For those of us who’ve lived and worked with Hewlett-Packard and the
HP3000 over the past few decades, Tuesday’s announcement may seem like a
disaster. While it IS an ending of one sort, it also may have opened a
door to something potentially new and wonderful: a business founded on a
new model, for the new millennium. Submitted for your consideration:

Instead of simply euthanizing 20+ years-worth of viable technology,
professional expertise and customer good-will, why not do something like
Steve Quinn and crew at Exegesys did with HP’s MM/3000 manufacturing
software? HP can divest itself of the 3000 line, and let it become a
private, independent company. (I believe I already saw some talk of this
on the MPE newsgroup.)

It’s true that the 3000 won’t be a huge growth market, so this wouldn’t
incite the usual Wall Street mania. Rather, I’d see this as being a new
kind of company, not driven by mindless Darwinian impulses to expand,
compete, hoard and dominate, but to resonate again with values that HP
was founded upon: develop interesting, innovative, effective,
highest-quality products and services, do right by people – both
employees and customers, and in this day and age, also consider the
value the company brings to the larger social context it does business
in. After all, what is ultimately most important, ensuring that faceless
investors get enough money to buy their own planet, or to provide
customers with reliable, effective, innovative service, provide
employees with stimulating, creative work, and stable, comfortable (if
not obscenely lucrative) income, and finally, to leave the planet a
better place for your efforts?

I believe the current social, economic and ecological dislocations
suggest that we are in the final stages of the traditional capitalist
model (ever increasing levels of growth and consumption, unhindered by
social and ecological costs and consequences). We’re already straining
the carrying capacity of the planet and, as recent events illustrate,
we’re no closer to being fulfilled, happy and secure. So radical change
is coming, one way or another. Wouldn’t it be great if the humble HP3000
market could be at the forefront, leading the culture to a new way of
doing business?

This isn’t just a pipe-dream. Through several non-profit foundations I
work with, I’ve dealt with groups like McDonough and Associates, The
Natural Step and Rocky Mountain Institute who’ve effected changes like
these in companies on the order of Nike, British Petroleum and Ford
Motor Company. It’s do-able, we only have to do it.

Idealistically yours,
Bill Miller

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