Becoming Hewlett Packard: Why Strategic Leadership Matters
Nov 2016 · Oxford University Press
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About this ebook
Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard invented the model of the Silicon Valley start-up and set in motion a process of corporate becoming that made it possible for HP to transform itself six times over the 77 years since its founding in the face of sweeping technological changes that felled most of its competitors over the years. Today, HP is in the throes of a seventh transformation to secure its continued survival by splitting in two independent companies: HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Based on extensive primary research conducted over more than 15 years, this book documents the differential contribution of HP's successive CEOs in sustaining the company's integral process of becoming. It uses a comprehensive strategic leadership framework to examine and explain the role of the CEO: (1) defining and executing the key tasks of strategic leadership, and (2) developing four key elements of the company's strategic leadership capability. The study of the strategic leadership of HP's successive CEOs revealed the paradox of corporate becoming, the existential situation facing successive CEOs (that justifies the book's empathic approach), and the importance of the CEO's ability to harness the company's past while also driving its future. Building on these novel insights, the book shows how the frameworks used to conceptualize the tasks of strategic leadership and the development of strategic leadership capability can serve as steps toward a dynamic theory of strategic leadership that animates an evolutionary framework of corporate becoming. This framework will be helpful for further theory development about strategic leadership and also offers practical tools for founders of new companies and CEOs and boards of directors of existing companies who intend to create, run or oversee companies built for continued relevance, longevity and greatness.
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john wilkes
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March 30, 2017
I bought this while I was listening to Webb McKinney and Philip Meza discuss the story told in the book on stage at the Computer History Museum. That was riveting. Unfortunately, the third author seems to have completely lost the plot. He is responsible for gems such as the following single sentence(!) from Chapter 2: "The chapter ends with identifying a paradox in the history of becoming, elucidating the antifragility of HP's adaptive capacity in relation to evolving strategic integration challenges top management faced in the company's multibusiness portfolio at critical times in its history, documenting the role of tension in its internal ecology of strategy-making, and highlighting the existential situation faced by HP's successive CEOs in contributing to the company's process of becoming." Gak.
About the author
Robert A. Burgelman is the Edmund W. Littlefield Professor of Management at Stanford Business School, and served as Executive Director of the Stanford Executive Program (1996-2015). He is the author of Strategy is Destiny: How Strategy-Making Shapes a Company's Future (2002), and co-author of Inside Corporate Innovation: Strategy, Structure and Managerial Skills (1986), Strategic Dynamics: Concepts and Cases (2006), and Strategic Management of Technology and Innovation (5th edition, 2009). He is a Fellow of the Strategic Management Society and the Academy of Management, and serves as advisor and senior executive educator for global companies. Webb McKinney began his career at HP when David Packard and Bill Hewlett ran the company. McKinney held numerous engineering management and executive positions at HP, running HP's entry into consumer PCs, and going on to lead its entire PC business. McKinney later led worldwide sales, marketing and supply chains for all of HP's commercial customers. Before retiring from HP in 2003, McKinney was the EVP responsible for HP's integration of Compaq. McKinney is currently a consultant in merger integration and leadership development. He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California and serves on the boards of non-profit organizations. Philip E. Meza is a strategy consultant and researcher. Much of his consulting work focuses on technology strategy and business development. His books and numerous case studies are used at business schools and universities around the world. A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Meza is the author of Coming Attractions: Hollywood, High Tech and the Future of Entertainment (2007) and co-author of Strategic Dynamics: Concepts and Cases (2006). Meza also serves on the board of Toolworks, a social enterprise that helps people with disabilities. You can learn more about him at philipmeza.com.
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