It’s All About Power - Inventing the PC - page 75

the company should have adopted and followed rather obvious
product development directives “to have very clear and well de-
fined targets and [to] stop on these targets. Don't make them
move. Freeze them and say: this is all we're going to do and until
this is done we are not going to do anything else. If we cannot
sell this product at that point, we fail. Adding bells and whistles
to it, if nobody is interested, doesn't get you anywhere.” While
some of these additional projects were justified (the MCM /70
had to be able to work at least with a printer, and plans had
to be made for the next generation of MCM computers), other
initiatives, such as plans for protecting the MCM /70 from third-
party plug-in peripherals, could have been rescheduled or con-
tracted out, or had their rationale re-evaluated.
The case that perhaps best illustrates how MCM 's business
strategy lost its focus is the contract which MCM signed with the
TCF company in mid-1973. According to that contract, worth
$35,000 in seed money, MCM was to develop a small but com-
plete computer business system comprised of the TCF computer
(referred to as the MCM /170 in MCM 's internal documents), a
display, and a printer, as well as floppy disk and cassette storage
systems. At first, the TCF contract was seen as an opportun-
ity to develop an MCM computer business system around the
MCM /70 without much effort. However, in the first months of
1974, it become evident that the MCM /170 could not possibly
emerge from the MCM /70 hardware.
In March 1974, Michael R. Day, MCM 's manager of oper-
ations, made a significant effort to properly assess the company's
prospects regarding the TCF contract. The result of his study,
distributed to management personnel as a memo entitled Why
we should abandon the TCF project , was a critical look at both
the TCF project and the company's overall business plan. “From
the first, I have been skeptical of our ability to complete the
[ TCF ] contract while at the same time pursuing our MCM /70,”
began Day. “Now, ten months and minimal progress later, I see
no reason for changing my mind.”