The Impact of Hewlett and Packard
April 20th, 2008 by Eric Starkloff
I just finished reading the book Bill and Dave: How Hewlett and Packard Built the World’s Greatest Company. Its a good read that focuses on the personal story of how two engineers built the most successful high technology company of their generation. Its also a good reminder of how much Hewlett and Packard laid the groundwork for the current generation of technology companies. Among other things, they pioneered “Flex-time”, the “Open Door” policy, “Management by Walking Around”, profit sharing, employee stock purchase plans, casual Fridays, “10% time” MBOs, company barbecues, and the cubicle (but don’t hold that last one against them!). All of us in the technology field owe a lot to those two pioneers.
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Allen Howard wrote on 06/4/08 at 6:42 pm :
Thanks for the perspective. It’s easy to view competitors (or a company that used to be a competitor) in an unfair way. I grew up less than a mile from the HP Printer division in Boise Idaho. Many of my scout leaders and parents of friends worked for HP. I’ve always respected HP. Sounds like a good book to read.