Apr 20
The Impact of Hewlett and Packard
icon1 Eric Starkloff | icon2 News | icon4 April 20th, 2008| icon31 Comment »

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.