1. They were the original Silicon Valley startup. 2. They were very innovative in a lot of the areas they touched. Instrumentation, which was their core busine

1. They were the original Silicon Valley startup. 2. They were very innovative in a lot of the areas they touched. Instrumentation, which was their core business, but also printing, plotting, portable computers (I own one of their mid-80s HP-UX portable computers), touchscreens (the HP-150, for example). 3. Quality was hugely important. That 35 year old workstation still powers up. I have a similar vintage plotter that still works. HP laser printers were an absolute gold standard. Everything they made was the absolute highest build quality. 4. They had an rmarkable culture. For example, Hewlett and Packard mandated that managers would sit in an open area, while their engineers and scientists would have offices. This was based on what now gets called servant leadership - the idea that the manager needed to be available to facilitate the staff, not the other way around. Employees could freely borrow equipment for personal projects. Sadly, all of that was flushed away starting in the 90s.