Past,present,future - HP

Don'ttouch
thatdial!
10
Being part of the TV generation has conditioned
us. We're used to gell ing our news in two-minute
blasts ofcondensed information and our entertainment
at the touch ora button.
The employee video program. the HP Video­
Magazine. is aimed at this generation of"videophiles"
that responds with full attention when
the VCR switch clicks on and the show begins.
It's designed to cornplernent existing print
MEASURE

com mun icatio ns in the co m pany as it
s ee ks to s h ow HP co r po rate obj ect ives
in action
Television is s im ply the most effective
medium for some s to ri es .
It 's OK 10r ead abou t s har ks . cafeteria
food a n d s pec ial effects . Out tilt'
impact is greater when you can s ee the
blood a ro u nd the mouth of the preda ­
lory. great white s h a r k that scien usts
s t ud y with the a id ofHP eq u ipmen t. II's
fun to follow the cam era into HP kit ch ­
ens a round the world a n d see the differen
t types of food s erved a t each a n d
methods offaod preparation, or to set'
bits of the s pecia l effects c re a ted w it h
HP equip men t for Hollywo od m ovies
such as "Star Wars" a n d "20 10."
Producer Ma r ik a Ru urnet ca lls the
vid eo magazine format "consiste nt. but
flex ible." Each ed it ion in cludes a n IS ­
s ue s to ry (such as past looks at e rgo n ­
omics a nd h azardous waste). an application
s tory showing HP produ ct s at
work. a news roundup ca lled "Aro u n d
the Circ u it" a n d features on HP p eople.
The HP VtdeoM aga z lne has be en
around for alm os t tw o yea rs. Recent
s u rvey results indicate that 6 3 percent
ofem ployees h ave seen th e program
Those who h ave SCCIl it give I he p ro ­
gram l1:0od m arks in te r ms of being in ­
teresting and pro fessi onally done. Office
s u ppor l a n d pro d uc tion employees
rated 11 con s td erabl y higher than managers
a n d s u pe rvisors
Personnel or comm u n ica tions manage
rs a t each HP location d ecide how
the program is shown to em p loyees.
d epending on facilities availab le a nd
the number of em ployees . Management
s u pport. good advance publiclty a n d a
systematic plan to ge t the program
s hown are the key fac tors to s uccess
in locations where the video m aga zine
is seen b y the most employees.
TheHP Vid eoMa ga zine Ilts nicely
into the agenda ofregul a rly scheduled
coffee ta lks. a n d that's the way the
Data Syste ms Div ision at Cupertino .
Califo rnia. handles distribution. S ome
departm ents plug the video m agazine
in to reg ul ar s ta ff meetings .
At Avond ale. Pennsylvania. th e vid eo
m aga zine is adve r tised in advance and
shown conti n uou s ly o ne day in the cafeteria
fro m 7 a .m. to 5 p .m. E rnp loyees
are free to watch it a ny ti me. In Sunnyvale.
Califor n ia , a large con fe rence
room is booked for a week of showings :
s u perv isors call a n d reserve Ih e room
for their employees AI the Finance
Rem arket in g Divi si on o n that site. all
118 employees wat ch the program a t
their monthly ge t-toge ther in th e
aud itor iu m
The awa rd-win n ing program, a coop
era tive effor t ofCorporate Pu bli c
Relations a n d HP Televsion Netw ork.
is produced s ix Ihues a year using HP
capab ilities. Moderat ors S a m Ch u Lin
a n d Linda Mour are both freelance te levts
ton jou rnalts ts in the S an Francisco
Bay Area
Martka says a bou t 140 copies ofeach
program a re sent to locations in the
U.S., Canada. Latin Am erica a n d the
Fa r East. Input on s tory idea s. s he
says. co mes in from a ll over the wor ld .
T hose in terna tional stories prov ide
the biggest challenge. says assrstan t
producer S ally Goodwi n . The p roduclion
team tr ies 10include a l least one in
each iss ue. La nguage barriers , Sally
says. are the biggesl sru rn b l tng block
while t ryi n g to track d own footage fro m
far-Ilung locations s uch as Iceland.
Hong Kong . New Zealand. S ri Lanka ,
S in ga pore and Germany. M
-Jean Burke
Novembe r-December 19 85 II

Making dollars count
HP's b elt-tightening measures have hil
Stevie Whitmore's household hard. "My
husband hasn't worked for more than a
year, so I'm the sole breadwinner right
now. " To make her trimmed paycheck
go farther. the couple has cut out en te rtainment
and trips that would cos t
them money. Instead they've substituted
short fishing trips and visits to
fri ends on the days HP's clos ed.
Stevie, who works in Vancouver's
printed-circuit board area , worked for
a number of com pan ies in the easte rn
U.S, beforejoining HP five years ago.
"HP is the most people-oriented place
I know. Everywhere els e, em p loyees
were treated as objects . I certainly
appreciate what HP's doing for m e. "
Facing economic
reality, again
This is the third time Lake Seng Koh has
faced tight times a t HP. "In 1977. I was in
Singapore as acti ng ge neral m anager for
Dick Love. I a n nou nced a 'nine-d ay fortnigh t"
to the work force. Fortunately, it lasted only
four to six weeks,"
He also s aw HP's Co rvallis , Oregon, s ile
struggle with too many people a n d n ot enough
work before h e transferred to Van couver as a
production manager, "HP's cu lt u re ce rta in ly
h elps n eutralize the s hock of s uch cu tbacks:'
says Lake. " It g ives everyo ne a real-life lesson on
th e importance of HP's profit objective.
"When things were humming along la st year, we
didn't hire any new production people h ere. Instead.
we worked a lot ofovertime. Today, people understand
why we asked them to work long hours a n d
they appreciate the business decision we made then."
17

Computerized lobster grabsAir India's black boxes
When an Air-India jet
crashed into the ocean off
the coast oflreland June 23
kUling 329. recoveryofthe
"black boxes" aboard was
cri tical to find out the cause
ofthe disaster.
After conventional efforts
to locate the wreckage
failed, a submersible craft
developed by AT&T to repair
telecommunications cables
joined the search.
The unmanned SCARAB I
(Submersible Craft Assisting
Repair and Burial) was
toted to thesceneby ship
and lowered overboard ­
tethered to the mother ship
by a 1O.000-foot cable carrying
power and Signals. The
craft hovers above the ocean
floor, using seven built-in
thrusters. It looks like a
November-December 1985
great lobster with two front
claws for grasping obje cts.
Three Video cameras "see"
and a pinger sends out
sound signals for
positioning.
SCARAB I first spotted
and retrieved the flight-deck
voice recorder lying by itself
on the ocean floor , then
found the flight data recorder
the next day. The rescues
were made at a record
depth of6,600 feet. An
HP 1000computersystem
on the ship translated
sound signals to calculate
the relative position of the
sub to the ship, wh ich was
then pictured on three HP
graphics displays .
"In SCARAB's usual work,
the mother ship has to keep
track ofwhere its child is
or the sub will run over the
cable or even escape.,.says
AT&T's Roy Bergfors, who
helped design the sub.
As SCARAB I was borne
offto Cork, Ireland, with
Its prizes, the identical
SCARAB II continued the
search through the wreckage.
It's an old hand at such
public service. having recovered
a lost Dutch heltcoper
offthe coast ofVirginia
in 1982 and rocket boosters
from NASA's space shuttle.
Showing the
government a
thingor1wo
HP Germany recently sponsored
a symposium In
Bonn, West Germany, for
representauves of the German
parliament. members
of the federal administration.
and business and
press op inion leaders.
The one-day event was
held in the Baden-Wurtternberg
embassy in Bonn to
demonstrate to government
officials how technology and
innovation could be used to
solve social and environmental
problems.
HP Germany's top
managementwas wellrepresented
at the meeting,
explaining the company's
products and objectives to
participants.
Thesometimes-heated
roundtable discussions focused
on health-care costs,
medical electronic system
expenses, environmental
Issues, and the social
consequences of office
and industrial automation.
19