Open

Praise

“Rod Canion reveals the back-room battles, secret alliances, and bet-the-company decisions he made as CEO of Compaq, which he guided from start-up to the Fortune 500 in less than four years. Canion’s process for making executive decisions will be of interest to managers in any competitive industry.”
—Peter H. Lewis, former Senior Writer and technology columnist for The New York Times

“Compaq’s early business decisions changed the course of personal computing. This is a detailed inside look at those high-risk, high-reward calls by the executive who made them and holds important lessons for competitive strategy.”
—Richard Shaffer, former technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Fortune

“Canion’s description of the human side of cobbling together what’s needed to create one of these standards is correct — and a good read, too.”
—Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel

“Yet remarkably, just a decade later, Compaq had successfully toppled IBM as the world’s largest PC company. In this fast-paced recounting of how the inconceivable became the actual, Compaq co-founder Rod Canion tells how daunting hurdles were overcome and opportunities seized. Open will take you along on this exhilarating ride through technology, innovation, and unprecedented industrial growth.”
—Ben Rosen, former Chairman of Compaq

“This book is a must-read for anyone seriously interested in innovation, investment in startups, or the information industry.”
—William F. Zachmann, Computer and Communications Industry Analyst and Former V.P. of Market Research at International Data Corp.