In Memory of Ken Olsen

Ken Olsen, the cofounder of Digital Equipment Corp, died last week.

The story of Olsen and DEC formed the heart of my book Creative Capital. I’ve been meaning to get around to publishing a blog post explaining why Ken Olsen still matters.

In the meantime, here are some of the best links to obits and memorials of Olsen, who Fortune magazine in 1986 called “America’s Most Successful Entrepreneur.”

Ken Olsen, Who Built DEC Into a Power, Dies at 84 by Glenn Rifkin of The New York Times

Innovator’s Dilemma by Steve Syre of The Boston GLobe.

Remembering Ken Olsen by Paul Kedrosky of Bloomberg BusinessWeek

Remembering Ken Olsen by Bruce Richardson

Ken Olsen Memorial by John Furrier of Silicon Angle

Obit by IDG News Service

Obit by Chris Mellor of Channel Register

Memorial by Robert Lenzner of Forbes

Obit by Gregory T. Huang of Xconomy

Memorial by Gordon Bell on Xconomy

Deadly sins the tech industry can’t seem to shake by Bill Snyder of Infoworld

I Am Alive! Doriot Round-up

It’s been awhile since I posted anything new on this blog. Sorry for that. I’ve been pretty swamped working at The Wall Street Journal since last April.

However, the story of Georges Doriot continues to resonate. Over the last 10 months, I have seen more than 100 Websites or blogs make reference to Doriot or feature him in a post. Here is a select list of those links:

* Fisher Investments profile of Doriot. Each week, it profiles an important figure in market history, highlighting the fascinating and often irreverent lives of key figures that influenced how capital markets came to be. (April 30, 2010)

* Finance and Business history of venture capital highlighting Doriot. (May 1, 2010)

* Creative Capital Makes Top Book List of Pittsburgh Ventures. Good synopsis of take-aways. (May, 5, 2010)

* Investing Principles of Doriot by Rocky Top MBA. (June 25, 2010)

* Great Comment on Doriot’s Belief in Importance of Manufacturing on ZDNet blog post. (July 7, 2010).