What I learned from reading The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company by David Packard.
David Packard rejected the idea that a company exists merely to maximize profits.
I think many people assume wrongly, that a company exists simply to make money, Packard said.
While this is an important result of a company's existence, we have to go deeper to find the real reason for our being.
Do our products offer something unique?
Are people's lives improved because of what we do?
If the answer to any of these questions is no, then Packard would deem HP a failure.
Most entrepreneurs pursue the question, how can I succeed?
From day one, Packard pursued a different question, what can we contribute?
As a result, HP attained extraordinary success.
This success, in turn, enabled them to invest more in making a contribution, which produced even greater success, which led to increased contribution, which created even greater success.
This virtuous cycle eventually enabled Packard and Hewlett to personally contribute at levels far beyond what they would have dared to imagine as young men.
In 1995, Packard attended a dinner at Stanford University.
The dean of engineering mentioned to Packard that he and Hewlett had donated, on a present value basis, as much to Stanford as Jane and Leland Stanford had given to fund the university.
Upon his death, Packard bequeathed nearly all of his $5.6 billion estate to charity.
But if you were to think of David Packard and the HP way as being all about benevolence and charity, you would be terribly mistaken.
Packard and Hewlett demanded performance, and if you could not deliver, HP held no place for you.
Customer satisfaction, second to none, is the only acceptable goal, admonished David Packard.
If you cannot lead your organization to achieve that goal, well, find somebody who can.
That is an excerpt from the book that I'm going to talk to you about today, which is David Packard's autobiography.
It is called the HP Way, how Bill Hewlett and I built our company.