From OCR
Gentlemen, it is a pleasure to meet all of you front line troops. You guys that carry the banner. The guys on t he firing line — you are fired up today, you will be more fired up tomorrow and come Saturday you
should be at the point of pitying the competition. But, you had better not, because
heis absolutely ruthless.
His goal in life is to put us out
of business. Now, we are going to help you keep your guard up
We’ ve got a hot product.
It’s got a concept, it fits all t he
buzz’ words, pl us cr eat es a few of its own. It’s got a price
low enough that you don’t have to give trading stamps
it’s got class.
customer is going to be our customer because we do his job
better – because we make him feel confident with us. personal charm can get you an audience with a prospective
customer, your.-s,u:periorsalesmanshipcangethimtoinstall
But that ain’t gonna be what sells it.
a system, but that’s only the preliminaries •
have got to keep it there. All the personal charm and sales-
manship in the world won’t keep equipment installed if it’s not performing for the customer. The one thing worse than not
making a sale, is making one that you~can’t keep made.
are going to provide you some ground rules, some guidelines
and some absolutes that will maximize the odds
instal led equipment installed.
Gentlemen, you are part of a company that is the world leader in real-time data cap@Ore. The world doesn’t know that yet,
but you guys are gonn% tell ~em. And, you’ re gonna tell ~em with more than buzz wor84 — you’ re gonna tell ~em with installed
equipment. And, we’ re going to install equipment by being able to minimize the time, the complexities, the error and
the cost of data cap@ere.
In 1965, after 85 years of accepting the punched card as the only viable method for high volume media conversion, the
world had the opportunity and. the pleasure to try a different approach. Keyboard to compatible tape. It wasn’t a new concept, but it was the first practical implementation of the coneppt. It had some advantages, but only one significant one, it had an internal memory that permitted operators to move at their own speed, and it had disadvantages, it required change. Pressures like the suddenwaneof newS360 systems which pushed delivery times on KP’s to 12 to 16 months and
zip codes that found no vacant columns on, an 80 column card,
not to gentian the shortage of keypunch operators. The
result was fantastic, overnight a small company in Herkimer,N.Y. had created a new industry, and key tape devices were recorded
as a sure road to success~ All one had. to do was look at the number of installed keypunches and the market of key tape machines was unlimited. By early ’68, key tape systems were appearing like toadstools in a spring rain.
By lat e ’69, to the sorrow of many, it was found that all keypunches were not targets for key tapes and that there was a hell of a lot more to media conversion than keyboards magnetic tape and stylized casework. MDS had delivered, maybe 20K units and then found themselves in a holding action against all the “me-too’s”. .
What is it that gives the keypunch such staying power:
2. 3 •
Is the inertia of existing procedures and people skills. The intrinsic advantages of a unit record.
Most importantly, what has been offered as a replace-
ment is recognizable as only an interim step. And for the guy to change, he has to see a path to where he wants
to be. And where does he want to be?
ON LINE
Why
He wants to get rid of the shell game, obviate the shuffling
of cards and t apes and yaper. I
He wants a more timely reporting of changes in his assets.
The more timely his reporting, the faster he turns his inventory,
He wants to eliminate error. To do this, his entry of data must be interactive with his overall data base.
I said, the user wants to get on line, but, he is not ready
today. Our opportunity is to solve today’s problemtoday, with equipment that can al so put the user on l ine. A system
that will permit an orderly evolution fwom free-standing data stations to true on-line operation. That’s our concept
a concept backed by hardware than can do.
I haven’t had sufficient personal conversation with each of you to know and understand why you joined Cogar Corporation.
If it wasn’t to help build. a great company, then you have the wrong motive. Because that’s what it’s all about. This
company was started without a product or a product concept. Products and product concepts are transient, they live but ashort time. Tolive,acompanymusthavevision,conv~qtion and a willingness to compete. It has to have teamwork and leadership. We are going to provide the leadership and we are going to demand that everyone be part of the team.
A lot of people are expecting big things of us. We’ re not going to disappoint them.
georgecogar 