or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
Express Checkout with PayPhrase
What's this? | Create PayPhrase
Sorry!
More Buying Choices
66 used & new from $0.50

Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company (Collins Business Essentials)
 
 
Tell the Publisher!
I’d like to read this book on Kindle

Don’t have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here.
 
  

The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company (Collins Business Essentials) (Paperback)

~ (Author) "AS WE GET OLDER we have the opportunity to look back over many years and see how certain events, seemingly unimportant at the time, had..." (more)
Key Phrases: Bill Hewlett, Palo Alto, New York (more...)
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)

List Price: $14.95
Price: $10.17 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $4.78 (32%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Want it delivered Tuesday, November 10? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
36 new from $2.96 30 used from $0.50

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
  Hardcover -- $1.99 $0.01
  Paperback, Bargain Price $5.88 $5.88 $5.00
  Paperback, January 3, 2006 $10.17 $2.96 $0.50
  Audio, Cassette -- $5.30 $1.39

Frequently Bought Together

The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company (Collins Business Essentials) + Bill  &  Dave: How Hewlett and Packard Built the World's Greatest Company + Bill & Dave's Memos
Price For All Three: $54.14

Show availability and shipping details

  • This item: The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company (Collins Business Essentials) by David Packard

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • Bill & Dave: How Hewlett and Packard Built the World's Greatest Company by Michael S. Malone

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • Bill & Dave's Memos by Albert Yuen

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details


Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? : Leading a Great Enterprise through Dramatic Change

Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? : Leading a Great Enterprise through Dramatic Change

by Louis V. Gerstner
Bill & Dave's Memos

Bill & Dave's Memos

by Albert Yuen
5.0 out of 5 stars (3)  $18.99
Sam Walton: Made In America

Sam Walton: Made In America

by Sam Walton
4.4 out of 5 stars (91)  $7.99
Direct from Dell: Strategies that Revolutionized an Industry (Collins Business Essentials)

Direct from Dell: Strategies that Revolutionized an Industry (Collins Business Essentials)

by Michael Dell
4.0 out of 5 stars (127)  $12.44
Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will (Collins Business Essentials)

Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will (Collins Business Essentials)

by Noel M. Tichy
4.4 out of 5 stars (14)  $15.56
Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In a dry fashion, Packard tells the true story of the mighty Hewlett-Packard Company: Two college buddies begin a partnership by producing an audio oscillator in a Palo Alto garage in 1938 and wind up 60 years later with a $25-billion-dollar electronics company on their hands. He wraps the book up tidily with a timeline of the company's development milestones. Packard chalks up success to many things, including government contracts during wartime, but mostly to the company's management outlook ("The HP Way"), which champions openness, honesty, and flexibility throughout the organization. Entrepreneurs and technologists alike will be interested in this journey of an American giant. Packard's tone sometimes veers toward the self-congratulatory, but in this case, it somehow seems justified. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.


From Library Journal

Hewlett-Packard is a high-tech company with over $25 billion in sales; the Hewlett-Packard way has obviously been quite successful. Here, one of the company's founders tells the story of its growth. Packard frequently becomes nostalgic, such as when talking about his first vacuum tube. He explains why Hewlett-Packard follows strong management practices: management by objectives, educational subsidies for employees, profit sharing, and giving authority to employees closest to the customers. Packard also served as a Defense Department official and in doing so chose to give $20 million to charity to avoid ethical conflicts. The company history Packard relates is, however, an uncritical review. The cassettes, narrated by Martin Bookspan, are of limited use because they offer little discussion of ideas that a person in business might adopt. Not an important purchase.?Mark Guyer, Stark Cty. Dist. Lib., Canton, Ohio
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Harper Paperbacks (January 3, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0060845791
  • ISBN-13: 978-0060845797
  • Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #446,701 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category: (What's this?)

    #74 in  Books > Computers & Internet > Business & Culture > Biographies

More About the Author

David Packard
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Visit Amazon's David Packard Page

Inside This Book (learn more)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence:
AS WE GET OLDER we have the opportunity to look back over many years and see how certain events, seemingly unimportant at the time, had a profound effect in shaping our business or professional careers. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Bill Hewlett, Palo Alto, New York, United States, San Francisco, Dave Packard, General Radio, Fred Terman, President Hoover, Barney Oliver, Noel Eldred, Charlie Litton, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard Company, World War, Addison Avenue, Mel Laird, New Jersey, San Felipe, Defense Department, Lew Platt, Lucile Packard, Page Mill Road, Redwood City, Wall Street
New!
Concordance | Text Stats
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:

Citations (learn more)
This book cites 6 books:
See all 6 books this book cites

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company (Collins Business Essentials)
86% buy the item featured on this page:
The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company (Collins Business Essentials) 4.1 out of 5 stars (23)
$10.17
Bill  &  Dave: How Hewlett and Packard Built the World's Greatest Company
6% buy
Bill & Dave: How Hewlett and Packard Built the World's Greatest Company 4.7 out of 5 stars (23)
$24.98
The HP Phenomenon: Innovation and Business Transformation (Stanford Business Books)
3% buy
The HP Phenomenon: Innovation and Business Transformation (Stanford Business Books)
$20.47
Sam Walton: Made In America
3% buy
Sam Walton: Made In America 4.4 out of 5 stars (91)
$7.99

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(5)

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more

 

Customer Reviews

23 Reviews
5 star:
 (11)
4 star:
 (5)
3 star:
 (5)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.1 out of 5 stars (23 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars a good book after you get used to the painfully dry style., February 15, 1998
By A Customer
They say engineers (myself included) are generally poor writers; then David Packard must be an absolute genius. David Packard's book (as has his company been one) is an important contribution and a must read for company executives. But it does require patience and dedication -- like the one he and Bill Hewlette had to endure to make HP a success! Once you get through the first 6 or 7 chapters the book becomes and absolute GEM. Until then -- and unfortunately you almost have to read the first few chapters -- the book is a positive cure for sleeplessness. HP's dedication to innovation, its financial frugality (which shows up in Dave Packard not hiring a good ghost writer or editor) and the importance of Management by Objectives, Decenterlized Organization, and Management by Walkign Around, Expected Returns on R&D are only some of the Gems hidden in this book; but you do have to mine to get to them and IMHO it is a worthwhile pain to go through. What also comes through is how HP slipped their biggest chance of dominating the chip and computer market by not taking the risk and cancelling the OMEGA project. Reading David Packard's fatalistic justifications is worth 10 times the price of the book. Also little credit is given to the inventor of the calculator that made HP a house hold name, and no mention is made of procurement of Appolo(until in Appendix 2)!!! Admittedly, I am at fault for having difficulty with this book. I read it after reading "Hard Drive, Bill Gatees and the Making of Microsoft Empire" by Jamve Wallace and Jim Erickson. These gentlemen are professional writers/journalists that know how to grab ones attention and keep it. Reading them before "The HP Way", which incidently and surprisingly was rated the best business book of 1996 by Amazon readers, is like watching the movie Titanic, and then going home to suffer through 6 hours of Mr. Rogers!!! But I do still recommend the book not to mention that I am more inclined to one day work for the comapny! Cheers, --- Esfandiar
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Venture spirit reminder, June 20, 1999
By A Customer
I've read this book to find out what motivated the people and companies in Silicon Valley which many other contries want to have one in their territory. It gave me lesson that the venture needs to be based on the acknowledgement of the understanding that the world is complex. Once take this granted,you can understand Hewlett and Packard did a great job and put a milestone to those who still can't understand the complexity of the society
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars It's Very Simple: The HP Way, March 2, 2001
Considering that an electrial engineer like David Packard could have written a, boring, detailed account of how he and Bill Hewlett pieced together their very first piece of equipment in the now famous Pal Alto, California garage. This book surprises you with its simple down to earth account of how it all began and how they built this tiny garage shop into the multi billion dollar company that it is today. They did it not only with a strong belief in new and innovative products, but in the people that helped build the company. This simple belief built the foundation into the HP way of corporate greatness.

The book was simply written, but it is this style that allowed me to understand the friendship between David Packard and Bill Hewlett and the corporate culture that they developed at HP. I would recommend this book to anyone that is a manager or executive to benchmark the corporate culture that HP established or applaud yourself if you have already embraced the HP Way. I trully believe, as David Packard and Bill Hewlett did, that you need a strong belief in people to make a company succeed.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating account of how two college friends started HP out of a garage
Heard the recorded version of THE HP WAY: HOW BILL
HEWLETT AND I BUILT OUR COMPANY by David Packard

I found it fascinating to learn how these two college... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Blaine Greenfield

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read classic because of the importance of HP to world business
This is a wonderful business classic that should be read and studied by everyone interested in business. Read more
Published on October 9, 2007 by Craig Matteson

3.0 out of 5 stars A decent book but could have told more about the company
Hewlett Packard is a now disgraced company that has severe problems to face in the future but this book will take you back to the HP of old. Read more
Published on December 20, 2006 by Lehigh History Student

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice guys sometimes win....
Bill Hewlett & Dave Packard were two nice guys who worked hard, played fair, and won. An interesting tale with some good homespun advice.
Published on October 17, 2006 by Constantine Spathis

5.0 out of 5 stars What Happened?
I've read through this book 5 times and I don't recall the part where Mr Packard says to spy on the board of directors!
Published on October 5, 2006 by Jeffrey Levine

2.0 out of 5 stars Hewlett Packard's Rise to the Top
Hewlett- Packard is a giant in the PC industry and one of the best- known names in high tech. Most every business in America owns at least one product from this company. Read more
Published on May 25, 2006 by Bryan Carey

3.0 out of 5 stars light fare on a great company
This book offers the most skeletal outline of what Packard learned and how he applied it to help found one of the most successful corporations of all time. Read more
Published on May 8, 2006 by Robert J. Crawford

3.0 out of 5 stars The HP way may be clear, but this book is not
This book has trouble deciding whether to be a history of the company or a management philosophy book. Ultimately the book comes across weakly on both fronts. Read more
Published on October 14, 2005 by Eric Kassan

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Book
This book was exactly what I was hoping it would be, how HP was built. Sometimes these types of books can be filled with justifications for mistakes, or can be written just to... Read more
Published on July 10, 2005 by Joseph E. Sniezek

3.0 out of 5 stars the OLD HP Way
This book really isn't about HP ... its really about David Packard and its clearly self congratulatory. As was Alfred Sloans book. Compare Packards book with Tom Waton, Jr. Read more
Published on April 29, 2005 by R. Winchester

Only search this product's reviews



Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   




Product Information from the Amapedia Community

Beta (What's this?)


Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject

 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.