Gst, when I was in my mid-20's...Many times Bill Hewlett would come down and sit down at my desk at 6am in the morning, and ask me what I'm up to.
I used to tell him "I don't have a clue" he'd reply neither do I, so don't you worry.
This man was a icon. Trust me.
>Published: January 12 2001 20:04GMT | Last Updated: January 12 2001 22:53GMT
The Silicon Valley high technology industry lost one of its most highly esteemed business leaders, technologists and philanthropists on Friday withthe death of William Hewlett at the age of 87.
Together with David Packard, Hewlett formed the company that bears their names in 1939 starting out in a small rented garage. Today, HP is a $49bn company with nearly 90,000 employees. It is a leading manufacturer of computers and printers. Last year HP spun off its electronic instruments and test equipment business to form Agilent Technologies with annual revenues of almost $11bn and more than 47,000 employees.
As technology entrepreneurs, Hewlett and Packard, who met during their student days at Stanford University, set a trend that thousands of others have followed over the past half century to create in California the world'slargest complex of high technology businesses.
An unpretentious man with a twinkle of humour in his eyes, Hewlett never wanted to assume the role of "industry legend" that was frequently thrust upon him as one of the founders of the Silicon Valley.
"We're not responsible for Silicon Valley," he would say. "We're just one of the oldest residents," giving credit instead to the region's semiconductorchip manufacturers.
Historians might argue that Hewlett had a greater influence than he believed. HP has spawned numerous companies and its "garage to riches" story has undoubtedly inspired many engineers to establish their own businesses.
It was Bill Hewlett, for example, who gave a young Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple Computer, his first job. Tomas Kleiner, one of the region's leading venture capitalists, worked as Hewlett's deputy in the1960s.
While Hewlett is best remembered for his inventiveness -- early products included such bizarre items as a lettuce thinner -- he and Packard, who died in 1996, shared in the management of their growing business. Hewlett took on the chief executive role when Packard went to Washington to serve as deputy defense secretary in the Nixon Administration. Upon Packard's return, Hewlett served as chairman of HP'sexecutive committee until 1983 and vice chairman until his retirement in 1987.
Even after his retirement, Hewlett maintained offices at HP's Palo Alto,California, headquarters. The rooms were maintained in the decor and style of the 1970s, despite their modern high tech surroundings.
In a 1992 interview Hewlett talked about the early days. "We started with a very small amount of money ($538) and we operated, as much as possible, on a pay-as-you-go basis, so that our growth be financed by our earnings and not by debt," he explained.
"Both Dave and I were products of the Great Depression. We had observed its effects on all sides, and of course it had a strong effect on us. It could not help but influence our decisions on how the company should be run."
Hewlett and Packard's management philosophy, which has since been emulated by many companies, included sharing profits with all employees. "We both felt fundamentally that people want to do a good job," Hewlett said. "They just need guidelines on how to do it."
"Professors of management are devastated when I say we were successful because we had no plans," Hewlett said with a grin. "We just took on odd jobs." But HP got off the ground with a device invented by Hewlett during his post graduate studies at Stanford University. The "audio oscillator", for measuring sound waves, gave HP its first commercial success when Walt Disney ordered eight to use in the production of the film Fantasia.
However, Hewlett's favourite HP product was the pocket calculator. He delighted in telling the story of how he had asked his engineers to design a calculator that would fit in his pocket. "They actually measured my shirt pocket," he laughed. Packard was apparently sceptical. "We weren't sure we could make money on it. There were long discussions and it was decided if we could sell 10,000 of them, we could break even. Well, we sold something like 100,000 of them in the first year."
With business success came personal wealth. In 1977 on the occasion of his first wife's death, Hewlett established the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, a charitable trust through which he funded numerous medical, educational and environmental organizations. He was a generous benefactor of Stanford University.
In 1994 he established the Public Policy Institute of California with an endowment of $70m. An independent think tank, the group is dedicated to the study of California issues such as immigration, water rights, education and state government. |
