Foreword

Mr. Employee Communications-Jay Coleman

In the New Technology of the Digital Revolution and the Social Media Communications of the 21st Century, hardly anyone remembers the communications technology of the 1900s. But the history of the Hewlett Packard Co. starts in the 1940s, with linotype machines for typesetting and flat presses and rotary presses for large runs like newspapers. Lithography dramatically improved the efficiency and quality and made prep processes far more timely and economic.

So basically, Hewlett Packard's image was built with technical and promotional printing processes. We became known and appreciated for our comprehensive instruction manuals, which included not just the detailed operating procedures, but an extensive trouble shooting and repair section. Plus pages and pages of component lists, keyed to the foldout sheets of wiring diagrams which might unfold outward to 5 feet to allow the manual writers to properly lay down the wiring and circuitry. Customer calibration and repair labs LOVED HP for this detail, since they could usually perform not just the diagnosis of faults, but quickly order parts from HP or often substitute their own parts from their storerooms.

I always liked to proclaim that HP sold more than just instrument products. We sold measurement tutorials, and we taught the newest high tech procedures, usually written around one of our new blockbuster instrument concepts. These new measurement techniques were delivered with hundreds of Product Notes, which delineated those newest processes that weren't taught in any engineering college. Even the Trade Magazines of the time, such as McGraw-Hill's Electronics, Hayden's Electronic Design, or the Proceedings of the IEEE, and dozens of other specialized industry-specific communications endeavors weren't current. HP also contributed Applications Notes, hundreds of them, which were more generic tutorials on measurement processes, not related to any given instrument family.

The customer was informed of our new product introductions with the HP Journal, a comprehensive technical presentation of both the functional performance, and since the articles were written by the project's design engineers, the deep technical tutorial on the breakthroughs, of clever circuitry and creative measurement functions that often were the first of their kind. I think the Journal circulation was 200,000.

Then there was the biggest promotional publication of them all, the annual HP Catalog. This was the bible of the electronics industry, growing from several hundred pages in the 1950s to 782 pages in 1989. This didn't quite rival Sears Roebuck, but for every engineer, it belonged in his bookcase. And we worked hard to deliver one to every engineer. More than once I would be in a customer office, with our field engineer, trying to sell one of our new introductions. When a technical question came up involving a different HP product, the customer would turn around to their bookcase, and pull out the HP bible. In those last years of the printed catalog, the print run went to almost 200,000. Only a few printing companies in the country could handle that load. I recall that they specified a special extra white, but extra thin paper to cut weight without print-through. They were magnificent.

Steve Duer was the magician who directed the compilation of content from maybe 50 divisions, converted to common format, reviewed by the authors, and gave the command to roll the presses. All of this was done without the Internet or email. Trucks were waiting to deliver not just to the USA, but around the world, with space reserved on fast freighters, and some by air. I have forgotten the budget numbers now, but it was millions. And well worth it.

In the early 1990s, the paper edition was discontinued, replaced with a pdf version up into the early 2000s. By that time the Internet was in full swing, and more information and more current information was delivered into a customer's desktop computer for sales and technical training. I'm describing all of that print activity because it built the company.

But of course, I have left out perhaps the most critical function of company communications, and that is the employee environment, and their relations to the company mission and strategy. With today's social Internet such as Facebook and Instagram, as well as everywhere email and texting, it is hard to envision how these communications needs were done in the "Old Days."

The 1940-50s HP employee newsletter was a mundane tabloid named "Watts Current," to reflect our electricity roots. Bill Bigler presented the news by popping employee names in BOLD TYPE, and seemingly was able to include almost the whole employed roster every month. By 1963, with manufacturing divisions moving all across the US and Europe and Japan, and dozens of sales offices, a new professional editorial vehicle was needed. Corporate Communications head, Dave Kirby, initiated the new bi-monthly magazine, and appropriately called it Measure, appearing first in July 1963.

It was a winner, professional graphics, writing, editing, and presenting a nice mix of personnel news, corporate happenings, voices from the top executives, and a monthly message from Dave, himself, as well as other top managers. Stories came from across the HP world, and I found Jay's recounting of his publisher life (hired in 1987) stimulating and informative and interesting. But of course, in my whole life since college, I have loved the smell of printers ink. And the quaint tinkling of a Linotype machine setting hot lead type (from 1951).

As Jay moved on from the discontinuance of Measure in 2000, his expertise goes to good use in new businesses and industrial conditions, principally the emergence of the Internet. HP's internal email system, called HPDesk preceded the Internet by about 10 years, offering our thousands of employees the best of immediate contact, globally. We showed exceptional vision in integrating email and data for financial, order processing, manufacturing inventory management, and every element of Enterprise.

Jay's life work is rewarding, as any contributor to the enlightenment of other humans. There is no escaping the deadlines, content decisions, directing graphics and photo selections, and moreover, to do all that with upper managers ready to second-guess your editorial discretion. A few of these "misunderstandings" that Jay needed to handle are described, confirming that some dealings with CEO Carly were fraught with angst.

In 2000, HP published the last edition of Measure in May/June -- a massive, 74-page finale that traced HP's decade-by-decade history, products and culture. It was the end of a 43-year run that began when Dave Packard pitched the idea to Dave Kirby.

To implement the new Branding Vision of new CEO Carly, Jay's group designed and titled a new magazine, using Carly's new slogan, invent. The new publication won a Gold Quill (the highest recognition) award from the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC). But sadly in the midst of the contentious HP-Compaq merger, invent died in July/August 2001 -- six issues after it began.

Jay stayed busy with other Corporate PR, including Annual Report project, then moved to the Imaging and Printing Group (IPG). This lasted until his buyout at the big recession of 2008.

As a divisional Marcom manager, I had very good relations with Jay. He was perceptive of the employees down in the manufacturing end of the business, the ONLY place profit is made. He would occasionally run my Letter to the Editor, maybe complaining of some bureaucratic rule. I think one of my letter titles was, "Who audits the auditors?" It had to do with complaints I heard from old field engineer friends who were saddled with piddling rules on submitting their expense accounts, which used up their time instead of being before customers.

This is a truly enjoyable lookback at HP culture.

John Minck

HP Memories

This memory of Jay Coleman's career at hp results from the work of the www.hpmemoryproject.org website of Marc Mislanghe, who with John Minck edited and published the original archive of Memoirs. After Marc's untimely death in 2014, Ken Kuhn has now assumed the custodianship with John, and together they will continue to expand the Memoirs section.

One of the main objectives in starting this website in 2011 was (and still is today) to get in touch with people who have worked at hp from the birth of the company up to today. We are interested in hearing your memories no matter what division or country you worked in, or whether you were in engineering, marketing, finance, administration, or worked in a factory. This is because all of you have contributed to the story of this unique and successful enterprise.

Your memories are treasure for this website. While product and technology are our main concern, other writings related to the company life are highly welcome, as far as they stay inside the hp Way guidelines.

Anybody Else? Please get in touch by emailing the webmaster on the Contact US link at http://www.hpmemoryproject.org