Summary
Michael S. Malone examines Bill Hewlett and David Packard through the company they created together. Drawing on corporate and private archives and employee interviews, the book connects their partnership with the products, people and management practices of HP. It considers the HP Way as a set of working choices about objectives, trust and self-assessment, rather than treating culture as a slogan. The story follows the company from its early workshop into a much larger organization and discusses the founders’ lasting influence. Its joint focus helps readers study the relationship between two founders as well as the choices of either man. An appendix gathers lessons from the account.
Why read it Our view
Use the joint biography to study how a founding partnership distributes work, builds trust and passes its practices into a growing organization. Compare the authors’ account of objectives and self-assessment with your own team’s habits, without assuming that HP’s setting can be copied.
Written about
- David PackardJoint biography of Hewlett and PackardMalone’s book studies both co-founders and how their partnership shaped HP’s products and management. The publisher’s jacket identifies the archives and interviews behind it. The connection is biographical, not a recommendation by Packard.Source