Agilent Labs reckons that it still supports "the values that have made Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett’s company a success". At least they have a stab at telling us what they do.
No great story here, just an opportunity to highlight a small contribution to telling the world about the research behind a big(ish) business. Too few companies these days produce the sort of "Fact Book" that Agilent recently put out.
This may be slim volume, with the usual guff, but the biggest chunk is about Agilent Laboratories "a world-leading industrial research center whose purpose is to power Agilent Technologies’ growth through breakthrough technologies".
Agilent needs smart people, we learn, because "Labs is a key competitive advantage to Agilent because addressing the complex problems Agilent’s customers face requires teams of people with deep knowledge and experience in multiple disciplines."
The rationale for Labs is short and to the point. It does, they tell us, three kinds of research:
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Research that will lead to evolutionary, revolutionary and disruptive technologies to grow Agilent’s existing businesses in electronic and bioanalytical measurement systems,
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Research that leads to technologies that create new businesses outside Agilent’s current markets but within Agilent’s field of interest, and
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Basic research that contributes to the fundamental understanding of areas critical to Agilent’s future.
As to the Hewlett Packard thing, Agilent escaped from HP in 1999. Not without its own thrills and spills, the smaller offshoot hasn't had quite the torrid time of the computer maker that kept the name. "Agilent has continued to support the values that have made Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett’s company a success: dedication to innovation; trust, respect and teamwork; and uncompromising integrity."
Corporate hype? Doubtless. But hype in the right direction from a science and business point of view.
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