 | Bill & Dave: How Hewlett and Packard Built the World's Greatest Company |
65 new or used available from $0.03 Average customer review: 
(24 customer reviews)
Product Description
The definitive history of Hewlett-Packard and its legendary founders, based on unprecedented access to private archives
This is the most authoritative version ever of the most famous start-up story in business history. In 1938, working out of a small garage in Palo Alto, California, two young Stanford graduates named Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard built their first product, an audio oscillator. It was the start not only of a legendary company but of an entire way of life in Silicon Valley—and, ultimately, our modern digital age.
Others have written about the rise of Hewlett-Packard, including Packard himself in a bestselling memoir. But acclaimed journalist Michael S. Malone is the first to get the full story, based on unlimited and exclusive access to corporate and private archives, along with hundreds of employee interviews.
Malone draws on his new material to show how some of the most influential products of our time were invented, and how a culture of innovation led HP to unparalleled success for decades. He also shows what was really behind the groundbreaking management philosophy—“the HP Way”—that put people ahead of products or profits.
There have been attempts in recent years to discredit the HP Way as soft and outdated. But Malone argues that the HP Way was a hard-nosed business philosophy that combined simple objectives, trust in employees to make the right choices, and ruthless self-appraisal. It created an innovative and ferociously competitive company—arguably the world’s greatest company.
This business adventure story will be perfect for entrepreneurs, young managers, and students, not to mention the tens of thousands of current and former HP employees.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #162541 in Books
- Published on: 2007-04-05
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 352 pages
Editorial Reviews
Review
A lesson plan for managers trying to make their own fame and fortune on an ever more competitive scale. -- San Francisco Chronicle
His tale of Hewlett-Packard's rise and fall recalls the time when, incredibly HP was cool. Malone chronicles how the two quickly outgrew what Packard called "that damn garage" and developed the HP Way, the cultural operating system standard for high tech companies. -- Wired
It's worth reflecting on how fine Bill and Dave's achievement really was. -- Newsweek
Malone has produced a biography, management guidebook, and business history, all in one. -- Businessweek
Mike Malone does the legacy of Hewlett and Packard a great service with this book. I hope it inspires a whole new generation of entrepreneurs to rise to the standards set by these two remarkable leaders. -- Jim Collins, author Good to Great, co-author Built to Last
Recounting the well-known HP stories and unearthing some new ones, his account of the two tech titans and the world they made has a fresh feel throughout. -- Washington Post
The book is the best account so far of the lives of the two men who started Silicon Valley and created many of its lasting traditions and institutions. -- San Jose Mercury News
About the Author
Michael S. Malone, a Silicon Valley native, is one of America’s most distinguished technology journalists. The former editor of Forbes ASAP and currently a popular Web columnist for ABC, he has written for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Wired, and Fast Company magazines. Among his books are The Big Score, The Virtual Corporation, Infinite Loop, and Intellectual Capital.
