Now Is The Time To Change
In 1977, the climate for business wasn’t very good. So what did I do?
Together with three others, we started Metier Management Systems to create a ground breaking project management system called Artemis.
Wikipedia says this about the sale of the company several years later.
Metier was sold to Lockheed for US$130m at a time when the US$ and the £Sterling were close to parity. Since then, then company has been sold many times, each time for a considerably lesser amount, and with the company often renamed by the new owner.
The only sad part of this tale, is that the software I wrote in an attic in Suffolk, didn’t fulfil the potential, of which I believed she was possessed.
The moral of this story, is that the worse and more uncertain the times, means the better it is to change what you’re doing and perhaps start something radical.
It might even be the time to marry your long-term partner!
The Anonymous Widower 
The Artemis software was ground breaking and probably world leading. Sadly the firm decided to try and lock in users by developing proprietary hardware based on AMD 2900 bit slice processors. I was offered a contract to work on this, but recognising this as a business cul de sac declined. Capital proved insufficient and the firm was sold and product rebased on generally available hardware.
Interesting the reference to “re-microcoding a Vax 11/750”. I proposed re-microcoding an ICL 2960 to up coming 32 bit microprocessors (especially MCM 68000) when I worked for them in 1977. Sadly they didn’t do it, but did pay me for the suggestion (probably to protect their position as the idea was not part of my work stream). If they had they might have been able to release a mini new range computer very early and beaten Sun to their market.
Comment by Mark Clayton | June 27, 2016 |