|
|
|
Ed Esber, Ashton-Tate Developers’ Conference:
“A Meeting of the Minds II”, September 14, 1988
Ashton-Tate’s corporate mission statement
is pretty clear. It states that we are to anticipate and meet customer
needs with superior quality software products and tools for individuals
and groups. From early 1986 through mid 1987, we seem to have lost
sight of that mission. During that period we clearly didn’t anticipate
your needs. We have been accused of letting the dBase franchise go
stale, or worse, sitting on the laurels of our past success or our
dominant market share. We let third parties, who listened better than
we did, fulfill your needs with a host of products from fast clones to
compilers to add-ons.
We were like the proverbial three monkeys.
Like the monkey who didn’t hear, we didn’t
hear your suggestions and respond to your needs on a timely basis with
Ashton-Tate products.
Like the monkey who didn’t speak, we
didn’t inform you about the future of dBase and our product line, so you
could plan with your customers.
And; like the monkey who didn’t see, we
didn’t see and recognize your contributions to our success, and smugly –
some say arrogantly – ignored you, your input and your needs.
We had only to listen, see and speak with
you to jointly plan the future evolution of the dBase standard. I’m not
going to apologize for our past errors or attempt to defend them. Let’s
just say we’ve been to the priest and he’s just heard a long, long
confessions of our past sins. He now knows, what you’ve have known for
some time – YOU WERE RIGHT!!! We didn’t provide timely releases of
dBase nor some of the dBase features and tools you requested.
It has been YOU, the dBase applications
development community, which has played the pivotal role in making dBase
a standard. You have made dBase the premier applications development
environment. Without your support, dBase wouldn’t be the choice for
millions of users, thousands of applications developers and hundreds of
add-on products. Today we intend to earn your support for a new
standard, dBase IV.
I know that you are looking for more than
promises, programs and services. You want and need real tools and
tangible products that will help you develop better dBase applications.
You send us a message that is loud and clear—perhaps not in your words,
but definitely in you actions. The majority of you have, over the past
three years, adopted extended or clone technologies from third
parties—because you couldn’t get the products you wanted from
Ashton-Tate.
Soon, I’ll outline our actions. Actions taken specifically to
better meet your needs and those of your users. These actions
represent our determination to bring you back home to Ashton-Tate
products. Because, in the final analysis, the question is “Will
you decide to support, endorse and user our products in your future
applications?” You will demonstrate with your future actions, if
we did the right thing? We want you to come back to Ashton-Tate, but
more importantly, Ashton-Tate is going to come back to you.
|
