THE HP WAY The two founders of HP, William Hewlett and David Packard, from the beginning developed a Management Style never used before on a large company. They renounced the "hire and fire" Management Style (to employ people only for a big project and then fire them). In the US economical crisis of 1974, they avoided layoffs (dismissals) by a four-day workweek. This made a Corporate Culture unique in the US Another measure, more recently adopted by Apple (Steve Wozniak, who worked at HP, later co-founded Apple) and Google, is that they treated the employees as family members. They called each other by the first name. Even the two founders were known as Bill and Dave. Employers participated in the company with stock options to increase motivation and involvement in the companies objectives. Also they were paid additional premiums when the company was successful (profit sharing). The HP Way included also extensive social benefits, as for example scholarships for the employee's children. In the late 1950s, William Hewlett and David Packard revisited the company's objectives. These were the guidelines for "all decision-making by HP people". With slightly changes, they are still valid today. The objectives they established (to be achieved through teamwork) are: "Profit, Customers, Fields of Interest, Growth, Our People, Management, and Citizenship". This established a new Corporate Culture in Silicon Valley and many firms tried to imitate The HP Way" adopting measures like stock options, innovative work rules, teamwork, and profit sharing. Nowadays, "The HP way" is seen as model for Corporate Culture globally accepted. Question: How does HP motivate its employees (Maslow's Pyramid of Needs)