"Rod Canion reveals the back-room battles, secret alliances, and bet-the-company decisions he made as CEO of Compaq, which he guided from start-up to the Fortune 500 in less than four years. Canion's process for making executive decisions will be of interest to managers in any competitive industry." --Peter H. Lewis, former Senior Writer and technology columnist for The New York Times "Compaq's early business decisions changed the course of personal computing. This is a detailed inside look at those high-risk, high-reward calls by the executive who made them and holds important lessons for competitive strategy." --Richard Shaffer, former technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal , Forbes , and Fortune "Canion's description of the human side of cobbling together what's needed to create one of these standards is correct -- and a good read, too." --Andy Grove, former CEO of Intel "Yet remarkably, just a decade later, Compaq had successfully toppled IBM as the world's largest PC company. In this fast-paced recounting of how the inconceivable became the actual, Compaq co-founder Rod Canion tells how daunting hurdles were overcome and opportunities seized.

Open will take you along on this exhilarating ride through technology, innovation, and unprecedented industrial growth." --Ben Rosen, former Chairman of Compaq "This book is a must-read for anyone seriously interested in innovation, investment in startups, or the information industry." --William F. Zachmann, Computer and Communications Industry Analyst and Former V.P. of Market Research at International Data Corp.