Technology innovations typically arise from humble locations, not glassy high-rises. Michael Dell started his company from a dorm room in 1984. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built the Apple I in a garage in the mid-1970s. Another name we all know, Hewlett-Packard, also got its start in a Bay Area garage—but the year might surprise you: 1938. Learn all the details in this edition of Tech Time Warp.
In 1938, William Hewlett and David Packard, or Bill and Dave, as the HP website references them, started working part-time to build equipment in a Palo Alto garage. The Stanford University college buddies had only $538 in startup funds, but what they built had an incredible first buyer: Walt Disney. Disney purchased eight of the “HP Model 200A,” an oscillator for testing sound equipment, to use in the production of the now-classic Fantasia.
Innovation, leadership, and lasting impact
From there, the duo had a company. A coin toss determined whether the company would be “Hewlett-Packard” or “Packard-Hewlett.” Bill won that toss. In 1940, they moved from the garage to rented office space in Palo Alto, and in the mid-1940s, they began implementing several groundbreaking employee policies. These included offering a comprehensive health insurance plan, establishing an open office floorplan, following a “management by objectives” approach, and using first names at the office. They practiced “management by walking around.” This consisted of taking unscheduled strolls to have impromptu chats with employees at all levels of the organization.
Hewlett-Packard’s innovations have been numerous. FM and TV stations used a high-speed frequency counter introduced in 1951 to precisely meet Federal Communications Commission guidelines. The 1972 introduction of the pocket calculator made slide rules obsolete. The HP LaserJet, introduced in 1984, became ubiquitous.
Packard passed away on March 26, 1996, and flags were lowered to half-staff in Silicon Valley. The same honor was given when Hewlett died on Jan. 12, 2001. In 2015, Hewlett-Packard split into two companies: HP Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise.
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This post originally appeared on Smarter MSP.