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History
A plaque outside a small house at 367 Addison Avenue in Palo Alto, California, recognizes the one-car garage out back as the “Birthplace of Silicon Valley.” It was here that Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard first started HP in 1939. What they launched wasn’t only the foundation for modern technology, but the roots of modern management.
Consider HP’s history of innovation. First, there was the audio oscillator used by the Walt Disney Company in 1939 to create the landmark movie Fantasia. From the world’s first personal computer (called a desktop calculator), in 1968; to the first handheld scientific calculator, the HP-35, which made the slide rule obsolete; to the first handheld programmable; all the way up through the HP LaserJet and inkjet technology, the first IBM-compatible PC; the first minicomputer and clustering technology that is the underlying technical foundation for grid computing, the companies that now make up HP built the foundation for modern technology.
Perhaps HP’s most far-reaching innovations were on the management side, pioneering many of the policies that help employees balance the demands of work and life. HP established its open door policy in the 1940s to create an atmosphere of trust and mutual understanding. Managers also practiced a technique dubbed “management by walking around” — a departure from the rigid management structures of its day. HP was among the first companies to offer a corporate code of values and responsibilities — the famous
“HP Way” — as well as benefits such as catastrophic health insurance, profit sharing, and tuition assistance. In 1967, HP also pioneered the concept of flexible working hours, or “flextime.” And, HP was one of the first companies to encourage telecommuting. |
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