During his legendary fifty-year career, David Packard had a great influence not only on the development of the electronics industry. Together with William Hewlett, he introduced a system of progressive management methods. Now Hewlett Packard has become a multinational corporation for the production of scientific equipment, communications and computers. HP is known worldwide for the highest quality of service and products. This article will describe a brief biography of one of its founders.
Meet Hewlett
David Packard was born in the city of Pueblo (USA) in 1912. The boy's father was a very famous lawyer. When it came time to graduate, David opted for Stanford University. The young man was very interested in electrical engineering. Therefore, he was among the first students of the course of Professor Frederick Terman. There, Packard learned a lot about electronics. In this course, David met with William Hewlett, who studied at the Faculty of Engineering. Young people decided that in the future they would definitely open a joint business. After graduating, they both remained to work within the walls of the alma mater.
Foundation of the company
The thought of starting their own business did not go out of their heads. In 1939, Hewlett and Packard decided to bring it to life. With a capital of $ 538, young people opened the company Hewlett-Packard (HP). The name is quite clear that it is composed of the names of the founders. The order of priority was decided by lot. The first HP office was a garage in Palo Alto, which in the future will be a California attraction and a popular tourist attraction. It was here that Hewlett came up with an audio frequency generator for testing audio systems. David and William received their first order from Walt Disney Studios. The company has acquired several of these generators to improve the soundtrack of its animation picture Fantasy.
New office
In 1951, Frederick Terman took over as vice president of Stanford University. To improve the financial situation of alma mater, the professor began to lease land plots belonging to the educational institution for a long-term lease. The Hewlett-Packard firm settled on one of them in 1954. From here began the foundation of the Silinokova Valley, which in two decades will become the world center of electronics.
Company Value System
David and William from the very beginning of their activity decided not to work according to the “seized and fled” rule. Back in 1940, they emphasized the formation of loyal highly qualified personnel. Entrepreneurs also created a program for the distribution of income among all employees of the company. It still operates and is called the "Packard and Hewlett Way." The program is based on a whole scale of values, leading to the main principle of the company’s development - constant movement forward taking into account market transformations, as well as regular care for the quality of life of its own employees.
First computer
In 1957, David Packard and William Hewlett organized a public distribution of shares in their company. But they held most of them so that in the future employees of the company were able to purchase securities at a discount. In 1959, HP entered the European market. And in 1966, Hewlett-Packard engineers assembled the first computer. His primary task was to analyze the results of the operation of electronic measuring instruments. Subsequently, HP computers often used innovative and bold engineering solutions. And if we consider the technical characteristics, they repeatedly exceeded the most common models of competing firms.
the USSR
In 1968, the company began its activities in the Soviet Union. Since the late 1990s, the company’s official representative offices have been operating in Novosibirsk, Moscow and St. Petersburg. In Russia, Hewlett-Packard is more popular as a manufacturer of peripheral devices: MFPs (OfficeJet), scanners (ScanJet), plotters (DesignJet), laser (LaserJet) and inkjet printers (DeskJet). The network equipment of the ProCurve series is also in demand.
Retirement
David Packard became president of HP back in 1947. And seventeen years later, he ceded this position to William Hewlett, heading the board of directors. He held this post until 1993, with a break in 1969 - 1971, when he worked as US Under Secretary of Defense. After the hero of this article turned 65 years old, he retired. Nevertheless, he did not leave the post of chairman of the board of directors.
Writing
Business is far from everything David Packard did. The HP Way is the name of a book written by an entrepreneur. There, he spoke in detail about how he created the company with Bill Hewlett.
Death
David Packard, whose biography is presented above, passed away in 1996. In the last journey he was spent by four children. Previously, the businessman announced his intention to transfer his shares to a charity fund created by him and his wife in 1964. David owned 9.1% of HP's securities with a total value of $ 46.6 million.