Ken, That was impeccably said !!!
and I'd like to add: Agilent is not your Dad's HP. From: Ken Javor [mailto:ken.ja...@emccompliance.com] Sent: Wednesday, February 05, 2003 11:35 AM To: Richard A. Schumacher; mtay...@hach.com Cc: emcp...@aol.com; emc-p...@majordomo.ieee.org Subject: Re: Agilent 6842A I used to support technical sales for a Brit company, Wayne Kerr, in the USA. They sold Farnell EMC instrumentation here in the '90s. I had never done sales work before, and it was quite interesting. One thing I learned was that if you were in this business and you were NOT HP, then you had the following hurdle to overcome, as a sales person. Your engineer customer's point-of-view was that if a piece of non-HP equipment went bad, it was his fault, for not buying HP. If a piece of HP equipment went bad, it was HP's fault. That is a TREMENDOUS sales advantage, which HP/Agilent casually tossed aside. I still buy old HP test equipment when I can find it and when the price is right. But my attitude towards new HP equipment is 180 out from what it was. The burden of proof is on Agilent to sell me on their quality. My initial assumption is that Agilent equipment will be more expensive and not as good as the competition. I have an HP case in point. Over the years (since the early '70s) I have owned several HP calculators. HP went to a lot of trouble to make those early calculators have the look, feel, and quality of good equipment. In particular, the buttons had tactile feedback lacking in the competition's (Texas Instruments). Those calculators were my intro to HP when I started my career in the latter '70s. I learned a lot about my craft in the '70s and '80s by attending HP sales/technical seminars. HP was the gold standard in test equipment. About a year ago I bought a scientific calculator directly from HP on the internet for about $70. Within a month the keyboard had gone bad. I sent them a message about it, and never heard back. I know there was a fight between the heirs of Hewlett and Packard and the range-of-the-moment bean counter types who eventually took over. I also know that Messrs. H&P had to come back from retirement to straighten out the company once before. I would tell the heirs to not be disheartened by what has happened. I expect they see it as a magnificent monument being defaced. But a company is not a monument to the dead. It is a living entity whose actions reflect not the will of the dead founders but the present management. I would say that what has happened to HP is a testament to the accomplishment of Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard. Those who followed them were simply NOT able to fill their shoes. >From: "Richard A. Schumacher" <schum...@rsn.hp.com> >To: mtay...@hach.com >Cc: emcp...@aol.com, emc-p...@majordomo.ieee.org >Subject: RE: Agilent 6842A >Date: Wed, Feb 5, 2003, 10:05 AM > > > To correct any possible mis-understandings: Agilent was > spun off from HP and has been a completely separate and > independent company for some years now. Carly Fiorina > has no role in the management or operations of Agilent. > > HP does not make, sell or service test equipment. If > you have any problem or issue with Agilent products or > services, call Agilent, not HP. If your test equipment > has an "HP" label on it, Agilent (not HP) may be able to > help you with it. > > regards, > Richard Schumacher > The above are my own knowledge and opinions. I am not an > official speaker for Hewlett Packard. > > >> If you think Carley and the rest of HP / Agilent upper management are really >> more concerned about your thoughts - over short term profits, there are >> several of us that would like to interest you in some swamp land in Florida >> and a bridge in New Jersey. >> > > ------------------------------------------- > This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety > Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. > > Visit our web site at: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/pstc/ > > To cancel your subscription, send mail to: > majord...@ieee.org > with the single line: > unsubscribe emc-pstc > > For help, send mail to the list administrators: > Ron Pickard: emc-p...@hypercom.com > Dave Heald: davehe...@attbi.com > > For policy questions, send mail to: > Richard Nute: ri...@ieee.org > Jim Bacher: j.bac...@ieee.org > > Archive is being moved, we will announce when it is back on-line. > All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: > http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc > This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. Visit our web site at: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/pstc/ To cancel your subscription, send mail to: majord...@ieee.org with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Ron Pickard: emc-p...@hypercom.com Dave Heald: davehe...@attbi.com For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: ri...@ieee.org Jim Bacher: j.bac...@ieee.org Archive is being moved, we will announce when it is back on-line. All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. Visit our web site at: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/pstc/ To cancel your subscription, send mail to: majord...@ieee.org with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Ron Pickard: emc-p...@hypercom.com Dave Heald: davehe...@attbi.com For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: ri...@ieee.org Jim Bacher: j.bac...@ieee.org Archive is being moved, we will announce when it is back on-line. All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc
