|
|
Blog Articles
How Does Your Manager Rate?
I’ve always been a big believer in the adage that employees join a company but they leave a manager. This applies to product managers as much as anyone. Our manager is a major factor in our job satisfaction. For those of us that are also managers, we need to always keep in mind the role we play in the effectiveness and enthusiasm of our employees.
Google as the New HP
Silicon Valley is all about creating products, and I would argue that no company in history has done that better than HP. HP had an absolutely unmatched record of consistent product innovation in a wide range of markets. That’s why they’ve personified Silicon Valley better than anyone else. Many companies, even large successful companies like IBM and Oracle, are essentially one-product companies – they ride the wave of their big product for decades, but essentially they don’t innovate past that. But Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard were able to create a company that was unique in that they created a culture and mechanism for breeding new products and new businesses. HP has created literally thousands of breakthrough products in its history. I know of no other company in the world today or in the past that has managed to do this. Even more important for this valley, HP spawned hundreds of other Silicon Valley companies.