Yigal Amir; Carol Mutter; William Bratton; In Space, No One Can Hear You Sweep; No More Sweet Talk; The Visionary in a Palo Alto Garage
Within years, HP became a leading supplier of electronic instruments and testing equipment. Over a half century, it would become a $31 billion high-tech behemoth. To make it such, its creators hatched innovative ideas in distinctly different areas of corporate life: Hewlett, now 82, focused his energies on pathbreaking technology. Packard, who died last week at 83, tackled the increasingly onerous day-to-day operations.
Packard's chief legacy may be his management style. Even as HP expanded to 100,000 workers, he sought to maintain a small-company atmosphere. Divisions within the company operated like autonomous units, encouraging employees to work toward a shared objective while allowing freedom and internal competition. Believing that upper management should remain close to workers, the 6-foot-4 co-owner frequented HP's hallways to the point that employees jokingly awarded him a degree of M.B.W.A., Master by Walking Around.
The "HP Way" was widely imitated but not universally embraced. As deputy secretary of defense in the first Nixon administration, Packard found little support at the Pentagon for his management practices. "Working with the Washington bureaucracy was like pushing on one end of a 40-foot rope and trying to get the other end to do what you want," he recalled in his 1995 autobiography.
He remained active in GOP politics after returning to HP, where he presided as the company set its sights on the infant computer industry, much of which had sprouted in the region that came to be dubbed Silicon Valley. In 1972, HP debuted the first of its popular hand-held calculators. It soon branched into computers and, in 1984, into laser and ink-jet printers.
Packard never forgot his Depression-era upbringing--whether in personal frugality or in commitment to his employees. In 1990, he stepped out of semiretirement to help engineer a massive corporate overhaul that successfully averted the job losses that have since plagued high-tech companies. In fact, HP is one of only a few big U.S. firms to maintain a no-layoffs policy. "We weren't interested in the idea of making any money," he said of the company's humble beginnings. "Our idea was if you couldn't find a job, you'd make one for yourself."
DAVID PACKARD
Youth. Grew up in Pueblo, Colo. His father was a lawyer, his mother a teacher.
Education. Majored in electrical engineering at Stanford, where he lettered in football and basketball.
Family. His wife, Lucile, died in 1987. Survived by a son and three daughters.
Philanthropy. His stake in HP will go to his charitable foundation, pumping its assets to $6.6 billion.
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