 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group The bad times - and the good Roger Riordan |
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Ash's recent article "Unemployed at 45" struck a chord with me. I graduated in Electrical Engineering from Melbourne University in 1954, and, after two years in the UK, joined CSIRO. I had won international recognition in 1968 for my work on active filters, but in 1973 I was coming up to 40, and felt I was getting nowhere. I decided I would have to get out, or be stuck there for the rest of my days, so, with few contacts and little knowledge of business, I resigned, and set up Cybec Electronics. We did a lot of interesting work, but never made any money. In 1979 things seemed to be looking up, and we rented a small factory in Bentleigh.
But in 1982 we had one of our periodic depressions, and when the lease came up for renewal I realised we would soon go broke if we renewed. So we moved back home, but this meant we could not do the little work we had been doing, and I had to go on the dole. I was 49, and the prospects did not look good. I applied for one job, for an engineer with some years of experience, only to be told "Oh, we're looking for someone about 21". I realised later I should have asked them to tell me when they found a kindergarten that conferred degrees! More often I was told "You're too qualified for our job".
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It was a strange feeling to walk down the street, enjoying the sun on a beautiful day, but knowing that although everything seemed to be normal our money was slowly, but inexorably, running out.
Eventually I found some contracting work, and also a position as Lecturer at Chisholm Institute of Technology. However classes were large, the workload heavy, and many of the students poorly motivated. And all for a very inadequate pension when I was, eventually, able to retire. So, by 1989, when I turned 55, I was feeling pretty disheartened.
Soon afterwards, someone came into the lunch room, and said "There's a virus in the PC Labs". I wrote the first version of VET, and gave it to the students as shareware. Soon afterwards money started to appear, and at the end of the year I retired to work on VET full time. Cybec grew rapidly until, at the start of this year, we employed about 90 people, with offices round Australia.
I had always said that the business was not for sale, and had rejected a number of approaches from competitors, but when we approached Computer Associates Inc (CAI) to sell them VET under license, they countered by offering to buy VET, at an extremely attractive price. We had been doing very well, but prices were falling, and competition was getting very fierce. We had always funded our growth from revenue, but we needed more money, and it seemed the only way to get it was to go public, and that would make it hard to protect ourselves from hostile takeovers by the opposition. Also I was almost 65, and after 44 years trying to keep up with the most rapidly changing of all the professions, I was weary, and finding the responsibility a heavy burden.
When CAI told us that they would keep VET, and almost all our staff, and make our office their central AV research center, we decided to accept their offer. I am very sad that VET will no longer be Australian owned, but it will still be made here, and will have the backing to fight off any competitor. Our staff will be better paid, with much greater career opportunities, and Sally and I will be able to take things more easily. For the time being I will be acting as a consultant to CAI, but we have retained Cybec, and will be looking into a number of possible new projects.
It gives me great satisfaction to have proved that at 55 it is still possible to help found a totally new profession, and to build a successful company making a world class product. We have given a lot of young people their first jobs, and a number of migrants their first jobs in Australia. It has been extremely gratifying to watch our "kids" blossom into competent, selfconfident and thoroughly professional members of staff. Moreover, in this era of greed, we have built our business on the old-fashioned principles of honesty, integrity and fair play in all our dealings; with customers, staff, suppliers and even competitors.
So, if you are unemployed, never give up hope. We are looking for projects, so if any of you think you have found the next "VET" we will be happy to talk to you.>
About the
author
Roger Riordan was Managing Director of Cybec Pty Ltd. He joined Melb PC in 1987 and has presented at our
monthly meetings several times.
Reprinted from the April 1999 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
