DEC had an explicit "never fire anyone if you can possibly avoid it" culture.

There were no significant lay-offs until the last few years.

You might think that's insane, but it created a lot of loyalty. And I'm not sure it's any less sane than the current religion of cutting head counts at the first downturn in profitability, losing all the good people (because they'll be the first through the exits), and crushing the morale of the rest - never mind other popular stupidities like off-shoring to countries that don't speak English, or hiring back fired employees for vastly more money as contractors, because they're the only ones who can make stuff work.

Meanwhile I keep wondering if MS should reinvent itself as a straight R&D company. The research and blue sky side regularly does supercool stuff. The management, strategy, and customer satisfaction cadres - maybe not so great, actually.