Those who recall the early days of PCs - or anyone who wants to avoid repeating PR errors from those days - should read this book. It has tales of once-invincible tech companies that no longer exist because of stupid business and marketing decisions.
Good buzz alone can't keep a tech company in business, the author rightly notes. More often than not, bad business choices have sunk companies that once had great images. Chapman should know, he worked at many tech dinosaurs. While the book looks at marketing in the broad sense, Chapman saves some of his best barbs for tech PR. Discussing a press tour while he worked at WordStar-maker MicroPro, he writes, "Rounding out the group was a sad little PR type who confessed at the end of our trip that she really didn't like working with the press." This is a must-read for those who want to be part of the next tech boom, and avoid going down in flames during the next bust. ----- Title In Search of Stupidity: Over 20 Years of High-Tech Marketing Disasters Author Merrill R. Chapman Publisher APress, 252 pages Reviewed by John N. Frank
