The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company (Collins Business Essentials)

As the title indicate this book is about the story of Hewlett Packard as told by one of the founding partners David Packard. This book offers a corporate history of how the company started from the infamous garage into a global enterprise, but more importantly focuses on the guiding principles on which this company was built - the HP Way.What stands out in the HP Way is the deep commitment and belief in values and principles. These radiate from the founders and affect everyone and everything at HP. The HP Way covers all aspects of operations within the company and with external stakeholders (customers, shareholders etc.) in a way that transcends time and specific technologies (see below excerpts). Almost half a century later most of what is discussed is just as relevant than as it is now.HP is currently in a desperate need to revive the HP Way and transform itself in order to turn itself around and succeed in the future. A highly recommended read.Below are excerpts from the book that I found particularly insightful:1- "...it has been a guiding principle in developing and managing HP. Get the best people, stress the importance of teamwork, and get them fired up to win the game."2- "We published a second version of the objectives in 1966 and they are as follows...1) Profit: To recognize that profit is the best measure of our contribution to society and the ultimate source of our corporate strength...2) Customers: To strive for continual improvement in the quality, usefulness, and value of the products and services we offer our customers...3) Field of Interest: To concentrate our efforts, continually seeking new opportunities for growth but limiting our involvement o fields in which we have capability and can make a contribution. 4) Growth: To emphasize growth as a measure of strength and a requirement for survival. 5) Employees : To provide employment opportunities for HP people that include the opportunity to share in the company's success, which they help make possible. To provide them job security based on performance, and to provide the opportunity for personal satisfaction that comes from a sense of accomplishment in their work. 6) Organization: To maintain an organizational environment that fosters individual motivation, initiative, creativity, and a wide latitude of freedom in working toward established objectives and goals. 7) Citizenship: To meet the obligations of good citizenship by making contributions to the community and to the institutions in our society which generate the environment in which we operate."3- "An important element of the HP Way has to do with the company's relationship with its shareholders and the investment community. A primary objective in this area is to provide consistency in our corporate performance, including steady growth in earnings and equity."4- "At that time our policy at HP was to regard increased market share as a reward for doing things well - for providing customers with superior products and services and keeping our costs down. This has been a basic policy from the very beginning of our company, and we expect it to continue in the future."5- "The key to HP's prospective involvement in any field of interest is contribution. Our objective is to expand and diversify only when we can build on our present strengths, and with the recognition that we have the proven capability to make a contribution. To meet this objective, it is important that we put maximum effort into our product-development programs. This means we must continually seek new ideas for new and better kinds of products."6- "The fundamental basis for success in the operation of Hewlett-Packard is the job we do in satisfying the needs of our customers. We encourage every person in our organization to think continually about how his or her activities relate to the central purpose of serving our customers."7- "...gains in quality come from meticulous attention to detail and every step in the manufacturing process must be done as carefully as possible, not as quickly as possible. This sounds simple, but it is achieved only if everyone in the organization is dedicated to quality."8- "It's imperative that there be a strong spirit of helpfulness and cooperation among all elements of the company and that this spirit be recognized and respected as a cornerstone of the HP Way."9- "Although we minimize corporate direction at HP, we consider ourselves one single company, with the flexibility of a small company and the strengths of a large one - the ability to draw on corporate resources and services; shared standards, values, and culture; common goals and objectives; and a single world identity."10- "I should point out that the successful practice of management by objective is a two-way street. Managers at all levels must be sure that their people clearly understand the overall objectives and goals of the company, as well as the specific goals of their particular division or department. Thus, managers have a strong obligation to foster good communication and mutual understanding. Conversely, their people must take sufficient interest in their work to want to plan it, to propose new solutions to old problems, and to jump in when they have something to contribute."

The HP Way continues, through some 80 years of innovation and challenges. Reading David Packard's account of his early days and the founding of HP could be the story of a dot com entrepreneur today. The lessons learned and the principles applied are well spelled out in the book in the form of chapters on Innovation, Community Involvement, etc. As is noted by a few other reviewers, the book can bog down in spots, and the style is somewhat dry. Having said that, there is much wisdom in the pages - wisdom that is not bound by the times in which David Packard lived. Any manager or business owner should add this somewhere on their to read list. It is a relatively quick and easy read - and stylistic limitations aside - a valuable primer on the core values that drove HP to success, and continue to drive HP today.

I am an electronic engineer with nearly 30 years of employment experience, during which time I purchased and worked with Hewlett-Packard test instruments (also through Agilent and then Keysight). The performance, look and feel of HP products, and the way they were documented, serviced and supported made an immediate and enduring impression on me as the benchmark to which all electronic design & manufacturing companies should aspire, but extremely few achieved. I was further impressed with positive reviews of the HP company given by HP employees.In his book “The HP Way”, Dave Packard provides some insights into his own life and family, his life-long relationship with Bill Hewlett and their relationship to their employees. The HP relationship to Universities is also discussed. The Universities are described as a vital source of mentorship and trained manpower.Of significance in this book, Dave Packard describes the meeting in Sonoma (1966) where Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett met with senior HP managers to share their six (later seven) corporate objectives for the HP company. I believe these objectives, which are written into this book, encompass the Hewlett and Packard approach to running the HP business. I mention the name Hewlett first, because Bill Hewlett won the coin toss to have his name put first on the company logo – another insight described in this book.The lasting impression from this book is that a commercial company is a community which needs to be fostered, encouraged and have the results appropriately recognized and rewarded. Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard understood engineers and how to motivate them. Their management style was mostly decentralized. It had hierarchy but was non-militant. Their success in founding, building and running the HP company cannot be ignored.

I had heard great things about this book, but I was somewhat disappointed by it. I had expected Packard to reflect on the qualities that really made HP great, and to some extent he did that. He talked about the company's history, its core values, and some key events in the company's history. But oftentimes crucial events were glossed over, like the time in the 80s or 70s that the company revived its sales performance. There was clearly an interesting case here to be analyzed, but Packard basically says that he gave the employees a speech and all was solved. Surely there was more to it than that!But overall, the book reads easily and does provide a decent history of the company.

Quick shipment. So happy to have found a copy of this.

I bought this book after being severely disappointed with the current HP leadership and HP Board. I wanted to bring the old image of HP back, the Hewlett-Packard that Dave and Bill had started. Some people say this is rather dry and boring but no, it is written in the style my grandpa would use when telling war stories: To the point yet very interesting. You throw in a lot of information but it all builds up after a while.I wish I could send the current board a box full of "The HP Way".

Interesting book and was a quick read

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Hp way is a very good management book which defines all the management activities carried out by both Bill and Packard. A must read for aspiring entrepreneurs

This book is describing how the HP imperium was made from scratch. How they were growing and what kind of problems did they have. In the book is also a part which is describing the close relationship to the government which was very new for me.

David Packard wrote "The HP Way" in a casual, almost folksy style. But the achievements of Packard and his partner, Hewlett, are not casual at all. His story about his commitment to his vision, his love of country, contribution to his employees, and a down-to-earth management style that is treated as normal today but was revolutionary in its day.HP, Apple, and only a handful of other companies have been able to consistently churn out truly innovative, groundbreaking products over decades. Packard is NOT driven to look good with an attractive quarterly report that Wall Street will love -- although that certainly happened. Instead, he explains that HP was committed to making contributions to the electronics industry that were practical, creative, and marketable. Using this as his guide, he helped build one of the most respected companies on the planet, helped shape Stanford University -- one of the most respected universities on the planet -- and took bold steps in the Department of Defense that made lots if sense but were quite controversial.Reading this book is a bit like sitting with an old uncle who tells amazing stories of accomplishment without any sense of self aggrandisement.

the book shipping from USA to Italy has come on time! Very good seller! thanks a lot for everyting you did!