Utah County Business
The principles that have guided the growth of WordPerfect Corp. since its inception 13 years ago form a framework for success worth emulating.President and co-founder Alan C. Ashton outlined some of the principles the software company adheres to, as well as WordPerfect's history, as a speaker in Utah's Greatest Entrepreneurs Lecture Series.
Ashton, 47, co-founded WordPerfect Corp. with Bruce W. Bastian, who is now company chairman. Ashton graduated magna cum laude in mathematics from the University of Utah in 1966. He received his Ph.D. in computer science from the U. in 1970.
Ashton met Bastian at Brigham Young University, where Ashton was a computer science professor and Bastian was a music major and director of the BYU marching band.
Bastian, under Ashton's tutelage, developed a computer program to design marching routines. He also switched his post-graduate program from music to computer science.
Ashton and Bastian later teamed up to work on a software idea Ashton had for a word-processing program. The program was initially written for Data General computers; in 1982 they developed a version for the IBM PC.
"I had a really good feeling about the idea that word processing on minicomputers would be something everybody would want to use," Ashton said.
Bastian agreed. But, Ashton said, "we had no idea what would happen with this idea and good feeling we had."
The two stuck with their good feeling even when financial backers withdrew support. Ashton continued working at BYU during the day, returning home in the early evening to spend time with his children and then joining Bastian to work into the wee hours of the night.
In the early days, they beat the pavement themselves to promote the product; Ashton's children helped copy disks at home.
Those days are long gone. Today WordPerfect has sales of approximately $450 million per year and employs more than 2,500 people at its headquarters in Orem.
"The phenomenon of WordPerfect has gone beyond our wildest dreams and expectations," Ashton said. "What's made it worth it to me . . . is to see the benefits WordPerfect has brought to the valley, to so many homes and so many families."
There are keys to the company's success:
- Be a fiscal conservative. WordPerfect has never been in debt. All its buildings in the Timpanogos Technology Park have been built "as revenues have been there to do it," Ashton said. The company maintains reserves in the bank that will allow it to refocus its orientation in the event of drastic market changes.
Ashton reviews sales and revenue reports daily. The company also keeps a close watch on its distributor's credit limits.
- Be ready when opportunity beckons. WordPerfect got a big break when competitor Wordstar came out with a software update that was incompatible with its earlier versions. The company was ready to take advantage of that opening in the market.
- Be value oriented. WordPerfect believes in being honest, fair and forthright in its dealings with others - customers, employees, distributors, etc., Ashton said.
There is no substitute for hard work and quality. Little, if anything, is gained by taking short cuts.
The company credits its employees with being a major part of its success and believes in promoting from within.
- Avoid entangling alliances. Avoid making special deals with anyone, Ashton advises. It cuts other customers, as well as yourself, short.
- Support your product. WordPerfect spend $2 million a month on providing support services to its customers.
"We have, I think, the most outstanding support function of any industry," Ashton said. And satisfied customers are the best advertisement a company can have.
WordPerfect, in fact, spends only 2 percent of its gross sales revenues on advertising.