The HP Way

Wow, two not-ready-for-prime-time CEOs in a row. Shades of the old IBM (circa 1987-92) or the new Ford.

Cheers,

Phil

Amazing. And very sad. One consolation is that Agilent is no longer part of that scene.

I'm reminded of the Monkey People in Kipling's "The Jungle Book," who've taken over an abandoned, decaying city in the jungle; one that they never built, nor understand, but fashion themselves rulers over.[1]

Compare with this sample from the inside cover of the HP-41CV calculator manual:

" 'The success and prosperity of our company will be assured only if we offer our customers superior products that fill real needs and provide lasting value, and that are supported by a wide variety of useful services, both before and after sale.'

Statement of Corporate Objectives, Hewlett-Packard "

James Arthur ~~~~~~~~~ [1] " The monkeys called the place their city, and pretended to despise the Jungle People because they lived in the forest. And yet they never knew what the buildings were made for nor how to use them. They would sit in circles on the hall of the king's council-chamber, and scratch for fleas and pretend to be men; or they would run in and out of the roofless houses and collect pieces of plaster and old bricks in a corner, and forget where they had hidden them, and fight and cry in scuffling crowds, [...]"

The Jungle Book, Rudyard Kipling

Read Packard's book, "The HP Way." Then read Carly's powerpoint parody, "The journey."

John

In message , dated Wed, 6 Sep 2006, snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com writes

We're only a few tens of million years of evolution different. And evolution doesn't exist, of course (;-)

When they split up HP, the wrong part kept the name.

Don't forget the Radio Shack CEO with the creative writing resume. The lunatics have surely taken over the asylum.

I don't think so. HP is a strong brand name with a long history. The market for test & measurement equipment is shrinking. HP merging with Tektronix would be a waste of at least one strong brand name. If Agilent merges with Tektronix no-one will care about the name Agilent.

Yes, except that when engineers read "Agilent" they still think "HP" - the same brand continuity despite name change would probably not hold for the customers of the PC products, laser printers possibly excepted.

In other words, the part that needed the name got it, while the part that had the repuation kept it.

The computer/printer side should now be called Compaq.

Only SOME HP computers are designated as Compaq, and I believe all the printers carry the HP mane.

Don

That sounds like a perfect description of USENET trolls. :(

You just dont get it do you? I mean, if you are facing a million dollar handshake wouldn't you try to prolong your employment by ratting out the weasel that might f*ck it up for you? I certainly would.

Much Closer - Chimpanzees has been taught sign language, which is scary because it demonstrates clearly that there is an overlap between retarded people and clever chimps; so the Animal/Human boundary becomes more of a gray area than a line.

Revenge is important - but after that I'd take the handshake and spend the time in my palazzo overlooking a nice medieval coastal city in Europe, perhaps writing a book on "management" or some global issue that will give me opportunities to travel with "the great and the good".

In message , dated Thu, 7 Sep 2006, Frithiof Andreas Jensen writes

There are some humans who have virtually no useful higher-order brain function. They may be overtaken in the intelligence scale by dogs and pigs, not to mention crows and ..... donkeys.

More to the point, if I were the weasel I most certainly would not QUIT when I could get paid even more for leaving.

"Ok, so you bugged my personal home phone and you want me to leave for ratting on you to the media... hows NO sound!. How about I rat on YOU to the media for illegally bugging my phone?? "

"Well, what if we paid you the motherload of mega million bucks to shut the f*ck up and f*ck off"

"Ok then, that sounds like a deal, BYE"

based on his appalling public speaking, GWB appears to be life imitating peter sellers art.....

Cheers Terry

In message , dated Thu, 7 Sep 2006, Terry Given writes

There are people much worse than GWB who speak in public regularly. Ask any (but a small number) of parliamentarians if they cringe when certain of their colleagues rise to speak. You can guess who the 'small number' are!