read for anyone that worked for WordPerfect. The history of "succesful" is very interesting to me.
December 19, 2014
Not a great book, but if you loved (or love) WordPerfect Corp.'s programs, here is the inside story.
December 25, 2014
It's a great story, but in the end, the author reveals himself to be a jerk, which makes me not trust his account of events.
March 16, 2016
Nice life story. Available online for free http://www.wordplace.com/ap/index.shtml
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews