Richard Tait, Co-Inventor of the Board Activity Cranium, Dies at 58
Mr. Tait analyzed personal computer science as an undergraduate at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh right before moving to the United States, in which he acquired a master’s diploma at Dartmouth’s Tuck Faculty of Business enterprise. When he finished his M.B.A., he took a job with Microsoft, in the suburbs of Seattle, just as that computer software maker was escalating into one particular of the world’s most potent organizations. Not extensive immediately after, he hired one of the company’s most noteworthy staff members: the long run chief government and chairman Satya Nadella.
In the 1990s, in the course of the heyday of multimedia CD-ROMs, Mr. Tait oversaw Microsoft’s catalog of reference titles, which includes the Encarta encyclopedia and Bookshelf, a catchall collection spanning Roget’s Thesaurus, The American Heritage Dictionary, Bartlett’s Acquainted Quotations and The Chicago Manual of Design. He eventually turned a kind of entrepreneur-in-residence at the firm, launching five new internet businesses inside Microsoft within four a long time, together with Carpoint, a car or truck-getting support, and Sidewalk, an on-line town information.
He remaining the company in 1997, hoping to turn into a radio disc jockey on the energy of his Scottish brogue. But after a unsuccessful audition, he made a decision to produce Cranium, making a new business, Cranium Inc., with Mr. Alexander, a former Microsoft colleague.
When they completed developing the activity in late 1998, game retailers and other classic retailers experienced currently stocked their cabinets for the holiday getaway buying season. But one afternoon, when they satisfied for coffee at a Starbucks in Seattle, Mr. Tait had a further imagined: What if they marketed the recreation by the coffee store chain?
“His plan was to provide the sport not where by video games ended up sold but where our shoppers have been,” Mr. Alexander said. “Most of the men and women we have been going for would by no means established foot in a sport store.”
Through an acquaintance, Mr. Tait arranged a meeting with Starbucks’s chief govt, Howard Schultz, and soon Starbucks was providing Cranium in shops throughout the nation. Later, Mr. Tait and Mr. Alexander organized very similar specials with Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble, both of those of which had been then regarded for marketing primarily guides, not online games.
Mr. Tait analyzed personal computer science as an undergraduate at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh right before moving to the United States, in which he acquired a master’s diploma at Dartmouth’s Tuck Faculty of Business enterprise. When he finished his M.B.A., he took a job with Microsoft, in the suburbs of Seattle, just as that computer software maker was escalating into one particular of the world’s most potent organizations. Not extensive immediately after, he hired one of the company’s most noteworthy staff members: the long run chief government and chairman Satya Nadella.
In the 1990s, in the course of the heyday of multimedia CD-ROMs, Mr. Tait oversaw Microsoft’s catalog of reference titles, which includes the Encarta encyclopedia and Bookshelf, a catchall collection spanning Roget’s Thesaurus, The American Heritage Dictionary, Bartlett’s Acquainted Quotations and The Chicago Manual of Design. He eventually turned a kind of entrepreneur-in-residence at the firm, launching five new internet businesses inside Microsoft within four a long time, together with Carpoint, a car or truck-getting support, and Sidewalk, an on-line town information.
He remaining the company in 1997, hoping to turn into a radio disc jockey on the energy of his Scottish brogue. But after a unsuccessful audition, he made a decision to produce Cranium, making a new business, Cranium Inc., with Mr. Alexander, a former Microsoft colleague.
When they completed developing the activity in late 1998, game retailers and other classic retailers experienced currently stocked their cabinets for the holiday getaway buying season. But one afternoon, when they satisfied for coffee at a Starbucks in Seattle, Mr. Tait had a further imagined: What if they marketed the recreation by the coffee store chain?
“His plan was to provide the sport not where by video games ended up sold but where our shoppers have been,” Mr. Alexander said. “Most of the men and women we have been going for would by no means established foot in a sport store.”
Through an acquaintance, Mr. Tait arranged a meeting with Starbucks’s chief govt, Howard Schultz, and soon Starbucks was providing Cranium in shops throughout the nation. Later, Mr. Tait and Mr. Alexander organized very similar specials with Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble, both of those of which had been then regarded for marketing primarily guides, not online games.