I review these posts time to time, interesting how limited, or restrictive the comments are and have been. Certainly NOT the responsible company the founders had created! Thank you current and ex-CEO’s - CF=big bust, MH=oops, LA,=duh, MW=age is our friend! Ever think about (of course you have) those billion dollar accusations that were made? The me-too endeavors that went bust? The billions of $ that were just written off? Yah, H-P was supposedly in dire straights in the late 90’s, back when LP had the helm. The BOD felt urgency the Co. was in dire need of revitalization! Hmm. The print business was at all time high, growth was exponential YOY! Profits in triple digits. Even had to re-formulate so share-holders got more $, employees received less $ mid nineties. Rock-star came aboard., well.....we ALL know this was the “tipping- domino”. CF giveaway >30% of the PH business just so she could acquire a dinosaur megalith computer company. AND....the dominos began their down-word journey. Reminds me of “Jack and the Beanstalk” ! It ALL came tumbling down in the end!
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@ZIExzak - As least it wasn’t TV Answer. We had a couple of chances there and blew it. That is one area where CPQ could have contributed with iPaq. iPaq + Jornada + even web OS. Nope. Blew it all. Let’s print on stuff instead!
60 mins aired years back; Perkins aired his distain for then CEO. Then recently, publicly he did an about, 180. Speaks well of the current BOD’s back then. Grown children making very poor decisions, with peoples/employees lively hoods.
"Things change. Regardless of what we think of Carly , Mark, Leo and Meg, HP was starting to see challenges. Lew might have been able to fix it but that wasn’t to be. Carly just wasn’t the right choice. Mark had a vision but it lacked commitment. Leo was ... odd. Meg had no real choice in the end."
When Carly (1999) came in the big item in Labs was the "Information Appliance" aka Smart Phone. Work on it was well underway. Conference room in bldg 4 of 1501 Page Mill with all kinds of demos of use models. Pretty strong rumor that Jobs got in there (wasn't particularly hard at the time) and "got the idea for the smart phone". There were already several prototypes of same shown in that conference room. HP Could have made that one work but for upper management (Carly and the board). All Carly was in it for was Revenue, looks good on the resume.
@9jke - All of your points are correct but sadly that’s not how it works. Outside of people over estimating their self importance, it would be nice if corporate America (in general) felt a bit more responsible for the citizens but since profit is the number one objective, they can’t be. And given the many lower cost countries out there, we aren’t going to pressure companies to change.
Yes there are some companies big and small that do give some thought to employing local workers and taking a bit of a cost hit for it, but they are a very small number.
So all of our b--ching about it means squat. What is most effective is for workers to extract as much money from these companies as possible and move on when it’s exhausted. Loyalty will only drag you down. Your manager might try to help your but in a flash their loyalty to you can be overridden. But it is important to fake it as you fill your bag. Oh yes, I LOVE this company! Do me again!
So yes, you and I are on the same page.
@9jke. So, to summarize what i believe your recent comment means is: US Employees are modt burdensome, I.e too expensive to employ here in the states? Probably the UK as well? So gutting or pulling the carpet out from the US workforce is most appropriate, all things considered. Right? Okay. So., maybe the “North American Free Trade Act of 1993” is/was the machete to blame? H1bees., any abuse here ya think? Or, just free trade and welcome to capitalism as you put it? Outsourcing tech support, overseas staff that are most difficult to understand. Especially when one has a new laptop or device that won’t work properly? New or extended warranty devices that should be covered are supposedly not? Only to be informed by an overseas employee that it’s not? And you need to purchase an extended warranty or they can’t help you? Is this good for “us”consumers? No! But most Definitely great for the bottom line, the companies. Does GREED ever cross your mind? How much $ is enough $? Vote DJT/Pence 2020. MAGA! Bring our JOBS BACK from overseas!
9hev - There is nothing compelling US companies (or most countries for that matter) to hire/employ US citizens. The only way a company will do it today is if they are paid to do it (tax breaks generally.) So many people talk in terms of forcing companies to do it or countering with the “loss of talent.” There is talent everywhere.
Unless US employees become magically cheaper, you can mobilize ten of thousands for large manufacturing sites, pay them pennies on the dollar and get local governments to allow large scale building will offering tax incentives, it’s all going to continue to leave. There are no laws suggesting otherwise. And there are plenty of other low cost countries to chase long before the US becomes viable again - if ever.
Welcome to the free market and capitalism.
Anyone hear how the class action age discrimination suit is going? When I was Work-forced out in 2001, many, I mean, many coworkers were months away from retirement. Some of these unfortunate folks had 20+ years of service. Goodbye! Can’t pass GO! No medical-retirement.sign the NDA or loose bunch of $ and or golden parachutes. Moving forward, I still keep in touch with ex-employees from 3 of the spinoffs. Now, spun twice, key-sight has majority CW’s in their fabs and product lines. Boy how things have changed. It’s gotta be dog-eat-dog environment. Can’t help but think about the effect this has on quality all around. Loyalty comes to mind. I hear the same or similar in Corvallis. Maybe the Companies will acquire more de-flunked companies for $ billion a pop?
@ 3pip - appreciate ur opinion but, you neglected one major point. The $ billions of write offs! I get companies change, tech, demand, and etc. But The artichoke that’s hard to swallow is canning talented workforce (by the Thousands) then sending proprietary technology overseas to save a buck, and then turn around and “buy” a handful of c-ap companies. Not to mention CF giving away 33% plus of HP’s money maker, printing. I don’t know about you but, I purchased and returned a Compaq laptop early 2002. It was junk! Kept locking up, continually had to reload the emergency disk which as we all know, restores to factory settings. Did this 4 - 5x a day for first week. Yah, smart move CF. When I stood in line at Cost-co, three diff people approached me asking why I was returning the laptop. Well, the had the same issue. Anywho....very poor decisions were made for all the wrong reasons. EGO is a biotch! Most unfortunate for us former employees. Then there was the BOD back then., what a frigid hot mess!
Things change. Regardless of what we think of Carly , Mark, Leo and Meg, HP was starting to see challenges. Lew might have been able to fix it but that wasn’t to be. Carly just wasn’t the right choice. Mark had a vision but it lacked commitment. Leo was ... odd. Meg had no real choice in the end.
But assuming everything would have been peachy is wrong. It’s too bad we had to lean on printing so much. Made awesome money but the technology/sciences side of the business suffered. Both Q and E are but shells of the former HP. Agilent and Keysight still have a lot of the former culture but even they have changed dramatically.
Things change, and they did for HP.
I know exactly what you are talking about
What?