Tell your Bill and Dave stories

In 2001, I was among the many released because of the Compaq/HP debacle. I had been a part of Compaq for better than 18 years and my performance was regarded as exceeding excellence. I still have many questions and I still feel the loss of many friends - that I spent countless hours with. I cannot pretend that it was all ok with me, but if I had it to do over - I would not have dedicated my life and my time to something so small in the total scheme of things. It would be nice if it wasn't about the money and it would be nicer still if it could be about performance and quality, with a sense of loyalty to those who do give so much. Gone are those days when someone could work for a company their whole life and feel good about it. Regardless of the Compaq Culture or the HP Way,we all had something to trust and something we could count on that made us feel like we made some kind of difference. I don't think it can be recovered or replaced by something as good or better - because you don't rebuild trust across the company by making it about the money, about the size, or about consensus. You do it by having a personal touch and consideration for each and every contributor. Bill and Dave made sure from the beginning to let everyone know that they mattered. Rod Canion would shake every employees hand at years end for job well done - he would meet with you personally if you had grievances. Tell me how you do that in todays environment?

I work for a company headed by people who used to be at HP and I would say that the HP way is still alive, just not at HP anymore. It spread out with the people who had been at HP. We are encouraged to read up on the old HP way and are empowered in many of the same ways. Our management methods are very much in keeping with 'the way'.

It’s as if some bad virus infiltrated both HP and Agilent moments after Bill and Dave left the planet. It was so sad to see brilliant minds scattered to the wind when some nutbar decided to purge the company of its best staff and high achievers. The team in Canada had pioneered many of the best practices and was number one in world many times, but they were among the first to be let go and what remains have lost their HP Way and barely is recognized anywhere anymore. Just an 800 number to a call centre now. At the time, the biggest disappointment to many is that the children of Bill & Dave never stepped up to the plate, after all that we Agilent/HP folk did to benefit their lives and their parents did for us. Well, of course, Walter did make a valiant attempt to curtail Carly’s mess, but by then, with the original T&M crew spun away to help steer us back on course, it was a battle lost. I hope that he can someday convince the rest of the kids to take an interest and bring the HP Way back to life to both companies (or what’s left of them), but they are all off in there own worlds now and I guess it's a lost cause now. Someone must have scared them and the other key leaders in Agilent/HP away to allow this to happen. I’m sure the HP Way still exists in their companies (ie MBARI, Vermont Telephone…etc) and in the new ones that were created by those that were let go. Somewhere along the line, greedy management took over The HP Way at HP and Agilent and effects have been felt worldwide. How could we have let that happen? We didn’t, when we protested and pushed back, they let the good guys go and even turned their back on Walter. Nothing personal, it’s just business. So sad to hear since the HP Way was very personal and was good for business. Glad you’re writing books about it. I was happy to have spent some time with these great leaders, Bill & Dave and more so with the folks that emulated their way in Agilent/HP Canada (all retired or let go in the Great WFM Purge).

I met both Bill & Dave when I worked for HP in the early '80s. I worked for HP until I was moved to Agilent, and now still associated with them...sort-of. Agilent is now an awful company to work for, and so was HP toward the end. Going to work each day wondering if it would be your last is a far cry from years ago when management honestly cared about the employee, knew their family, birthdays, questioned and considered employee input. Each employee considered HP their 'own' company. Now, Agilent spends a great deal of time finding someone to blame for shoddy 'foreign' manufacturing, and attempting to explain to customers why it doesn't work. Agilent now relies on 3rd party organizations to do a lot of their work, none of whom are overly concerned with the quality of work performed. It is a simple equation that Agilent does not get. Quality and success is a result of the employees work. And this only comes from employees who love their company and the job they have. The new attitude of "be glad you have a job" and "how can we do it cheaper?" has destroyed the great company that was.

Being a Compaq employee of many years, I can say that for me and for many folks I know, the transition to being an HP employee has in many ways been painful. There were, as one would expect, layoffs. Many senior people were laid off over less senior people apparently without regards to performance and level of contributions. This didn’t make much sense as a lot of expertise was lost which took years to recoup. And please don’t mention the stock negotiation (a very sore point) as Compaq employees were definitely on the losing end. In the Compaq days there was a simple philosophy, ‘Do what makes sense’. Compaq employees made decisions and did what was needed to be done in order to turn out quality products. This gave Compaq folks a reputation as being ‘Cowboys’ (yes, Compaq headquarters was located in Texas). On the other hand, the HP way is one of consensus where decisions are often made by groups rather than by individuals. In the HP scheme of things, negotiations are typically required for individuals to help out others from a different internal group rather than just doing it (cross charging ‘funny money’ was seldom, if ever used at Compaq). As far as using HP test equipment that is no longer made / supported by HP, it hasn’t been that much of a transition. Agilent has been a good partner though there were some speed bums in the early days that took a while to work out. To this day I still meet people that are totally unaware of HP getting out of the test equipment market… duh.

You ask which company, HP or Agilent, still embraces the "HP way"? Neither. When Bill and Dave were around you were "family." They would not do a lay-off any more than a famiy would eliminate family members. That is a family that is not disfuctional. But with H & P gone the "leaders" became disfunctional. Lacking a clue as to how to lead they assumed employees were the problem, not the solution. Gone were the benefits. Gone were the employees. Gone is the morale.