Facing change 3 What happens when 170 people learn that theirjobs are going away? Taking off the shackles 8 u.s. semiconductor makers join forces at SEMATECH. New frontiers: HP in Russia 11 HP pursues its long-term presence in the former Soviet Union. Your Turn Page 11 14MEASURE readers share their views on matters of importance. A sense of community 16 A striking photo feature shows how HP honors one of its objectives. Another ladder to the top 20 An HPprogram gives R&D engineers a way to advance on a new track. Julie DEALS in challenges 22 An entry-level job leads to a multimillion-dollar program. "I never saw him alive again" HP people aid the family of a murdered HP customer engineer. Page 22 25 Letter from Lew Platt 26 HP's president and CEO discusses the best way of managing change. ExtraMEA8URE 28 News from around the HP world. MEASURE Editor: Art Director: Associate editors: Graphic designer: Circulation: Jay Coleman' Annette Yatovitz Cornelia Bayley Thomas J. Brown Tricia Neal Chan Betty Gerard' MEASURE is published six times a year for employees and associates of Hewlett-Packard Company. It is produced by Corporate Communications. Employee Communications Department. Mary Anne Easley. manager. Address correspondence to MEASURE, Hewlett-Packard Company. 20BR. P.O. Box 10301. Palo Alto. California 94304-1181 USA. The telephone number is (415) 857-4144; the fax number is (415) 857-7299. °Copyright 1993 by Hewlett-Packard Company. Material may be reprinted with permission. 'Member. International Association of Business Communicators (IABC). On the cover: Howard Cabezas was angry when Hewlett-Packard Company is an international manufacturer of measurement and computation he heard that 170 jobs, products and systems recognized for excellence in quality and support. HP employs 93,100 people including his, were mov­ worldwide and had revenue of $16.4 billion in its 1992 fiscal year. ing out of state. How did Howard, his 169 co-workers and HP handle the change? * MEASURE magazine is printed on recycled paper with vegetable-based ink See page 3. Photo by Marc Longwood. 2 MEASURE www.HPARCHIVE.com The move from Roseville, California, to Boise, Idaho, has been a happy one for Juana, Cameron and Brad Bowden. The pain (and gain) of Facing change What happens when Juana Bowden remembers the shock she felt when she first 170 people learn that heard the news in a coffee meeting last June: Her produc­ their jobs are going tion job on the printed circuit assembly line in Roseville, away? Employees in California, was going away and the surface-mount line was moving to Fort Collins, Colorado. Roseville I California I tell a story of transition. "Oh no!" she thought. "What do I do now? Where do I go? Where will we live?" There was a huge lump of worry in By Shirley Gilbert Juana's throat. Juana wasn't alone. One hundred and seventy Networked Computer Manufac­ turing Operation eNCMO) employees who heard the news together that morning all felt varying degrees of shock and concern. Most knew that the Computer Systems Organization's Computer Manufacturing management was considering May-June 1993 3 www.HPARCHIVE.com Change consolidating printed-circuit-assembly pleasant. For some, the road was to let go ofthe old world. Next, we go (PCA) activities in a few spots in the bumpy, uneven and disappointing. through a "neutral zone" when we're company. PCA workers in NCMO in For others, it was uplifting, smooth, between the old and new. And finally, Roseville just knew they would be the we get to our [mal destination: a ones to win out. new beginning. The changes that actually took Itwas hard for NCMO's PCA employ­ place in the lives ofthe 170 Roseville ees to let go. They railed against the employees because ofthat announce­ It was hard for NCMO's decision. "Why us?" they asked. ment were probably more far-reaching employees to let go. There are two types ofprinted­ than even Juana imagined on that IIWhy us?" they asked. circuit-assembly work in Roseville's troubling summer morning. NCMO. One involves the older tech­ Some of her co-workers would nology of connecting components move to places far away from Roseville opportunity-filled-even an adven­ onto boards through holes in the -even as far away as Alaska. Others ture. For still others, the story isn't boards (through-hole assembly). The would leave the company and pursue over yet: The Roseville transition more modem technology centers interesting new careers such as rais­ won't be complete for several months. on mounting components onto the ing Arabian thoroughbreds. A few This article tells the story of boards (surface mount). would get married. One would go how HP employees in one entity in Use of the older through-hole tech­ Roseville faced a time of upheaval. nology has decreased during the last But it also addresses the larger issue several years, but the newer surface­ of change within HP. mount process will be around in HP Today's competitive business locations for the foreseeable future. Not all the stories have environment dictates that HP people Where to put these locations was happy endings; not all change, make business accommoda­ not an easy decision, affmns Wade the experiences were tions and adjust every day. Clowes, operations manager of NCMO For most of us, it isn't easy. in Roseville. pleasant. Why is that? Why is change so "It was a hard call," he says. "In difficult and painful? Bill Bridges, computer manufacturing we're trying through a separation. Some would be management consultant and expert to bring about the concept of a global promoted; most made lateral moves; on the subject of change, points out factory where each site specializes a few chose to take a step down or that it isn't the practical change itself in some targeted activities. That way learn new skills. that people resist. It's the psychologi­ As for Juana, she and her husband, cal notion of transition, the act of Brad, who worked with Juana in changing ourselves. NCMO on printed-circuit assemblies, Bill adds that, at a psychological relocated to HP in Boise, Idaho, and level, in almost all cases ofchange­ lilt was a hard call... are working on printers and disk good or bad, small or large-some we're trying to (create) drives. They have a new baby, a new assumptions we've made about ... a global factory. .. " home and a new lifestyle in a place tomorrow are not valid. they like. And we need to go through a Juana's story is just one of 170 period of transition to let go of those we can allow entities to focus on individual stories about a period of assumptions and get on with life. separate elements of the value chain transition in Roseville. Bill says there's a three-stage jour­ and achieve some money-saving Not all the stories have happy end­ ney we all go through when we travel economies of scale." ings; not all the experiences were through transition country. First, there's an ending stage that allows us 4 MEASURE www.HPARCHIVE.com "I thought of it as a wonderful adventure," says Dottye Lefler, who jumped at the chance to relocate to Fort Collins, Colorado. Because most of CSO's PCA activ­ tions, the team rolled up its sleeves electronic job-posting system-and ity is in Colorado, it made sense to and put together an innovative menu read through binders of information base the surface-mount line there, of services to guide employees and the about other locations and HP's reloca­ leaving Roseville to focus on devel­ PCA business through the redeploy­ tion policies. oping a "solution center" for HP's ment process. The operation held resume-writing order-fulfillment program and other The menu included sending team classes and interviewing workshops. manufacturing priorities. The through­ members out to HP hiring locations Managers gave employees time to hole work is moving to HP's printed­ in the Pacific Northwest states (Wash­ learn new skills and upgrade old ones. circuit-assembly center in Rohnert ington, Idaho, Oregon) and Colorado Teams of hiring supervisors came Park, California. to bring back a range of information­ from a number of HP sites to conduct Once HP made the decision to con­ even including the prices of groceries job fairs for interested people and solidate, NCMO formed a transition­ -on what the living conditions and interview candidates in Roseville. A management team, headed by PCA lifestyles were like for employees on few supervisors made job offers right production manager Mike Nickey. other sites. These "campus managers" on the spot. The team established a set of (in the tradition of HP's college cam­ Supervisors attended workshops objectives for the transition; the key pus recruiters) shared this information on the art of managing change so one was to balance people's prefer­ with employees in a variety of commu­ they could help employees and them­ ences for where they wanted to live nication sessions. selves travel as painlessly as possible and work with HP's business needs. NCMO set up an Employment Oppor­ through the transition. Using information from earlier tunity Center to allow job-seekers Employees in other HP Roseville NCMO redeployments and consolida- to scroll through LOIS (Local Open­ entities could accept relocation ings Information System)-HP's May-June 1993 5 www.HPARCHIVE.com Change offers, thereby creating local job skills she believes will stand her in employee, took the offer, got married openings for some NCMO people.