In 1983, the famous American New York columnist Milton once wrote: "If you work at Hewlett-Packard, then everyone can understand your mood of walking around with your head held high. The California electronics company has received so many accolades that it can claim the title of 'America's Best Company' for itself." In fact, today, HP is not just the best company in America, but the best company in America. One of the best companies in the world. With the merger of HP and Compaq in the new century, this company that has grown steadily continues to grow.
Growing from failures and setbacks
But not everything goes as planned. After the company was established, Hewlett continued to develop a new product on his master's thesis topic, and Packard took over. They do some small jobs to keep the company running, but it's precarious, and sometimes they themselves wonder how long they can sustain it. At this time, Professor Terman extended his enthusiastic helping hands. He used his outstanding reputation in society to actively work for them. This way HP can continue to survive.
Finally, Hewlett produced his new invention - an oscillator, which was applicable to a wider range of conditions than similar products available at the time, and the price was only 1/10 of the price of similar products. Packard quickly applied for a patent for this product. Experts in the industry gave this product high praise, and these affirmations from authoritative figures greatly encouraged their fighting spirit. Packard named the product 300A. In order to quickly recognize the product that was well received by experts, HP placed an advertisement in the influential "Electronics" business magazine. Orders began to pour in and profits increased rapidly. , the company's situation has greatly improved.
To promote the 300A, Packard attended a formal audio oscillator show in Southern California. At the meeting, he met Huggins, who worked as a sound engineer at Disney Studios. Huggins was preparing a sound track for a movie "Fantasy World" and needed a special sound effect - a The sound of bees flying off the screen, then circling the theater, and then back on the screen. But this is where 300A comes in. Packard is keenly aware that cooperation with Disney will not only greatly increase the company's popularity, but also bring long-term considerable benefits. He immediately introduced HP's audio oscillator to Huggins. As a result, they sold 8 units at once, and it is said that one is still used in Hollywood. In this way, HP gained a foothold in its first year of business, with sales revenue of US$5,369 and profit of US$1,563.
The first shot was fired, and Packard became more motivated. By the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941, HP already had 17 employees and became a company with annual sales of $100,000.
The outbreak of the Pacific War brought a new opportunity and growth point to HP. In June 1942, Hewlett enlisted in the army and had extensive contacts and influence in the military circle, which laid a solid foundation for HP after the war. HP's impressive performance in the production of military supplies has laid a good foundation.
After Hewlett left, Packard began to take charge of the overall situation. He realized that HP, as a manufacturer of electronic products, was in need of products such as radios, radars, sonar, and navigation and aviation instruments. Moreover, the harsh conditions of the war were a good opportunity to test the performance of these products, which was very important for the development of the company after the war. Packard was determined to seize this historic opportunity and make HP truly take off. So he made detailed improvements to many products to make them more suitable for the needs of war. And these products were soon used in the military sector. By the end of World War II, Hewlett-Packard had grown into a large company with $2 million in assets and 200 employees.
In 1945, when Hewlett, who was drafted into the army, returned from demobilization, he found that he was already the vice president of this large company with millions of assets. At that time, HP had already built its own Redwood Building, and Packard told him that if the electronics industry slumped in the future, the building could be converted into a grocery store. However, the crisis of converting it into a food store did not come. On the contrary, HP grew smoothly and rapidly.
On August 18, 1947, Hewlett-Packard Co., Ltd. was officially established. Facing the miraculous rise of HP, Professor Terman, who had given them a lot of selfless help, was very happy. He said to every entrepreneur: "With HP leading the way, you will be the second or third HP." Under the call of this spirit, 7 companies came to Silicon Valley to set up factories in 1955, and the number increased to 32 in 1960. By the time the Stanford Research Park was officially established in 1965, nearly 70 high-tech companies had gathered here. Stanford University is surrounded like a moon; among them, Hewlett-Packard Company leases more than 1 million square feet of land. In the late 1970s, Hewlett and Packard also jointly donated a modern "Terman Building" to Stanford University to forever commemorate their mentor. The garage where they started their business was officially named the "Birthplace of Silicon Valley" by the California state government in 1989, and has become a precious historical relic in the United States.
In 1959, when Hewlett-Packard was growing under the leadership of Packard, he keenly noticed that the enthusiasm of the company's employees did not seem to be very high. At this time, HP's stock was rising steadily. What did they have? Not satisfied? After careful investigation, Packard understood that only by allowing employees to hold company stock could they fully mobilize their enthusiasm. This was the employee stock ownership plan that later became popular in the United States. As the owners of the company, employees immediately gave the company a new look. Packard once again became a national celebrity.
At this time, HP entered a period of rapid expansion. Under the management of Hewlett and Packard, it not only insisted on technological innovation and developed new products, but also used a series of acquisitions to quickly extend the company's tentacles into many fields of electronic instruments and equipment, from plotters to electronic medical equipment. As for analytical instruments, in 1989, even Apollo Computer Company, the early overlord of workstation computers, became Hewlett-Packard's "baggage"; but Hewlett-Packard's greatest contribution in the field of personal computing tools was the first development of scientific calculators. The famous American science fiction writer Arthur C. Clark wrote a science fiction novel "Space Tour 2001". One day, he imagined what kind of computing tools computer engineers would use in the future and drew a sketch. On Christmas Eve 1968, someone told him that Hewlett-Packard was selling an HP9100A desktop calculator. Clark immediately pooled his money to buy one. He was surprised to find that the HP9100A calculator looked exactly like the sketch he drew.
It is this series of progress and innovation that keeps HP at the forefront of the times, and it remains so today.