Co-authors discuss The HP Phenomenon with students

On February 11, The Illinois Foundry for Innovation in Engineering Education (iFoundry) hosted a book talk with Charles H. House and Raymond L. Price, co-authors of the recently released book, The HP Phenomenon: Innovation and Business Transformation (Stanford University Press 2009).

A former HP employee, Price currently serves as co-director of iFoundry and is a professor and Severns Chair for Human Behavior in Engineering at Illinois. House is a former HP executive, and currently serves as the executive director at Stanford University’s Media X.

Hewlett-Packard founders, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard (known simply by their employees as “Bill and Dave”) developed a unique management style that has come to be known as the “HP Way.” This corporate management style encourages bottom-up innovation with flexible room for change.

The HP Phenomenon attempts to put to rest a debate over whether the modern-day HP has maintained its innovation edge—or whether the old “HP Way” has been tarnished. The book, which has been welcomed onto the market with positive reviews, takes an in-depth look into how the company has maintained its lead in the technology field for 70 years. Hewlett-Packard has transformed itself six times in the last seven decades while most of its competitors were unable to make even one significant transformation. 

In the book, House talked about the elusive "spirit of innovation" and enthusiasm for efficient development at the company. As an HP engineer in the ‘60s, House was determined to bring a large-screen electrostatic monitor to market.

When a superior commanded, “When I come back in a year, I don’t want to see that product in the lab!” House took it as challenge to get the monitor out of the lab – and into production as soon as possible. When the monitor turned out to be a great success, House was awarded the “HP Award for Meritorious Defiance." It was this kind of bottom-up innovation that led to the company's success--a culture that encouraged the company's upper management, scientists, and engineers to freely share ideas.

In addition to its important focus on the history and future of innovation within the company, The HP Phenomenon provides profound lessons for engineers, managers and organizational leaders who are hoping to transform their own organizations. As the authors point out, “Somehow it feels important- important for the legacy, doubly important for the future, and maybe most of all, important for the world to know that decency, ethics and concern for the individual on the one hand and the community on the other can be combined with effective business practices and contribution in products, services, and process for customers, vendors, employees and shareholders alike. Bill ‘n,’ Dave would have been proud if it persists.”

Following a long career in industry working in management and organizational development and human resources, Ray Price joined the Illinois faculty in 1998. Prior to his tenure at Illinois, he had served as the vice president of human resources at Allergen, Inc., and director of employee training and development for Boeing Commercial Airplane Group. At Hewlett-Packard, Price was manager of engineering education. As co-director of iFoundry, Price is currently working on transforming engineering education in ways that are appropriate to the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century.

Charles (Chuck) H. House is the executive director of Media X, Stanford University’s Industry Affiliate research program on media and technology. As a senior research scholar he is continuing his work in technology-enabled communications, collaboration and community. Previously, House has served as director of Intel Corporation’s Virtual Collaboratory, senior VP of multi-media communication research for Dialogic, and president of Spectron Microsystems, now part of Texas Instruments. He was 29 years at Hewlett-Packard, in a wide variety of roles at a number of divisions and groups. House has received multiple awards from the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) and was named into the Electronic Design Hall of Fame for his work on logic analysis, a project that was also recognized as one of the 20th century’s top 50 inventions in electronics. In 1997, he was also named one of 200 “Wizards of Computing” for America by the Computer Museum and National Academy of Science.

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Contact: Ray Price, iFoundry, 217/333-4309.

If you have any questions about the College of Engineering, or other story ideas, contact Rick Kubetz, Engineering Communications Office, 217/244-7716, editor.