In the foreword, six CEO's (2 founders, 2 insiders, 2 outsiders) are mentioned, along with four others (2 R&D leaders, 2 business leaders) who had differential impact on the evolution of HP. Interestingly, to me at least, while other books about HP have included nearly every CEO (some with pretty pointed perspective), virtually none have featured the other four in any depth if at all. Yet it is very clear to any who lived the HP experience that Barney Oliver, Joel Birnbaum, Paul Ely, and Dick Hackborn each had unusually huge impact on the evolution of HP. So from that perspective alone, this book will enrich our understanding of how HP evolved so strongly into the sciences, and then into computing, and later into printing and imaging.
At the same time, this is not to celebrate (only) these individuals, but merely to make it clear that leadership happens at a lot of levels besides the CEO
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