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from the chairman's desk
A TOUR PRESE T LEVEL of operations it requires long-range growth of our business. They must strive to de-
.n. nearly ten million dollars every month to maintain velop lasting, mutually beneficial relationships with the cus-
the jobs for our 6,800 employees. In addition to wages tomer. As part of this effort, they are expected to follow up
and salaries, we must provide shops and offices, buy material with the customer after he receives an HP instrument to be
for our products, set aside reserves for paid vacations and sure the instrument works properly and the customer is
retirement, pay insurance premiums, and remit substantial completely satisfied. A basic tenet of our marketing phi-
amounts in taxes to local, state, and national governments. losophy is that we be just as interested in what our customers
Furthermore, if we are to be sure we will have as many or will buy tomorrow as in what they will buy today.
more jobs in future years, we must have some funds left We are currently moving to strengthen our regional sales
over each month to buy new facilities and equipment, and to offices, consolidating them where appropriate and increasing
increase the equity or pay dividends to stockholders who their efficiency with automated order handling processes and
have invested their money in our company. streamlined service capability. This will make it possible for
These ten million dollars we need each month to support every salesman to spend more time on what he is uniquely
your jobs come from our customers, and it is the responsi- qualified to do-determining and fulfilling customer needs.
bility of our sales organization to bring into the company Because of the traditional pattern of our business, the
new orders every month which average at least this amount. great majority of our HP salesmen are specialists in the elec-
As you can appreciate, our sales group constitutes a very tronics market. Similarly, we have many people at Sanborn
important part of our total operation. who are specialists in the medical field. In the future, we will
In the short range, the level of our business, and therefore be developing an increasing number of products for the
the number of jobs we can maintain, depends to a large chemical industry and other markets where we have little
degree on how well each salesman does his day-to-day job. sales experience. Thus our goal, in addition to strengthening
He must plan his time carefully, often traveling long dis- our regional sales offices in ways I have indicated, is to
tances to see a potential customer for only a few minutes. He broaden their over-all selling capability so that we may ef-
must continually sharpen his technical knowledge and be fectively serve these expanding markets.
able to explain-fully and effectively-the advantages of our The growing scope of our operations presents a formidable
products over those of a competitor. He is a professional in challenge to our entire marketing group. I am confident,
every sense of the word and can't possibly do his job to however, that with the help and support of everyone in the
either his or the customer's satisfaction within the limits of organization, our marketing people will continue to book
an eight-hour day. more orders and be a key factor in our expansion into ever
Our sales people also have an important influence on the new and promising areas of instrumentation.
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BIRTH
OF A
SALESMAN
S
OMEONE ONCE SAID that a salesman is made, not
born. Then again, we often hear people described as
born salesmen.
Whatever the truth of the matter, Mel Young thinks that
becoming a salesman one way or another is a strenuous,
demanding, exciting, sometimes nerve-shattering, and com-
pletely satisfying experience. Mel will earn his wings soon
as a full-fledged field engineer for the RMC Sales Division in
New York City after having proved that he was either born
with or has acquired the necessary qualities to sell HP
products successfully.
When he came to the company 31j2 years ago from Sperry
Gyroscope, he already had eight years of solid technical ex-
perience plus training at New York University. He worked
first at RMC as an assistant staff engineer and, since last
year, as staff engineer.
This latter job includes a variety of duties such as pro-
viding customers with technical assistance and information,
verifying quotations, and obtaining information on customer
needs for field engineers. In short, like other staff engineers,
Mel has been a "salesman" all along-an inside salesman.
The thing he likes best about working "outside" as a field
engineer is that he can deal personally with customers he
served in the past over the phone. He likes personal contact,
he likes moving around ... and a field engineer gets plenty
of both. Especially in New York City, that great megatropolis
of diverse communities, where many of the world's giant
corporations are headquartered alongside an uncounted num-
ber of small firms.
This is what makes New York different. It's a world within
a city. And as a market for a seller of electronic equipment,
the contrasts are pronounced. Mel Young-within a particu-
lar day of his break-in period as a field engineer---ean call
on major customers such as IBM and Columbia University.
On the same day he might catch the subway for a call on a
small research firm in the Bronx.
Whereas several HP sales divisions in other parts of the least once before retIrIng to the chicken ranch.
country often serve customers hundreds of miles apart, So Mel does what New York does. He relies on the fabu-
RMC's situation is just the opposite. Customers can be back lous subway system (see cover), busses, and an occasional
to back with two or three or four located in the same build- cab. At the end of his busy day he heads for home at North
ing. But transportation is still the field engineer's problem Massapequa, 1.1., where his wife Donna and sons Steve (10)
in the city. Mel Young has found that driving is futile. and Chris (7) are just as excited as he is about the prospects
Parking is never there when you need it. Traffic snarls are of his becoming a field engineer.
the rule rather than the exception. And battling Manhattan's The following two pages show how busy and interesting
cross-town traffic is an experience everyone should have at a day with Mel Young can be.
3
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Birth of a Salesman (Continued)
9:08
First thing in the morning, Mel Young (foreground) verifies
appointments with customers from his desk in RMC's well-
appointed New York headquarters. Before making his initial
customer visit, he also cleans up some paper work.
9:45
Rush hour continues as Mel rides swift subway to first appointment
of the day. He's found that handling demonstration oscilloscope
and catalogue case on public transportation requires agility.
10:50
A gesture helps emphasize a feature
of instrument described in HP catalogue.
Attentive customer is Dr. Victor Wouk
of Electronic Energy Conversion Corp. in
the IBM building. Mel's fine technical
background serves him well in talking to
accomplished engineers and scientists.
4
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12:27
IBM building, like many other skyscrapers in Manhattan, houses
several potential buyers of electronic instruments. Mel leaves building
after making two customer calls.
12:40
When time runs short, a street-
side hot dog stand solves the
lunch problem.
1 :09
Field engineers learn to carry a pocketful of small change for frequent
calls by pay phone. Here Mel touches home base prior to his last
customer call of the day to verify the time for a scheduled staff meeting.
4:50
RMC staff meetings keep sales personnel up to
date on business, product, and technical
developments. Mel (back to camera, right
foreground) finds these conferences particularly
helpful since he is learning a new job.
Rod Foley (standing) leads the discussion.
5
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HP Perspective: Boonton Radio Company
BRC claims life begins at thirty as it eyes a brig"
W HAT DOES A FOOTBALL PLAYER have in common
with an electronics manufacturer? Very little, except
that at age 30 both are considered old-timers in their
business. In the case of Boonton Radio Company, however,
In general, BRC manufactures precision instruments falling
into three categories: impedance measuring equipment, signal
generators, and instruments for calibrating aircraft navigation
systems. An example of an impedance measuring device is a
there is no slowing down or reminiscing over faded press clip- Q meter, perhaps BRC's major product, recognized as the est
pings. As General Manager Bill Myers puts it, "We're too darn available on the market from any source. The Q meter m es
busy around here to do much thinking about the past." the quality of a coil-the "figure of merit" which is symbolized
as Q. It has broad application in the testing of components and
Anyone who knows Myers, a 20-year veteran of the HP
systems.
organization, is well aware that Bill is never satisfied with the
status quo. Right now he has his 185 employees working harder Other impedance measuring equipment manufactured
than ever to develop new and better products, improve manu- Boonton includes transistor test sets, production Q compar
facturing efficiency, and carve out a bigger share of the test and rf bridges.
equipment market. The second broad category-signal generators-finds many
applications in general communications, broadcast FM, vhf-tv,
New Home in Rockaway
and telemetering.
Founded in 1934, BRC could well be excused for a little Specialized signal generators-the third category-are pro-
hardening of the arteries. It is the fourth oldest company in vided for VOR (very high frequency omni range) and DME
the United States devoted exclusively to manufacturing elec- (distance measuring equipment) aircraft navigation systems,
tronic instruments. But BRC thinks young. Three years ago, it ILS (instrument landing system), and the ATC (air traffic
moved from an outgrown facility in the town of Boonton, N.J., control) beacon.
to a spanking new plant in nearby Rockaway Township.
World-Wide Markets
This plant (shown in the long cut above) has nearly an acre
and a half of space for manufacturing, engineering, and ad- These products are sold throughout the United States, Western
ministration. Its contemporary beauty and efficiency are well Europe, Canada, Japan, and many other parts of the world by
Hewlett-Packard's established sales organization.
appreciated in the area, and soon after BRC people settled there
the New Jersey Manufacturers' Association presented them with Boonton Radio was founded by the late William D. Loughlin
its much-sought-after "New Good Neighbor" award. and several associates. Mr. Loughlin became its first president
and guided the course of the company through the early years.
The photo to the left of the new plant, for contrast, shows The new firm concentrated its engineering skill on creating new
one of the early buildings where Boonton Radio developed and measuring equipment for the still-young radio industr r
manufactured many of the products which were to make it example, manufacturers were confronted with the costly a y-
successful. ance of making coils which would test out in their own labora-
6
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It and busy future
tories only to be rejected by the purchaser because he had
entirely different test instruments. Approved standards were
necessary.
In the fall of the company's first year, Mr. Loughlin presented
hi t Qmeter at a meeting of the Institute of Radio Engineers
in hester. The instrument was immediately accepted as a
standard by industry and research laboratories.
Before FM radio became practical for commercial and mili- HP's new Eastern Regional Service Center will be housed in Boonton plant
tary use in the early 1940's, BRC had already developed an FM building. BRC executives study floor plan for Center, I to r: Harry Lang,
si ager; and John Van Duyne, engineering manager.
e company developed important microwave signal gen-
e or equipment for use in testing radar systems. Several
thousand of these units were supplied to the armed services.
Invisible Highways
ward the end of the war, Boonton pioneered instruments
esting and calibrating the new "invisible highway" aircraft
navigation systems-VOR and ILS. As commercial jets replaced
the slower prop-driven planes on the major trunk lines, the need
for additional navigational aids and identification systems be-
came apparent. Thus DME and ATC were developed, requiring
even more sophisticated equipment for testing and calibration.
Boonton's latest contribution in this important area is a
versatile DME/ATC test set, designed to accommodate the
ABOVE: Modern production lines utilize "lazy Susans." Women here are
greater number of radio channels required by expanding airline assembling FM stereo modulators. BELOW: George Sanford demonstrates
operations. This set (Type 8925A) makes use of units produced application of a BRC FM-AM signal generator with a Dymec servo pro-
by Boonton, HP's Microwave Division, and the Frequency and grammer. System reduces tedious calibration to a push-button operation.
Time Division.
Bill Myers suggests that such a happy combination of com-
ponents from different divisions into a single, smooth-function-
III stem is representative of the manner in which Boonton
R has settled into the over-all corporate system since it
joined Hewlett-Packard in 1959.
around the circuit
By NOEL E. PORTER, Vice President, Operations
reflecting a potential 3.8 percent reduction in our total
O VER-ALL PERFORMA CE for the first half of our
fiscal year (ended April 30) looks quite good. While
we do not have exact figures as of this writing, pre-
material costs.
We also are consolidating some of our operations in the
Palo Alto-Stanford complex to make maximum use of plant
liminary estimates indicate that shipments increased over the
same period in 1963 and orders were up about 10 percent. and equipment. One of the first steps in this direction was
Moreover, we showed a substantial improvement in profits. the merging of the Dymec and Oscilloscope Division sheet
Since profits are closely related to costs, we'd like to point metal shops. Along the same line, we are planning to con