Buy on Kindle
I just released the 2nd edition of my startup innovation book HACKING THE CORE. It includes updates, corrections and is custom formatted for the Amazon kindle platform.
Here’s the description from the original book:
HACKING THE CORE explains how to tap into the creativity and innovation that we all have hidden inside of us and how to apply it to launching and growing a startup business.
It looks at all areas of a business launch to uncover areas of innovation, differentiation, design thinking.
A Review:
Hacking The Core celebrates entrepreneurship in the tech startup world in a refreshing way. Pulling no punches, the author draws from 2 decades of experience as a startup CEO, strategist, M&A consultant and investor.
Since the original release, the book has become a constant stimulus for people to challenge themselves, start companies and collaborate with other first time and serial entrepreneurs.
EXCERPT:
THE HEWLETT + PACKARD PARTNERSHIP
“As everyone knows, Hewlett and Packard are my heroes.”
–– Steve Jobs, 2011 at his final public appearance
A great study of partnerships and loyalty is the partnership of Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard. They met as fellow students at Stanford in the 1930s, and were partners for the rest of their lives. They endured wars, amazing obstacles and magnificent successes over five decades and remained loyal partners throughout.
Each of them even stepped away from the company for years at a time but they never wavered in maintaining equality. It was their business ideas, ethics and endless energy that built the modern Silicon Valley. The garage on Alma Drive in Palo Alto where they started their company is now a National Historical Landmark with the inscription, “The birthplace of Silicon Valley.” Quite a statement but true. HP invented customer happiness, employee loyalty, stock options and many of the other evolved high tech business practices that set the tone for the west coast technology industry.
They actually helped their competitors in hard times. Michael Malone wrote a great book in 2005 chronicling Bill and Dave’s great adventure tilted BILL & DAVE. The book also chronicles the entire history of Silicon Valley, Palo Alto and Stanford’s transformation over the past century. It’s a great reference read and an enjoyable story. Today HP unfortunately has lost its way, lost its hunger. “The HP Way” was used as a mantra for all Silicon Valley companies, and outlined in a book by Dave Packard. It stayed in place for over 50 years, but over the past two decades it has eroded away.
There was a time when buying any HP product gave any engineer a nice little buzz –– it was the “best,” and much of that was because you knew Bill and Dave had put their principles into it. Without Bill and Dave, the company has lost its desire to lead by altruism and with that loss, and its standing as the Bay Area’s guiding light.
They stopped innovating and started protecting their markets. Now it’s not clear who or what is driving the company’s desire to excel. HP has become in numerous ways a political football, and a stock to short or long sell, depending on the revolving…
