Introduction
I only spent 16 years with Olivetti retiring in 1998, which coincided with the arrival of Wang! Working at Olivetti I never found life boring, as there was constant change either to our Company name or objectives or both. I recall a colleague said that while on his CV he stated that although he had always worked for Olivetti, he had great experience of managing change. I think we all know what he meant.
I am initially writing this based on extracting information from Olivetti newsletters but unfortunately there is not a complete set. These were initially collected by the late David Maroni added to by Jim Edward and passed to Harry Grey for safekeeping. I have looked at the web and Google throws up several thousand sites (I have not visited them all) plus my own recollections. I need your help on providing details where newsletters are missing. For instance there is no information in the newsletter as to when the Glasgow factory closed down. I think it would also be of interest to list all the Managing Directors and their period in office. The early edition of the newsletter, which were printed monthly, were sales briefing notes and views of the resellers so whist providing details on products they are very light on people and events.
I hope that this will be a ‘living’ document that can be expanded in the fullness of time, so I would also appreciate any printable anecdotes that you care to supply.
John H Hope