Thinking about Lew Platt
I was sad to read the news that Lew Platt passed away. He was the head of HP during much of my career there.
I had only a passing acquaintance with Lew while working at HP. As a young engineer and manager at HP Laboratories, I argued a number of times for moving more quickly into new businesses like digital imaging, or the internet, usually with great frustration. The fact that he had any idea who I was at all was impressive to a young lab guy, though, and there was never any question that he genuinely wanted to understand what was possible and to do what was best for the company.
Despite being the head of a huge company, Lew always seemed to be a regular, approachable guy. To me, at the time, he looked like some of my friends’ parents. Lew drove the same HP-issue Taurus as everyone else, and I’d see him at lunch occasionally if I happened to be over in the building 20 cafeteria. Not a big entourage kind of guy, would usually see him with a few people at a time, or carrying his own bags at the airport. I also ran into him a few times while shopping for groceries; I gather he was a pretty good cook, and he routinely turned up and worked on the company’s United Way activities, at least the years I was involved. Basically, he seemed like a regular HP guy, except that he was in charge of the whole company. Understated to a fault, and utterly trustworthy.
In many ways, I think of Lew Platt as the last CEO of the Hewlett-Packard Company.
CNET:
“Lew was such a straightforward and honest guy,” said David W. Packard, son of the late HP co-founder David Packard. “The employees loved him.”
The younger Packard, who stepped down from HP’s board in 1999 over a disagreement with Platt over the Agilent spin-off, said he always held Platt in high regard, even though they held divergent views.
“I could disagree with Lew, but I never started a public campaign against him,” Packard said. “He was such a decent person.”
Update 09-12-2005 16:40pm PDT: Peter Burrows has a look back at Lew Platt over at the Business Week site. Peter covered HP for many years, then became persona non grata there for a while after his book came out.
Then, Platt reflected on his legacy. “I’d like to be remembered as someone who related to people at all levels of the company, and related to them all equally well,” he began. “I guess I’ve never been into the trappings of power. Maybe I should have.”
No, Lew, it’s better that you weren’t. While big egos and business cycles come and go, the values Platt held dear are timeless, and should not be easily dismissed. Says Collins: “We need more, not fewer, Lew Platts in the world.”
Update 09-12-2005 21:59 PDT: More reflection from Peter Burrows: Remembering Lew Platt
Tags: hpq, hewlettpackard
