Chuck House worked for HP for many years and eventually found his way to Intel management. Now he's a professor at Standord and he's a friend of mine. He's spent years writing a book about how and why HP became successful and that book has just been publixhed by the Stanford University Press. Here are summary reviews from Amazon.com:

"At last! The 'HP Way', that most famous of all corporate philosophies, has taken on an almost mythical status. But how did it really work? How did it make Hewlett-Packard the fastest growing, most admired, large company of the last half-century? Now, two important figures in HP's history, Chuck House and Raymond Price, have finally given us the whole story. The HP Phenomenon is the book we've been waiting for: the definitive treatise on how Bill and Dave ran their legendary company, day to day and year to year. It should be a core text for generations of young entrepreneurs and managers, a roadmap to building a great enterprise." —Michael S. Malone, author of Bill & Dave: How Hewlett and Packard Built the World's Greatest Company

"This is important history, compellingly told. House gives us a rare look into how Silicon Valley innovates, making this book a must-read for historian and entrepreneur alike." —Paul Saffo, Technology Forecaster

"This book is exceptional in its content, research, and strategic depth. The authors have lived the HP Culture, and the insights they bring to the super complex matter of product and business strategies in the late 1900s is amazing. The period of John Young had some of the most elusive decisions on computer operating systems one could ever imagine. They all become clear in this book." —John Minck, HP retired 1995 and author of Inside HP: A Narrative History of Hewlett-Packard from 1939-1990

The best price for the book is from Amason: http://www.amazon.com/HP-Phenomenon-Innovation-Business-Transformation/dp/0804752869/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1256220785&sr=8-1