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See Full StoryIt has now been more than a year since Hewlett-Packard and Compaq merged. It's been nearly two years since the idea of the deal was made public. Neither time frame is particularly long in the grand scheme of things, but for impatient observers, it's a lifetime. People want to know right now whether the merger was worth it. Was Carly Fiorina right? Or did the opposition forces lose the battle only to see the army fall into ruins?
Just a quick comment on one piece of your article. Towards the end, you write:
"Even if the companies were fully merged physically, it definitely would take more than a year to blend two corporate cultures that, by some accounts, are vastly different."
As it turns out, there were (are) really _three_ major cultures that had to come together as part of this merger: HP, Compaq, and Digital. As in DEC, Digital Equipment Corp. The vast majority of the people working in Compaq sites in New England were Digital employees.
While Compaq's PC-centric commodity product culture may have been the rule in Houston, in the facilities up here, many of us carried (and still do carry) the Digital "Do The Right Thing" ethos, as well as the belief that R & D is the key to innovation and great products. This is very close in spirit to the "HP Way", and consequently it has helped a great deal in our dealings with our R & D counterparts in California, Colorado, and elsewhere in HP.
In some respects, it's been downright refreshing to once again be part of a company where research and development -- "engineering" in old-timer DECspeak -- is a highly valued major centerpiece of what we do, rather than being a poorly-understood appendage.
And it even shows right down to the new logo:
"HP - invent".
You can't invent without R & D.
So while some parts of Compaq may be a bit difficult to digest, the parts derived from the old Digital are, in my opinion, well on their way to becoming part of the muscle and sinew of the new HP.
"Even if the companies were fully merged physically, it definitely would take more than a year to blend two corporate cultures that, by some accounts, are vastly different."
As it turns out, there were (are) really _three_ major cultures that had to come together as part of this merger: HP, Compaq, and Digital. As in DEC, Digital Equipment Corp. The vast majority of the people working in Compaq sites in New England were Digital employees.
While Compaq's PC-centric commodity product culture may have been the rule in Houston, in the facilities up here, many of us carried (and still do carry) the Digital "Do The Right Thing" ethos, as well as the belief that R & D is the key to innovation and great products. This is very close in spirit to the "HP Way", and consequently it has helped a great deal in our dealings with our R & D counterparts in California, Colorado, and elsewhere in HP.
In some respects, it's been downright refreshing to once again be part of a company where research and development -- "engineering" in old-timer DECspeak -- is a highly valued major centerpiece of what we do, rather than being a poorly-understood appendage.
And it even shows right down to the new logo:
"HP - invent".
You can't invent without R & D.
So while some parts of Compaq may be a bit difficult to digest, the parts derived from the old Digital are, in my opinion, well on their way to becoming part of the muscle and sinew of the new HP.
