Is the HP Way still relevant today? • Hacker News Board

Re: Is the HP Way still relevant today?

#11

Post by cmiles74 » Sun, Jul 22, 2018, 1:44 PM UTC

gaius wrote: post #5

Considerably more relevant than what is left of HP-the-company. Every time I use my trusty HP-12C I feel a little sad for what was lost in the slash-and-burn era of Fiorina. Swiss Micros keeping the dream alive!

It's easy to blame Carly Fiorina for HP's decline, she was leading the company during the downturn of the 2000s. That said, I don't think it's entirely fair: that was a tough time all around! Many companies went belly-up during the dot-com bust[0], like MCI Worldcom, Gateway, etc.

Looking back, it seems like her decision to double-down on computing hardware (servers, desktops, laptops, printers, etc.) and Intel technology (at the expense of their own, like the tech from Apollo or DEC/Compaq's Alpha) immediately before the dot-com bust were the really disastrous decisions.

It's almost like she didn't know the dot-com bust was right around the corner! :-P

Re: Is the HP Way still relevant today?

#12

Post by sokoloff » Sun, Jul 22, 2018, 1:49 PM UTC

nine_k wrote: post #10

The article links to the HP corporate culture booklet from 1980 written apparently by Hewlett. It's worth reading. Can't fail to notice how successful a well-engineered company culture might be. The booklet gives pretty rational reasons for things like profit-sharing, stock sharing, company-sponsored medical insurance, management by objective and lack of micro-management, etc, all introduced by HP very early.

Reading the HP Way PDF, I was struck that several authors bothered to call out that HP used first/personal names to address fellow employees.

I can't imagine NOT doing so, but obviously ~40 years ago, that was uncommon enough to be noteworthy.

[0] - http://www.hpalumni.org/HPWayBooklet1980.pdf

Re: Is the HP Way still relevant today?

#13

Post by gaius » Sun, Jul 22, 2018, 1:50 PM UTC

cmiles74 wrote: post #11

gaius wrote: post #5

Considerably more relevant than what is left of HP-the-company. Every time I use my trusty HP-12C I feel a little sad for what was lost in the slash-and-burn era of Fiorina. Swiss Micros keeping the dream alive!

It's easy to blame Carly Fiorina for HP's decline, she was leading the company during the downturn of the 2000s. That said, I don't think it's entirely fair: that was a tough time all around! Many companies went belly-up during the dot-com bust[0], like MCI Worldcom, Gateway, etc. Looking back, it seems like her decision to double-down on computing hardware (servers, desktops, laptops, printers, etc.) and Intel techn…

If a company employs tens of thousands of proven engineers and can’t think of a single useful thing for them to work on then that is absolutely 100% an utter, abject failure of management.

Re: Is the HP Way still relevant today?

#14

Post by remote_phone » Sun, Jul 22, 2018, 1:50 PM UTC

The HP way died with Carly Fiorina. Her audacity for thinking she could be a viable candidate for presidency after gutting one of the hallowed institutions of Silicon Valley made me very livid every time I saw her on the screen. I hate Trump and think he’s ruining our country but Fiorina would have been worse.

Re: Is the HP Way still relevant today?

#15

Post by heisenbit » Sun, Jul 22, 2018, 1:52 PM UTC

Culture eats strategy for breakfast (unknown author but often attributed to Drucker).

Boards often ignore this wisdom and install people based on their previous job elsewhere, long term inside knowledge in a different role or whatever. When the leader of the company is not standing behind the values and defending them the company starts drifting. People become cynical about what unites them and that uniting includes management up to the CEO - or now divides them. In these cases official company values imho. can even become liability as everyone is constantly reminded of double-speak from the top.

Reading "The HP Way" is a reminder on how much business is about people and the society - often forgotten these days.

Re: Is the HP Way still relevant today?

#16

Post by jstanier » Sun, Jul 22, 2018, 1:57 PM UTC

Klover wrote: post #6

jstanier wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was a reflection inspired by the day we had together as a company. I wouldn't say it's an advert, but I do like working there. Out of curiousity, why would that category make you think it is an advertisement? I currently bucket my posts into "management 101" informational articles and then everything else currently lands under "growth". I could probably do with making some more categories now there are a whole bun…

Then I was wrong. Your blog post reminded me of a style of writing. Reciting something with the intent to make it look cool, then show how it applies to your company. The 'Growth' category made me wonder if you were doing that. But I see, it's a pleasant reflection.

No problem - I appreciate you pointing it out, as it can help me improve my writing style (and categorization of posts!)

Re: Is the HP Way still relevant today?

#17

Post by maxxxxx » Sun, Jul 22, 2018, 2:00 PM UTC

sokoloff wrote: post #12

nine_k wrote: post #10

The article links to the HP corporate culture booklet from 1980 written apparently by Hewlett. It's worth reading. Can't fail to notice how successful a well-engineered company culture might be. The booklet gives pretty rational reasons for things like profit-sharing, stock sharing, company-sponsored medical insurance, management by objective and lack of micro-management, etc, all introduced by HP very early.

Reading the HP Way PDF, I was struck that several authors bothered to call out that HP used first/personal names to address fellow employees. I can't imagine NOT doing so, but obviously ~40 years ago, that was uncommon enough to be noteworthy. [0] - http://www.hpalumni.org/HPWayBooklet1980.pdf

They did that even in Germany when I visited there in the 90s. I had never seen this before.

Re: Is the HP Way still relevant today?

#18

Post by jstanier » Sun, Jul 22, 2018, 2:10 PM UTC

schemathings wrote: post #8

Klover wrote: post #3

I read the blogpost and I was wondering what I was missing. Then I looked to the left of the page, and saw it was categorized as 'Growth'. So this is like a little advertisement for Brandwatch? I'm sorry if I got it all wrong, James.

Two sections before 'The HP Way' in an engineering blog. Section 1 - Linting (sounds like engineering, interested, continue)... Section 2 - Management (3 paragraphs ending with maligning the President's management style, not interested, tired of it, 41.7% chance of annoying your audience) https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/ Section 3++ - Didn't read.

And that's OK. I don't expect everyone to like what I write. We're all different. There's an audience outside of America too. I don't live there.

Re: Is the HP Way still relevant today?

#19

Post by tiatia123 » Sun, Jul 22, 2018, 2:38 PM UTC

gaius wrote: post #5

Considerably more relevant than what is left of HP-the-company. Every time I use my trusty HP-12C I feel a little sad for what was lost in the slash-and-burn era of Fiorina. Swiss Micros keeping the dream alive!

How about the German idiot Apotheker that blow out all the WebOS equipment for fire sale prices. Thats fine, he limited losses. But at that point WebOS had acquired some market share by doing this. Then he said: "We discontinue WebOS"

WebOS was a good mobile OS. An excellent MobileOS. The hardware was great. I had a very tiny one with excellent look, feel and haptic.

WebOS could now be a major mobile operating system.

Re: Is the HP Way still relevant today?

#20

Post by kps » Sun, Jul 22, 2018, 4:15 PM UTC

Both parts are relevant and recurring.

A small company starts and through unconventional business culture — treating employees better than average, and putting quality over short-term profit — grows exponentially. Then they bring in MBAs to turn things around.

In HP the second phase didn't occur until H & P retired, but SV today likes to move fast and wreck things.