Shane V. Robison channels engineering prowess

In April 2003, Chief Strategy and Technology Officer and Executive Vice President Shane V. Robison gathered 500 of the brightest engineers from every division of Hewlett-Packard for the first time — a savvy move of technological cross-pollination. Engineers competed for invitations; 1,500 submitted papers online the first day, crashing the server. 

These meetings — as well as those of a customer advisory board he formed after the merger with Compaq — help Robison in his strategic planning for HP. He spent 2003 putting into place the unique concept of formulating different business models for different products, depending on where they are in their maturity cycles. “We have to shepherd new businesses as they grow from their embryonic phase,” he says. “My role is to make sure they get the care and feeding they need so we can integrate them into the larger business later.”