This work offers a summary of the book “HIGH NOON: The Inside Story of Scott McNealy and the Rise of Sun Microsystems” by Karen Southwick.
Karen Southwick charts the success of Sun Microsystems from a start-up in 1982, to 1999, when over half companies worldwide are using Java technology, and Sun became a $9 billion company. It’s a truly extraordinary story: within five days of setting out a business plan, Khosla and Bechtolsheim had raised $284,000 of capital, which meant they had to deliver $4 million in sales for their first year of operation.
Despite technical glitches and the intense pressure, they delivered, demonstrating three traits that would be integral to their success in the years ahead: the company was run frugally; it was product focused first and foremost; McNealy rather than Khosla tended to deal with staff issues and emerged as the defacto leader even though Khosla was CEO.
High Noon describes a genuinely fascinating company in a compelling way. Sun broke many conventions of the time, but took risks that were well-thought out and customer focused. As Andy Bechtolsheim says, ‘‘Sun did the big things right. We had the right business model -- the open system approach and open attitude toward our customers. Once you get that right, you can afford mistakes.’’ Every businessperson, even if in a different market, can learn from Sun’s strategies.