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Our History
1940s
Test and measurement products from the fledgling HP win widespread acceptance among engineers and scientists. The start of World War II turns a trickle of U.S. government orders for electronic instruments into a stream and then a flood. New products are added and HP builds its first corporate headquarters, manufacturing plants and research-and-development facilities.
As HP grows, Bill and Dave create a management style that forms the basis of HP's famously open corporate culture and influences how scores of later technology companies will do business, supported by the practice of using first names in the business environment. Dave employs a management technique — eventually dubbed "management by walking around" (MBWA) — which is marked by personal involvement, good listening skills and the recognition that "everyone in an organization wants to do a good job."
1940
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Production moves from the garage to a rented building at Page Mill Road and El Camino Real in Palo Alto.
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Shortly after completing their first year in business, Bill and Dave agree that all employees should share directly in HP's future success. HP pays its first bonus to employees, a $5 Christmas bonus. HP also adopts a production bonus. These programs later became an HP-wide profit-sharing plan (in 1962); today, Verigy utilizes the Verigy Results Bonus to reward all employees based on company financial results – a practice that has its roots in these early policies.
1942
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Construction begins on the first HP-owned building, a 10,000-square foot office/laboratory/factory (Redwood Building) at 395 Page Mill
Road, Palo Alto, Calif. Ever pragmatic, Bill and Dave construct the building so that it might be converted into a grocery store if the business fails to
grow.
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Dave Packard designs a voltmeter that gives unprecedented reliability at a lower price than the competition.
1943
1947
Bill tests an audio signal generator
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