Bill & Dave by Michael S. Malone - Book Review

This is probably the best business log that i have read till date. It made me laugh, cry and inspire all in one go. I could not put the book down before completing it. And in the end, I was enlightened in what could be the famous and cherished HP Way.

I learnt, 

1. Bill overcame Dyslexia by memorising whatever he heard in class. That made a great entrepreneur - one who listens to his customers and employees.

2. Dave Packard developed the management style "Managing By Walking Around". MBWA.

3. The first product was not named product code number 1 but was 200A. The famous calculate HP-35 was named so since it had 35 keys. And interestingly the HP01 as a product was not successful at all - a Digital Watch. And the first product pricing at $54.40 was as a result of the fact that it reminded amusingly of te historic phrase "54'40" or Fight!" that was used in the 1844 camapign to set the US-Canadian border in the Northwest.

4. Friday Dressing, Beer after work on Fridays, Flex timing, telecommuting, Open Door Policy were all pioneered in HP.

5. Strong Financials of HP owe their fundamentals to "Internal Financing of Growth".

6. Trust was the biggest fundamental of HP Way. And Dave Packard learnt it through his apprenticeship at GE in Schenectady. The perceived security crisis of tools and instruments disappearing from workshop at GE was treated with clampdown on security. This criminalised employee dedication to greater productivity by stopping employees from taking the tools and instruments home to keep working on unfinished projects from their jobs.

7. Treatment for Employees - being fair: Employee Evaluations and Termination

The guiding principles were:

• The indivdual affected had had advance warning through written evaluation and has been advised constructively on how he/she should improve.
• Wherever practical assure the employee is given an opportunity for other placement where he/she might make a greater contribution. Employee placement is a functino of supervisors and personnel and not a function of the emplyee to be turned loose to find a his own job someplace in HP.
• If termination is the only alternative, personnel must be fully advised and believe the fase is satisfactorily documented and the decision has the approval of the general manager concerned.
• Before any adverse action is taken, it should be well thought out. We must recongise that each of our people represents an individual with problems, families etc.

8. The Nine Day Fortnight - It is only fair that, during hard times everyone in the company share in the pain and make comparable sacrifices.

9. G Time: Take advantage of slow periods to give back to employees time that wouldnt be used anyways - and let them use their imagination to fill it productively.

and finally ... 

The HP Way - Corporate Objectives:
1. Profit: profit is the best single measure of our contribution to society and te ultimate source of our corporate strength. aimt to achieve maximum possible profit consistent with our other objectives.
2. Customers: to strive for continuous improvement in the quality, usefulness, and value fo 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 to fields in which we have capability and can make contributions
4. Growth: To emphasize graoth 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 for them job security based in perforamnce and to provide the opportunity for personal satisfaction that comes from a sense of accomplishment in their work.
6. Organisation: To maintain an organisational environment that fosters individual motivation, intiative, creativity, and wide latitude of freedom in working towards established objectives and goals.
7. Citizenship: To meet obligations of good citizenship by making contributions to the community and to the institutions in our society whcih generate the environment in which we operate.