Digital BW, The Print

I was a Systems Engineer with HP's largest Canadian dealer in the late 80's. That was when HP brought Laserjet technology to the market and ended up owning the business segment. They were very big in the scientific, engineering and technology markets. In fact, that was their core business. HP lab instruments set the standard that others had to hit, as did their pen plotter and engineering workstation technology. 

HP then, was first and foremost a group of engineers and scientists that loved to innovate. That culture came from the two founders, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, who got their start building precision instrumentation in a garage. They strove for technical excellence. That was who they were. What they didn't do well was marketing. The running joke was that HP "built the best products that no on knew about". Not a surprise, given their personalities.

I continued to work with HP gear in the 90's, this time managing managing HP technical workstations and mid-range business systems in an oil and gas setting. They were the go-to provider for mission-critical UNIX systems. Their support was legendary, and they delivered.

Over time the founders moved more and more into background roles. Concurrently, HP acquired other businesses, which has the effect of diluting / changing the focus of the company. I recall there being a very serious fight over the decision to purchase Compaq. As I recall, one of the the company founders (I believe the other had passed on) was not in favour of the direction the company was going.

The heart / soul and vision of the HP I knew in the 80's and 90's was Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard. A couple of uber-geeks who made it big because of innovation and excellence. When they were active, that underpinned HP culture and all the company did. I think that today, HP is a big business. The heart / soul and vision of the organization is now "corporate". Not that that has to be bad, but it's almost certainly different.


Terry.

----- "Tom Maugham" <Thomas@...> wrote:

> From: "Tom Maugham" <Thomas@...>
> To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Wednesday, 14 April, 2010 14:34:20 GMT -06:00 Central America
> Subject: RE: [Digital BW] Re: Last plea for help. I NEED INKS!
>
> It's very funny. I was an IT person for many years dealing with all
> sorts of
> computer hardware and software companies and HP was the absolute best
> of the
> bunch for quality of hardware, price, and quality of service. What
> happened
> to them? I now refuse to have anything to do with HP equipment.