Hewlett-Packard, in an interesting
move, recently
bought back the
california suburban garage where the
company was started for several
million dollars, to keep as a part of their company's
heritage (and to use in
advertising).
William Hewlett recently died at the age of
87. He, and the late
David Packard founded the company in 1938. Together in that Silicon Valley garage, they helped build one of the largest and most successful tech firms out there, and helped to establish
Silicon Valley as the
technical center that it is.
It was William Hewlett that gave
Steve Jobs the start he needed with his first tech job. Steve called Mr. Hewlett at home, one day. The next, he had a job.
Bill Gates looked up to him. The
management and
leadership style set by that company was widely recognised as
pioneering, and has
fathered a new generation of companies.
Today they are the recognized leader in
desktop printing, while of recent trying to get into more "whiz bang"
technology as one analyst on
CNN a while ago put it. They are already a recognized name in
PC sales (not as much so as Dell or Compaq, but still quite large), and in the Unix world as a major vendor. Their new ads reflect the invigoration of new
ideas and
practices into an old, yet still agile
organization, something many companies try to
achive, and many fail to maintain.
Sources: CNN, The New York Times