W h y s o m e c o m p a n I e s m a k e t h e
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| 192 Collins B UILDUP -B REAKTHROUGH F LYWHEEL AT Number of Stores 1945, 1970, 1990, 2000 3,000 2,000 1945 1 Store 1970 38 Stores Buildup.. Breakthrough! bowling alley sensors, a clock-drive fora telescope, and an electronic shock jiggle machine to help overweight people lose weight. It didn't really matter what the company made in the very early days, as long as it made a technical contribution and would enable Hewlett and Packard to build a company together and with other like-minded It was the ultimate "first who . then what" startup. Later, as Hewlett and Packard scaled up, they stayed true to the guiding principle of "first After World War even as revenues shrank with the end of their wartime contracts, they hired a whole batch of fabulous people streaming out of government labs, with nothing specific in mind for them do. Recall Packard 7 s Law, which we cited in chapter 3: "No company can grow revenues consistently faster than its ability to get enough of the right people to implement that growth and still become a great company" Hewlett and Packard lived and breathed this concept and obtained a surplus of great people whenever the opportunity presented itself. Hewlett and Packard were themselves consummate Level 5 leaders, first as entrepreneurs and later as company builders. Years after HP had established itself as one of the most important technology companies in the world, Hewlett maintained a remarkable personal humility. In 1972, HP vice president Barney Oliver wrote in a recommendation letter to the IEEE Awards Board for the Founders Award Good to Great While our success has been gratifying, it has not spoiled our founders. I Only recently, at an executive council meeting, Hewlett remarked Look, we've grown because the industry grew. We were lucky enough to be sitting on the nose when the rocket took off. We don't deserve a damn bit of credit" After a moment's silence, while everyone digested this humbling comment, Packard said "Well, Bill, at least we didn't louse it up Shortly before his death, I had the opportunity to meet Dave Packard. Despite being one of Silicon Valley's first self-made billionaires, he lived in the same small house that he and his wife built for themselves in 1957, overlooking a simple orchard. The tiny kitchen, with its dated linoleum, and the simply furnished living room bespoke a man who needed no material symbols to proclaim "I'm a billionaire. I'm important. I'm successful" "His idea of a good time" said Bill Terry, who worked with Packard for thirty-six years, "was to get some of his friends together to string some barbed Packard bequeathed his $5.6 billion estate to a charitable foundation and, upon his death, his family created a eulogy pamphlet, with a photo of him sitting on a tractor in farming clothes. The caption made no reference to his stature as one of the great industrialists of the twentieth It simply read "David Packard, 1912-1996, Rancher, etc" Level 5, indeed. Download 3.69 Mb. Share with your friends:
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