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Abstract The authors present a case study of how HewlettPackard is changing its culture under the direction of its new chief executive Carly Fiorina. Fiorina says her challenge is "to make sure HP represents the next century rather than the last one." To prepare for the future, company leaders saw the need to create a "New HP Way." Under the new way, all HP employees - but especially managers - must be leaders who generate enthusiasm and respond with extra effort to meet customer needs. They must personally accept responsibility and are encouraged to upgrade their skills and capabilities through ongoing training and development. Keywords Leadership, Diversity, Cross-cultural management
If you are one of those people who believes that all companies should start in a garage or a basement, you ought to love Hewlett-Packard. If you further favor the good old American practice of putting the owner's name over the door, then the company Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard started in 1939 could be your favorite. Beginning in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California, Bill and Dave turned a new type of audio oscillator for testing sound equipment into an American dream company.
By 1979, the two employees had grown to 52,000 employees; the garage had spawned multiple facilities and plants; and a line of over 4,000 products for electronic measurement, analysis, and computation was creating over $2 billion in annual sales.
Today, more people worldwide probably know the initials "HP" than could tell you the name behind the letters. The company designs, manufactures, and services electronic products and systems for measurement, computing, and communication. Its products are used by people in business, engineering, science, medicine, and education.
HP has grown into a world leader in the computer industry with more than 29,000 catalog products and revenues of $42 billion in 1999. HP provides sales and service in approximately 600 offices in more than 120 countries and has manufacturing, research, and development operations in 59 cities in 18 countries around the world. To maintain all of these operations, HP has 83,200 employees in the USA and internationally.
But HP's history just became ancient history. As this article goes to press, Hewlett-Packard is "reinventing itself" strategically and redefining what is meant by the phrase...