Box 2, Folder 1 – General Speeches
January 4, 1967 – Datamec Division Orientation, Palo Alto CA.
11/17/66, Memo to Hewlett from Ray Wilbur asking if he would be available to speak to the employees of Datamec, a recent acquisition
1/4/67, Copy of typewritten agenda for the meeting. No copy of Hewlett’s remarks is included in folder
Box 2, Folder 2 – General Speeches
January 11-14, 1967 – Management Conference, Monterey, CA
1/11/67, Copy of typed draft of Hewlett’s remarks
Introduction
Hewlett says the purpose of this session is to review both one year and five year programs in light of past experience.
“The year past,” he says, “is behind us for good or bad. The time is spent; the money is gone. The past is only important to the extent that it builds a platform for the present and the future and to the extent that we can learn and gain experience from the past to apply to the future.
“The only way to be infallible is to do nothing….Thus we come to the syllogism that nothing can be gained without some risk of failure. But this does not say that mistakes should be repeated. Therefore, it is important that at times we stop and look back – evaluating our successes and failures so that we may learn for the future.
“Two years ago we instituted a program of budgeting, first on a trial learning basis of six months at a time. Last year was the first year of full annual budgeting. It would be unreasonable to assume that those people involved in the budgeting process should be one hundred percent correct. …I have asked Ed Van Bronkhorst…to review critically last year’s performance both on a general base and also in comparison to what we said we were going to do in our budgeting forecasts. I have Austin Marx to give us his appraisal of the economic environment in which we will most likely find ourselves in ’67. Then I would like to take a few moments to review our ’67 budget forecast and in so doing, to draw heavily on our previous historical background. Then I would like to spend a little time reviewing the five year picture with you….I hope to draw some general philosophical conclusions about the meaning and implications of a five year forecast. And finally, Dave will windup the session with some rather specific comments about the year past and the year to come.”
HP Plans for ’67
The notes here are only in outline form, listing the topics to be discussed:
Comparison of ‘67 to years ’65 and ’66
Sales ’61 through ’67
Growth slipping – need to get momentum back
Profits: 10 year average 7%, push for 9.3% on sales
Push for 24% R.O.I in ’67
’67 and beyond
Discusses past forecasts in comparison to results
Look at forecasts
Five year cash flow
Comments on space
1/11/67, Two pages of handwritten outline by Hewlett of what appears to be an earlier draft of comments
3/9/66, Memorandum from Cort Van Rensselaer sending managers result of a survey among them on their thoughts about the Monterey Conference held in 1966. He suggests they learn from it in preparing for the 1967 Conference.
12/7/66, Proposed agenda for the conference
1/3/67, Memo from Bill Doolittle to Bill Hewlett, and other managers, giving a list of HP international managers who will be in town for the conference
1/4/67, Copy of a memo from Austin Marx to all attendees at the conference giving transportation and room assignments
1/10/67, Copy of a memo from Austin Marx to workshop chairmen with instructions on how this will work
1/11/67, Copy of typed list of all attendees
1/11-14/67 Copies of many papers, charts and notes gathered from various sessions and discussions
Box 2, Folder 3 – General Speeches
February 28, 1967 – Annual Shareholders Meeting, Palo Alto, CA
No text of comments by Hewlett is in folder
1/20/67, Copy of printed Notice of Annual Meeting of Shareholders
2/28/67, Copy of drawing showing instrument display setup for meeting
Box 2, Folder 4 – General Speeches
April 1-3, 1967 – National Industrial Conference Board Meeting, no location given
4/1/67 Four 4×5” slips of paper with handwritten notes by Hewlett with outline of his remarks
The theme of the meeting appears to have been the “Specter of the day the world runs out of food” – taken from a contemporary newspaper article.
Hewlett says most suitable land is already in use – must improve what we already have, develop new approaches. Livestock and fish alternatives.
Need to extend educational programs. These are serious problems – need to get going.
Box 2, Folder 5 – General Speeches
May 4, 1967 – Sloan Seminar, Stanford
5/4/67, Hewlett agreed to participate in a question and answer session with the Stanford Sloan Fellows. The questions were submitted ahead of time and Hewlett’s handwritten notes are very brief. The areas presented by the questioners covered such subjects as international operations, government relations, organization structure, diversification and acquisition, management development, finance, marketing.
1/30/67, Letter to Hewlett from Carlton A. Pederson inviting him to anticipate in another Q & A session with Sloan Fellows
12/66, Typed list of internal and external development programs
Box 2, Folder 6 – General Speeches
May 31, 1967 – Talk to Loveland Engineers
5/31/67, Five pages of notebook paper containing an outline of remarks, handwritten by Hewlett
Hewlett talks first about the “Technical Gap” between the U.S. and Europe. He doesn’t specifically state it but the implication is that the U.S. is ahead of Europe. Although he says some “reverse” gap exists, e.g. nuclear, power, chemicals. He says the causes are complex – education, government, management, tradition. The greatest problem, he says, is computers. This is not a problem of U.S. vs. Europe, but “of IBM vs. the world.”
Talking about HP vs. Tektronix he says “HP underrated the problem and did not gear up to really overtake Tek.” Result was HP succeeded only in spurring Tek on to better performance.
“The move to Colorado Springs was a set back,” he says. Need to settle down and “run Tek down over the long haul, adding that HP has greater resources in people, technology, and general health.
Hewlett gives his conclusions:
- “HP has always stressed balance between R&D – Production, Marketing, and Finance.
- HP role in scopes and pulse generators must now rest with R&D.
- What I saw today gives me hope.”
Box 2, Folder 7 – General Speeches
July 24, 1967 – Marketing Seminar, Palo Alto, CA
7/24/67, This is another seminar for new marketing sales people. Hewlett was asked to give a welcoming talk on the first day. His very brief notes, handwritten on a sheet of notebook paper say he planned to talk about the importance of marketing, the “Tek” gap and Japan.
He notes “How the Company is run,” and the “good old days vs. the future.”
And he concludes with “Your job tomorrow.”
7/20/67, Memo to Hewlett from Aldo Palossi, reminding him of the forthcoming seminar, and giving a few ideas on subject material.
7/24/67, Copy of program for the seminar
Box 2, Folder 8 – General Speeches
August 8, 1967 – Summer Lab Engineers Luncheon, Palo Alto, CA
8/8/67, One typewritten sheet with topics for Hewlett’s remarks
Hewlett lists some questions and then provides some answers.
Why do we take these people on?
What do we gain from it?
What is the objective of the corporation itself?
Indeed, what should the objective of corporations be?
By way of answers Hewlett notes that “100 years ago, the only answer would have been to make the maximum amount of money for shareholders.” While saying that this may still be true for very small companies, he adds that “As companies grow, so do their responsibilities and what society expects of them”
This all may vary from country to country he says. “In Japan, life long employment; in pre-war Germany: [business was] an instrument of national policy; in France, feeling is that profits are slightly immoral. In the U.S. the more enlightened companies take very broad view of responsibility, i.e., not just to shareholders, but to employees, customers, local and state governments, and the general health and well being of the nation.”
“No system is perfect,” he says. “Many bad actors among corporations just as among people. Just as I feel people are intrinsically honest and well meaning so I feel about corporations for they are collections of people.”
8/8/67, Three pages of Hewlett’s handwritten with notes in preparation of typewritten talk
8/8/67, Copies of several lists of the summer students
8/3/67, Memo to Hewlett from Norm Williams discussing arrangements for the luncheon and suggesting some topics
1/1/66, Copy of the printed booklet “Hewlett-Packard – A Statement of Corporate Objectives”
Box 2, Folder 9 – General Speeches
November 13-14, 1967 – Managers’ Meeting, Palo Alto, CA
11/13-14/67, Typewritten notes titled Summary-Management meeting – W. R. Hewlett and is unaccountably dated 1/12/68. It does appear these reflect Hewlett’s comments at the meeting.
Hewlett lists points of change for HP:
- End of WW II
- Plan for future growth by hiring people on spec.
- Breaking out into a divisional plan
- Establishing own sales organization
He says similar problems are now being faced:
- Moving into the classic structure of a large corporation; “breaking away from the friendly advice of father Dave.”
- Product line expanding – threatens to “burst wide open …unless it can adapt to challenges”
- Increased responsibility flowing to divisions [brings] problem of control. He points to the problem of budgeting as an example of “a failure to understand…the function of such targeting.”
- How to use total assets of the corporation when such assets cross divisional lines
- The continued role of International in developing world markets
“This is a period of winnowing. We are a corporation in change – good opportunity for the imaginative and creative individual.
Also dated 1/12/68 – but in the folder for the 12/13/67 management meeting: Typewritten notes identified as W. R. Hewlett notes
These notes give Hewlett’s comments on each of the usual management meeting slide charts covering 1967 operations. The charts and related handouts are included in the folder.
