Silicon Gold Rush : The Next Generation of High-Tech Stars Rewrites the Rules of Business
Author: Karen Southwick
List Price: $24.95
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ISBN: 0471246468
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons (02 February, 1999)
Sales Rank: 49,312
Average Customer Rating: 3 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 1 out of 5
Not relevant with all the hypes -- too general
Being a person working in SF bay area, I quickly learned that this book was among the inferiors of the book on the Valley.
The descriptions are too general -- the interviews were too shallow and no specific issues are presented in a clear-lighted manner. Good selections for books on the Valley I think is "Accidental Empires" by Cringely.
Rating: 1 out of 5
A Couple Years Later, This Is Irrelevant
This is a somewhat entertaining read if you can get over the basic fact that the information is outdated. Almost all of the statistics are from 1998 and some of the companies cited as future stars never realized their potential. It was relevant in 1999 but quickly lost all significance in the dot-com meltdown of 2000 that is still continuing as I write this in 2001. Dot-coms now require a path to profitability and companies just don't engage in the same behaviors any more. This books still has value for anyone wanting to know some historical background from the times of "irrational exhuberance" but the changes in business priorities that have taken place since this book was written have doomed it to irrelevance.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Insightful!
In light of the recent declines in tech stocks, you must give author Karen Southwick credit - for the most part she's profiled companies that are still around, although they've taken some hits. Southwick synthesizes her observations of Silicon Valley over the last decade or so. She takes a broad and sustained look at the practices of such companies as Ascend, Audodesk, Ciena, Cisco, Crossworlds, Net Noir, Open Market, Peoplesoft, Yahoo and others. Using an anecdotal, feature-story style, Southwick dissects these firms, covering CEOs' personal histories, corporate funding and corporate culture - down to dress code and wilderness team-building exercises. Some stories aren't new (insiders know Yahoo's culture is wacky) and there are some small inaccuracies (i.e. you could challenge Crossworlds CEO Katrina Garnett's argument that turnover is still a massive problem). Nonetheless, whether you're an insider or just an observer seeking an overview of Silicon Valley and its players, we at getAbstract.com recommend this accessible, reader-friendly compilation.
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