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Is Facit a Failure?
Christian Sandström holds a PhD from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden and writes about disruptive innovation. The Swedish company Facit went from profits to near bankruptcy in the early 1970s due to the shift from mechanical to electronic calculators. Facit's CEO Gunnar Ericsson was blamed for the problems. However, Facit should not be considered a failure for three reasons: 1) All mechanical calculator manufacturers struggled with this transition, 2) Established firms in other industries that digitized also suffered, and 3) Once the industry became digital, competition became fierce and many companies had to leave.
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Is Facit a Failure?
- 2. Christian Sandström holdsa PhD from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. He writes and speaks about disruptive innovation and technological change.
- 5. Within only afew years, the Swedish company Facit went from fantastic profits into being close to bankruptcy in the early 1970s.
- 9. The shift to electronics was the reason why Facit made those losses.
- 13. Facit’s CEO Gunnar Ericsson was now blamed for the problems at the company.
- 14. Should Facit be regarded as a failure?
- 15. My answer isNO.
- 16. There are three reasonsfor this:
- 17. 1. All manufacturers of mechanical calculators got into trouble in this shift.
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- 27. 2. Established firmsin other industries have with few exceptions suffered greatly in technological shifts from mechanics to electronics.
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- 31. When watches becamedigital, about 1000 Swiss watch manufacturers went out of business in the 70s and 80s.
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- 35. Kodak had tofire thousands and thousands of employees.
- 36. Many buildings in Rochester,NY, were blown into pieces.
- 37. In Munich, Germany, AgfaPhoto was demolished.
- 38. Konica left theindustry after trying to survive through a merger with Minolta.
- 39. Polaroid is alsoresting in peace.
- 40. Hasselblad has beenin deep trouble.
- 41. And so hasLeica.
- 42. This can goon forever, I think the point is clear.
- 43. 3. Once thecalculator industry became digital, competition got fierce and ’the great calculator war’ broke out in the 1970s.
- 44. The calculators becamecheaper, smaller and better at a violent pace...
- 48. New models werelaunched all the time…
- 52. In 1969-1972, morethan 20 firms entered the industry…
- 59. Only a fewyears later, most of them had left the industry…
- 60. Only Sharp, TexasInstruments, Casio and a few others eventually survived…
- 65. Thus, if Facitwould have survived the shift to electronics, it wasn’t exactly paradise that waited after the revolution...
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- 69. Facit can’t beregarded as a failure. All other mechanical calculator companies went down, and the same thing has happened in virtually every industry that has been digitized. Moreover, once the shift happened, competition became so fierce that many electronic companies had to leave the industry.
- 74. Photos taken at: ÅtvidabergsBruks och Facit Museum, Sweden http://brukskultur.atvidaberg.se/index2.html Åssa Industri och Bil Museum, Sweden http://www.assamuseet.se/ Thank You!
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