Remembering the ‘Rules of the Garage’

Hewlett-Packard has long been an inspirational company. Not just because of its current prowess in the hardware and software markets, of course, but because of many stories about its origins in a Palo Alto, Calif., garage, back in 1939. Considered by many to be the true founders of Silicon Valley, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard epitomized the startup, turning an investment of US$538 into a tremendous success.

In the years running up to the Carly Fiorina era (1998-2005), HP was widely seen as having lost its way. Under her leadership, the company tried to return to its early start-up behaviors. This was demonstrated by a list, created by HP’s marketing department in 1999, called “Rules of the Garage.” The “Rules” were meant as a concise update of the famous “HP Way” management style.

My thanks to Andrew Binstock, who blogged about the “Rules,” and thereby caused me to think about them today.

Andrew describes the rules as sounding “like something the agile guys might have written (had they not written the manifesto). I prefer this wording because of its greater applicability and more dynamic presentation.”

You can read the 11 rules in Andrew’s blog post. If you’d like to see the famous garage at 367 Addison Avenue, here’s a depiction of the “Rules” in an HP ad.

What do you think – do the “Rules” still apply as a good set of behaviors for a startup hardware company… or for a modern-day agile software development team?