Single startup's failure to reshape individual/institutional memories to create a pen computer world: Memory management disequilibria dimensions (MD) 2 protocol

Purpose - The singular success of Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. in rescuing IBM from dismemberment and destruction in terms of his shifting the institutional memory of 300,000 employees from corporate politics to customer service focus, has been expalined memory management explain failures as well? Design/methodology/approach - Chacko (memory management in survival decisions of corportions 1956-2003, Barmarick Publications, UK, 2006) published a sequence of ordered procedures (protocol) of memory management: memory management disequilibria dimensions (MD)2 protocol. This paper applies the protocol to the birth and death of the GO computer. Findings - The memory management disequilibria dimensions (MD)2 protocol analyzes accurately the Jerry Kaplan narrative of founding on August 14, 1987, the GO corporation to AT&T firing the last remaining employees of EO, the spin-off of GO on July 29, 1994. (MD)2 Step 1: Chief Ntrapreneur officer will to win became a casualty, founder CTO/CNO Kaplan reflecting that money wasn't the problem, but loss of faith of the chief financial officer on the viability, of the Software VP on the development schedules, of the CEO on market momentum, and of the CTO/ECO on the 'stick-to-itveness' of the new management team. Orginality/value - The habit patterns of thought and action that make a corporation/country unique are instructed/inscribed in individual/institional memory. This paper demonstrates that the (MD)2 protocol explains both success and failure, providing a basis to make memory management effective.